It’s a Podcast!

Hey everyone and welcome back to my blog!

I’m pretty excited to share this week’s post with you guys because it’s something different and it’s also something I’ve never tried doing before.

For one of my previous posts, Dr. Coleman posed a couple of questions to me: 1) whether gamers would be inclined to spend less time playing video games upon knowing the environmental impacts they pose, 2) whether gamers’ environmental consciousness differ from the general population (granted that they spend more time indoors)

Thanks to her questions, I was inspired to explore a different approach to getting gamers’ opinions (other than the usual surveys/polls), and thus, I present to you my first ever environmental gaming podcast!

As the podcast is pretty long, here are the timestamps for the various questions asked:

(2:49) Short introductions of each guest

(4:50) On a scale of 1-10 how environmentally conscious/friendly are the guests

(9:05) How aware are the guests of current environmental problems

(17:28) Whether being a gamer affects how environmentally conscious the guests are

(27:30) Thoughts on the environmental impacts of video games

(36:58) Is it possible to shift over completely to digital game copies

(43:30) Thoughts on eco-friendly gaming computers

(1:05:24) Whether video games can be a platform to promote environmental awareness

(1:25:00) Whether the guests are willing to change their gaming habits after the podcast

On a whole, the main takeaways from the podcast are that gamers aren’t that different from the average person in terms of environmental consciousness. Like a majority of the public, gamers are aware of the environmental issues going on today but aren’t particularly motivated to take action to help. This struck me as being quite ironic granted that gamers are about the most connected people to the Internet and how environmental issues can easily go viral on social media today. However, I think a point to keep in mind is the priority of gamers; essentially they just want to sit back, relax, and enjoy playing a game after a long day. Hence, they’re not inherently concerned about the environment and the consequences of their gaming habits because they simply just want to have fun.

Another good takeaway was the sustainability of the video game industry and how it could become more eco-friendly. The consensus was that there is a culture in the video game industry for things to beĀ bigger and better. Companies push for stellar game graphics and flashy computer setups to feed consumer’s desires. As the products get better, the consumers would in turn desire for more; resulting in a vicious cycle. Hence, it would seem that the onus is on the companies to gear towards more efficient products to create a culture of energy efficiency, which would take time to normalize amongst the gaming community, however.

There is still so much I’d like to say about the podcast, but I’ll end on this note. Personally, I think this applies to not just gamers but to everyone; that more conversation needs to be had about environmental issues. To me, the problem lies not with people being ignorant but with them not having enough reason to care.

Till next time!

Cheers,

Tricia

 

 

3 thoughts on “It’s a Podcast!

  1. Hi Tricia,

    Love that you took the initiative to do this ! Just great. Also, I love your flair in the podcast and sincerely thank the four gamers who gave their time and shared candidly. Totally loving them and you. So unique and engaging !

    Can I give you some feedback to post please ? Maybe you and your peers can learn from it.

    You have a small sample size, admittedly, but when you say gamers are like most members of the public in terms of their environmental awareness, what are you basing your view of how much the public knows ? I ask because, for example, one of the gamers said he literally knows nothing about environmental problems and, if I’m not wrong, he’s the same one who admits to littering. It would surprise me if that reflects the avg knowledge / behaviour of a SG resident (I’m assuming, by his accent, that he’s Singaporean – maybe I’m wrong). Perhaps this might have been a good opportunity to compare with some literature.

    Next, reflect on HOW you ask Qs. To find out how environmentally aware someone is, you can take, as you did, a self-assessment approach, as in, ask ppl to rate their OWN awareness. But how objective is that ? An alternative is to ask Qs that test environmental awareness. The other thing I noticed is you asked Qs in a leading way, at times, and you might have “given too much away”. For instance, you asked them how much they care, but added something along the lines of “like, are you concerned or do you just not really care?” If this were a proper social-science study, you’d want to ask the Q in a consistently neutral way that implies no judgement and doesn’t prompt the respondent. The other thing to consider here is whether the 4 participants know you’re a BES student. If so, then this raises the issue of positionality. Meaning, respondents can, for various intrinsic & extrinsic reasons, give answers that they think are the “right ones” or that the interviewer “wants to hear”.

    None of the above is an indication that I don’t like this post. I think, overall, it’s great and I genuinely appreciate your effort !

    jc

  2. Hi Tricia!
    Having a podcast is such a unique way to show your findings.
    Maybe making a gameplay walkthrough in the future too? HAHA
    Regards
    Azhari

    1. Hi Azhari!
      Thank you so much for checking out my blog post! Definitely planning on doing gameplay walkthroughs/reviews soon so stay tuned!
      Cheers,
      Tricia

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