Rouven Kaiser, research associate at the Chair of Urban Climate Resilience, explained to participants at the institute colloquium in Erlangen how the climate crisis can be made tangible with serious gaming in his presentation ‘How to play climate crisis - An attempt to expand geographical practice to include the field of serious gaming’.

Making the climate crisis tangible with serious gaming

In his exciting lecture ‘How to play climate crisis - An attempt to expand geographical practice to include the field of serious gaming’ on 8 January 2025, he spoke about the potential of serious games and used the example of the World Climate Game to impressively demonstrate how game-based approaches with depth of content, i.e. ‘games with real benefits’ (Dörner 2016), can contribute to making the climate crisis tangible.

Kaiser begins by emphasising that information (e.g. about the devastating consequences of climate change) can often only be communicated effectively through exciting stories and narratives - and this is precisely where serious gaming comes in. Serious games can be used in a variety of fields of application (e.g. environmental education and climate protection, urban planning, citizen participation and health promotion) and offer the potential to contribute to raising awareness among participants and to promote social commitment and soft skills such as critical thinking. According to Kaiser, playing games also creates a ‘unique emotional experience’ that leaves a lasting impression even after the game is over.

In a concluding round of talks, the opportunities and challenges of using serious gaming in school lessons and in municipal administrations were discussed in a lively manner. According to Kaiser, it is particularly important to emphasise that serious games should not be seen as a substitute for existing processes, but only as a supplement to them. Contextual embedding (e.g. in specific thematic teaching units or decision-making processes) is therefore crucial in order to fully utilise the transformative potential of these game-based approaches.