Enabling collective awareness of energy use via a social serious game

Abstract

Serious games are digital games, simulations and virtual environments designed for primary purposes (e.g. teaching, learning and training) other than pure entertainment. They are experiential environments where features such as thought-provoking, informative or stimulating are as important, if not more so, than fun or entertainment. A number of serious games have been developed for energy systems that act as educational tools and help energy consumers to better understand concepts such as resource allocation, electricity prices and grid sustainability. This paper discusses the development of a serious game, the Social Mpower, which visualises a community energy system in which players should avoid energy problems (i.e. blackouts) by individually reducing their energy consumption and sustain the Common-Pool Resource (CPR) of their community. Our experimental hypothesis is that if players are “collective aware” of their individual and community consumption, they consume energy in a more efficient and effective way and therefore, they can avoid potential energy problems (i.e. blackouts). Our experimental results show that Social Mpower can be productively used as an educational tool to bring a desired change in people’s behaviour towards energy consumption.

Keywords

• collective action
• collective awareness
• energy use
• serious games