Gaming for global change

Video games provide a great way to talk about climate change. Through interactive scenarios, games help us explore and reflect on the challenging environmental problems we collectively face. The Libraries’ new Global Change Games series on Twitch dives into environmentally conscious games as a way of having entertaining and substantial discussions about these issues.

The Global Change Games series builds upon the summer course for first-year and transfer students, “Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions: Global Change.” Libraries staff and special guests will livestream gameplay and discuss how climate change games can help us understand and grapple with the kinds of everyday problems that rapid global change is currently causing us.

The series kicks off with a look at the game Bee Simulator on Friday, Sept. 10, from 1:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. on the Libraries’ Twitch channel. In Bee Simulator, you get to pilot a honey bee around an environment patterned after New York City’s Central Park. Gameplay involves collecting nectar for your hive and contending with humans and other insects, but you also learn about the lifecycle and hive organization of bees, as well as the crucial roles they play in our ecosystem. Bee expert Dr. Colin Brammer of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences will be joining the stream to give his perspective on the game.

Series episodes later this semester include the games Never Alone: Foxtales (Oct. 8), Beyond Blue (Nov. 12), and Civilization VI: The Gathering Storm (Dec. 3). Follow the Libraries on social media for more details.

The series is open to the public and no advance registration is necessary. Recordings of past streams will become available on the Libraries’ YouTube page after each event.