Games can develop a deep sense of civic identity. However, many video games choose to focus players on a wider view, on working for the greater good of the world in which they live. Success in video games is often framed at the personal level: the last person standing in Fortnite, achieving high viewership on a Twitch stream, the best player in Rocket League. Games like Eastshade or The Long Dark invite us to linger in these places and gain an understanding that is crucial to our survival. Experiences like Cloud Gardens or Viva Pinata extend this by using play to put us in charge of tending to the natural world. From getting lost in Shadow of the Colossus to finding our way in Journey, games underline the importance of the spaces in which we play. Other games let us experience our connection to the environment by adventuring in it. Then there are games of dire warning that let us step into a future where humanity is all but disconnected from the wider environment and hangs on just by a thread. One family told us about Final Fantasy 7 Remake's commentary on corporations and ecology. Other games, like The Wandering Village underline how our location in the world impacts on us and others. Or it can be how a game like Eco establishes the connection between your actions and the other aspects of the environment. This might be how a game like Terra Nil makes the land itself a character in the experience. As she quotes, “games of environmental responsibility animate our capacity to respond, to affect and be affected, to engage with others: other species, other people, and the otherness of our own planet.” They offer a chance to consider play from an ecological perspective. The games in this list take inspiration from Alenda Chang’s Playing Nature book. These games encourage players to consider the impact of their actions on the environment, as well as their interconnectedness to the world in which they live. There are, however, many games that offer quite the reverse. It’s easy to assume that video games are all about building big cities or running successful economies. The same is true with video games, so this list is here to offer a varied diet. Only eating Kale is as problematic disordered eating as eating too many sweets. Grabbing a Pizza on the street isn’t the same as sitting down to share a slice around the meal table. This leads to other questions about how, where and when we play. Instead, we can consider what specific games have to offer our children and our family. They are the “digital super-foods” as Jocelyn puts it.ĭigital Nutrition is a brilliant antidote to the guilt, muddled advice and finger-pointing of screen time focus advice. These are the games that supplement your digital diet with variety, fibre, vitamins and minerals. Unlike the other lists on the site, it’s an eclectic collection of games. Essential to a healthy diet and easy to overlook if we just follow where video game advertising leads us. These are the vitamins of the gaming world. I’ve worked with her on this list of games that provide particularly underserved aspects of our digital play diet. Rather than digital detoxing and unplugging, Digital Nutrition is about intentional and intelligent use of devices and the conscious consumption of news, media and information." "Digital Nutrition is a guilt-free philosophy that guides you towards healthful technology habits and improving your digital literacy and wellbeing. Instead, she encourages us to think about the variety, context and patterns of digital consumption. Jocelyn Brewer coined the phrase Digital Nutrition to introduce a way of thinking about technology that went beyond screen time worries, drug analogies and detoxes. Whether you are diligently cleaning someone's empty flat as in Sunset, setting up a farm after retiring from your adventures in Littlewood, reconnecting with grown-up children in The Stillness of The Wind, nurturing a musical garden in Mutazione, establishing a coffee shop in Coffee Talk or even eeking out provisions while you care for children in This War Of Mine all these games have something to tend to and people to get to know while you do it. The games collected in this list each offer the chance to escape and absorb yourself tending to a plot of land and nurturing often surprisingly moving relationships. They offer an escape to simpler times, that provides meaningful work along with the possibility of also working at friendships. These games, like Animal Crossing, present an "ambience of bucolic" and a "reassuring mix of the pastoral and the industrial," wrote Simon Parkin recently. Recently I've been noticing games that combine the stewardship of the land and the nurturing of resources. As regular readers will know, there are video games about everything. Video games are usually thought to be about fighting, shooting and adrenaline.
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