At the Game For Change Conference in New-York City, I met two really cool young British game developers. One of them, Richard Metson collaborated on the first Facebook based Carbon Footprint Game. Rich created “Blobman”.
Above you are seeing my Blobman.
Blobman is an avatar that represents each player’s carbon footprint.
Blobman is a cartoon character in the shape of a drop of oil. The bigger you carbon footprint, the fatter your Blobman is.
As you can see, in spite of my best efforts, my Blobman is pretty fat – 21.6 Tons of CO2/year. Why so much? More than half (57%) of my fossil fuel consumption is represented by the few long distance airplane trips I do every year.
After answering a set of questions that determine your carbon footprint and how fat your Blogman is, you are presented with a Challenge that is meant to have you reconsider the fossil fuel intensive habits that we all have.
Each challenge lasts one week. The player reports his or her progresses. Progresses earn awards, etc..
The game My.1010.uk.org is currently in Beta test. You will notice that the evaluation questionnaire was written with a English audience in mind: costs are in British Pounds, temperatures are in Centigrade, and would you know what “Gas hobs” are?? Just joking.
Regardless, if you have ever tried to estimate your carbon footprint before, this is by far the most user friendly and fun way to do it.
On top of that you will be confronted every week with a challenge that will take your efforts to reduce your carbon footprint to another level.
