The Environment

Started by FireFlower
  • Here we can talk about the environment and what we can do to improve it and make our planet a better place to live on.

  • FireFlower

    You can help planting trees around the world by using the search engine Ecosia.

  • FireFlower

    Drive an electric or hybrid vehicle or ride a bike.

  • Buy digital games instead of physical games in a box. :)

  • I'm not so sure that a dematerialized game is less harmful to the environment than a boxed game. I own many boxed games (really), and if the game is inside the box (and it's not a box empty of game and meaning, offering a Steam code like that is done all too often unfortunately), the game has finished polluting as soon as it reach the hands of the player. Personally with boxed games, I don't need the Internet, nor servers to build / feed / cool which host the data to download on a daily basis, even if no one needs it.

  • Yeah, that might be true, but not so sure. And I'm not sure what the environmental footprint looks like for a boxed game compared to a digital game. But for a boxed game you would need raw materials (usually oil, wood and chemicals) for the box and the contents of it and they would have to be transported to a factory to manufacture the material for the box. Then the material would have to be transported to the factory that manufactures the box (if not manufactured in the same factory). Then manufacture the box and the contents of the box and transport it to the store where it is sold or to a post office where the person that bought it will pick it up or directly to the home of the buyer. Then it might also be transported by car or bus rom the store or post office by the person that bought it to the place where that person lives. So there are many steps in the process of making a boxed game and until it arrives in the home of the buyer. Then there's also the question of how it would be disposed of when the user don't want the box anymore. Will it be recycled or just tossed in the regular trash bin or maybe even end up on the street/nature?

    A digital game only uses some electricity when uploaded to a server, when it is stored and then downloaded.

    If you buy a box or similiar with just a download code in it/on it it would be the same footprint as a digital download bought directly from a digital store but with the added manufacturing environmental footprint of the box.

    A digital downloadable game purchased in a digital store would also stop polluting after it has been downloaded. Well, not really as electricty for the device it is played on while still be needed, and the game will also wear down the components in the device you play on (although minimal wear from one game) so you have to buy a new one eventually. You could of course use renewable energy to power your home, then that would be less of a problem. But it would be the same for a boxed game, so no difference there.

    The footprint to get the game from the raw materials to the consumer could of course be decreased by using renewable energy and recycled material when manufacturing and electric vehicles or regular bikes for transporting the box. And for a digital game that is downloaded, if renewable energy is used for servers etc the footprint would decrease.

    But it would be interesting to see a scientific comparison between a digital and a boxed game.

  • I agree that a boxed version without the game inside is pure disaster. But I keep my opinion about boxed complete games : they have polluted to be made and shipped, but they don't waste any anergy to be on servers. Most of my games are very old now, and they don't pollute at all since they have been bought. Some games are quite as old as them, but only in digital : they still uses servers to be available if needed during long years, even if nobody wants them anymore. These games have a huge environmental footprint now, really worse than the boxed games bought at the same period. The games are becoming huge files nowadays : in a box, 3 to 5 DVDs or BD are now less bad for environment than hours of massive downloads on overheating servers … So, if the game is in the box, and if the player wants to keep his games like I do, yes it has a huge environmental footprint at start, but nothing after, instead of a continuous little environmental footprint every seconds during years and years and years, and years … It's why I prefer to keep all my boxed games, and buy the boxed DRM-free versions on Kickstarter when it's possible. And I love to see/play to my wonderful boxed games collection ^_^

  • Yeah, you are right. A digital game will always be on a server and consume a tiny bit of electricity and other resources every day. While a boxed game on DVD will not consume any resources after it has been manufactured. But I don't think you can't just compare one boxed game with one digital game on a server. You would have to compare the environmental impact of all boxes manufactured for that game to the digital game on the server.

    And if you also run the servers on renewable energy and create the servers from recycled material (as much as possible) the footprint would probably be negligible compared to a boxed game. Don't know how many servers run on renewable energy and are made from recycled material today though. And I'm no expert on the environmental impact of digital and boxed games, so I could be wrong. :)

    I also think digital multiplayer games would be more environmentally unfriendly than single player games, as multiplayer games utilize more server capacity. But again, I'm no expert. :)

  • For the multiplayer games, I can't be more agree with you. Happily, I don't like such games (I play only single-player games), so I'm not concerned by these ^^ For the boxed games, yes their manufacturing and shipping have really a huge environmental footprint, I know. But they are more or less the same environmental footprint than morning cereal boxes (for example) or a lot of thing that are daily bought/put in trash, at the difference that players generally keep them forever. The digital games remains the most insidious environmental footprint, as they don't need manifacturing and shipping, but needs servers, energy, cooling, place in huge secured enlightened buildings, manufacturing/maintenance/change of the components, … But you're right, it would be very interesting to read an official analysis of environmental footprint between digital and boxed, by a professionnal.

  • Yeah, it would be interesting to see a scientific analysis of digital versus boxed. I still think digital has a lower footprint though. :)

  • Yep, it would be interesting ^ _ ^ And for the question asked on Twitter, just consider I've answered bad: I've read "bigger" instead of "lower", so, I've choosed wrong. Lol. But I'm sure some have already have the answer with a real scientific analysis: it's probably somewhere on Internet, waiting we find it ^^

  • Aah, too bad. :) Maybe there is an answer, let me know if you find it. Otherwise there might be a scientist that might be interested in investigating it. :)

  • The only serious scientific study about digital vs boxed games I've found is about PS3 games in England. Nothing concrete about the effect in long time (10 or more years), or about computer games, specially similar digital games hosted on different servers and massively downloaded like on Steam … But here is the pdf of what I've found :
    www.yazorius.com/CarbonFootprintofGames.pdf
    I'm not sure of what to understand here (I'm french, and this document is hard to read for me)

  • I've read it now. According to the study games bigger than 1.3 GB have a bigger carbon footprint when downloaded in 2010 in the UK compared to physical. So downloadable games below 1.3 GB have a lower footprint than physical. But as the study concludes - networks double their average energy efficiency for transmitting data every 2 years, this could be completely different in 2020. However, the manufacturing and distribution of physical games have probably also become more efficient in the last 10 years. But I think it's pretty safe to say that smaller games have a lower carbon footprint than physical.

    Bear in mind that this study only looked at games in the EU, it could look completely different in Asia or North America for example. And what kind of transport you use to travel to a shop to buy a game also has a big effect on the footprint, so go by bike or walk if you want to buy a physical game. :)