by Alexander Iscenco (ELP 2013), Moldova “The CO2 level rises as never before…” “Our ignorance of climate change issues will become our doom…” “We need urgent action NOW, or else there might be no LATER for our children…” These are just some of the many calls for urgent climate actions spreading on-line before and during the global climate negotiations, COP 20, in Lima. As you can see, the general tone of such messages is the one of warning - that unless we do something now, we can expect a rather grim and apocalyptic future. This is one of the ways to motivate people to change their behavior and commit to necessary actions. And it rests on creating the feeling of fear. In Moldova, the organization Moldovan Environmental Governance Academy (MEGA) has decided to go a different way to stimulate change of behavior and commitment to environmental protection, including climate change mitigation. This way is paved by fostering a totally opposite feeling – FUN. Fun is used by MEGA in cooperation with Bright Games to develop a unique collaborative sustainability innovation – the Game with Impact. It represents an on-line platform that uses the concept of gamification to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of environmental learning and action for youth. The platform is designed as an immersive game where you, as a player, need to accomplish sustainability-related missions, go through challenging levels taking place in different countries, upgrade your profile with various skills and experience, and ultimately achieve the status of a Change Agent with enough knowledge and experience to develop your own eco-innovation and start a green business. The uniqueness of the Game with Impact is that it connects on-line play with off-line action. That is, in order to accomplish missions you actually need to do the tasks in the real world, thereby creating positive social and environmental impact during the play. For instance, if you decide to take on the Climate Change Quest, you will go through levels and missions that require you to report on greenhouse-gas-intense activities you perform, reduce/eliminate them from your everyday life, assist your friends in doing so, write about climate change issues in a local blog/newspaper, deliver a training on reducing climate footprint in school, develop an open-source renewable energy solution and share it with your community, etc. At the final level you will have enough knowledge, skills, and resources to initiate your own climate change mitigation project, organization, or startup. In this way you will perform a number of environmentally responsible actions not because of the fear of the future, but because it is simply fun and exciting. And this is what we offer to people: the opportunity to really enjoy improving the environment and their well-being. The full Game with Impact will be released on the 5th of June 2015 (on the World Environment Day). However, you have the opportunity to be one of the first testers for the public Beta version to be released in February 2015. In order to receive your exclusive invitation, you just need to subscribe at www.megageneration.com. Let’s Play for Impact… and a sustainable world!

 The Game with Impact preview demo screenshots