Gaming Climate Change will be a three-day course on developing and executing games on climate change and associated challenges. It will not be an introductory class on professional gaming, for that see our other offerings. The class will cover three basic types of games that are typically associated with professional climate games: policy, mitigation, and adaptation/response. Each topic will occupy one day of the class. The instructors will be the Hon. Sharon Burke, who has had extensive experience with gaming climate change at the national level and has led climate change policy from senior positions within the Department of Defense. Dr. Ed McGrady who has executed games examining how systems react to climate decisions, including mitigation decisions. Dr. Roger Mason who has extensive experience in both homeland security and state and local gaming for emergency response. The overall objectives for the course will be:
- Understand how the political and social environment, both in game and out of game affect climate gaming.
- Integrating scientific, economic, and other data into climate games.
- Games as a tool for affecting policy and planning for implementation.
- Building effective games for policy, mitigation, and response.
While no prior gaming experience is required and understanding of the basic concepts for professional games (how and why they are played, for example) would be useful. The class and instructors are also flexible, adapting in real time to class interests and objectives (e.g. if the class is interested in food security, we can discuss gaming food security).