Screen and green: a survey of environmentally themed video games - Consumer News

E: The Environmental Magazine, May-June, 2003 by Benjamin Chadwick

The "SimCity" series puts players in control of an urban grid with a growing population, requiring them to balance development, environmental issues and bottom-line economics against such facts of life as crime and natural disasters. The game provides a sturdy and repeatable challenge: send waste to other cities, or tuck it away in landfills at home? Allow unfettered power plants to pollute the air? Opt for a hydrogen-powered utopia? Each version improves on the game's breathtaking graphics; the latest version also allows network play.

Escapists might also consider Maxis' "The Sims Online," a multi-player world in which gamers construct a home and business in a clean and happy model of real life. The Sims live in a relatively orderly universe, with none of today's terrorists or greedy anti-environmental politicians.

Infogrames' "Civilization" series (now in its recent third volume) and Activision's "Civilization Call to Power" (two years old, but still available) both adapt the old Avalon Hill board game to a broad historical time period, putting the player in the role of an imperial leader. The game places much emphasis on scientific advancement and conquest. Still, pollution is a factor, working against the demands of industry. As in "SimCity" "Civilization" players must be micro-managers. Choosing to build a hydroelectric plant in the Third World instead of in the U.S. may put you at the mercy of a guerrilla leader.

"Call to Power" takes the game into the distant future, with the potential to locate cities underwater and in space. The choice of governments includes a paradise "ecotopia": An interesting futuristic "eco-warrior" unit has the power to convert a city to a park in a single moment, making forests of the skyscrapers.

While few games manage to hammer home a specifically environmental message, there are plenty that can address and model some environmental issues. Until "Steer Madness" is released, this may be the best we can hope for: gamemakers have evidently concluded that protests, highway cleanups and letter-writing campaigns don't make for great video entertainment. CONTACT: Activision, www.activision.com/games/civilization; Discovery Online, www.school.discovery.com/parents/reviewcorner/software; Infogrames, www.civ3.com; Lucas Learning, www.lucaslearning.com; Montparnasse Multimedia, www.montparnasse-net.com/us; Simcity 4, www.simcity.ea.com; Superkids, www.superkids.com; Veggie Games, (604)642-0384, www.VeggieGames.com.

BEN CHADWICK, a former E intern and current Virginia-based graduate student, is a wizard with a joystick.