January 2nd, 2009

Fun Online Games That Challenge Your Eco-socio-political Skills

Posted by Siel, green LA girl

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Regular readers of The Low Down already know video game consoles are energy hogs. But what’s a game lover to do? Besides making sure to unplug your console when you’re not playing, here are games you can play online — that are fun as well as eco-educational!

Climate Challenge. Sure, Bush did a horrendously bad job. But do you think you’re up to the task of governing while saving the environment? With great power comes great responsibility — and in Climate Challenge, you’re the president of the European Nations, responsible for tackling global climate change from 2000 to 2100. Try to go green while negotiating with other nations, keeping the economy running, and making your constituents happy.

So you know, President Siel was very good for the environment and had a 70% approval rating. However, she also left the economy in ruins — which, I have to say, doesn’t reconcile well with the super high approval rating. I assume this anomaly to be a glitch in the game.

Ayiti: The Cost Of Life. Yes, the name of the game sounds a tad dour — and honestly, the premise of the game — keeping a cute but poor Haitian family of 5 alive and well for 4 years — is a tad depressing. However, this Unicef / Global Kids game’s fun, challenging, and addictive!

I’m proud to say I’ve learned to keep the family alive — which oddly doesn’t quite stop me from continuing to play the game over and over in an attempt to keep them happy while raising their standard of living and giving them a good education. The one downside of the game is that because the youngest two kids never get old enough during the 4-year period to take a higher-paying job, the player gets little motivation to educate or train them. Above’s the results from the session I’m most proud of.

The Adventures of KAB Man. Fly free with KAB (Keep America Beautiful) Man while collecting recyclables and avoiding non recyclables. This oddly addictive game doesn’t really take into account the fact that different cities have different recycling policies, but the basic recycling materials are covered. As you can tell from the image, I’m not very good at controlling KAB man, though I’d like to think I’m pretty good at recycling –

And remember — Tried and true games like Pacman and Tetris don’t require a game console. Play ‘em free online!

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