Podcast: Are gamers saving our planet?

What do climate action and mobile gaming have in common? It turns out that the latter can help educate people about the former…

Part of tackling climate change is educating people about global efforts in the space.

For instance, the United Nation’s national determined contributions (NDCs) help tackle climate change by setting long-term goals for all participating countries in line with the Paris Agreement. They’re important, but many people are not aware of them or how they work.

The problem, according to Playmob founder Jude Ower, is that NDCs are “not very sexy”.

So how can the UN reach as many people as possible, and grab their attention, when it comes to what might be perceived as an inaccessible or information-dense topic?

The answer is mobile mini games.

Gaming reaches almost every demographic

These mobile mini games have more reach than one might expect.

“Gaming today is everyone. It’s all ages, all around the world, and mobile gaming is the biggest category,” explained Jude.

“When we look at gamers, the average age is now 37, which is very different to 20 years ago. It’s now 50-50 male and female, and a lot of these changes are driven by mobile gaming.”

Jude also noted that mobile devices make gaming more accessible, with wealthy and developing nations alike playing the same kinds of mobile games.

Education and training through gaming

With this in mind, Jude and her colleagues at Playmob explored how games can be used for training, educational purposes, research purposes and other applications beyond pure entertainment.

This is how they came to collaborate with the UN to create a mobile mini game about NDCs.

To find out how the UN worked with Playmob to develop Mission 1.5, a mini game that has already reached 3.5 billion people (40 percent of the global population), check out the latest episode of the Next Stage podcast: Are gamers saving our planet?.

Playmob founder Jude Ower was in conversation with Gizmodo editor-in-chief David Ewalt on the planet:tech stage at Collision 2022.

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Main image of Playmob founder Jude Ower: Carlos Osorio/Web Summit (CC BY 2.0)