One Life Left: Green Gaming

Video games and environmentalism, sounds crazy, no? However, even as early as 2010, the gaming industry has been taking steps to save itself some “green” and  reduce CO2 emissions.

Ubisoft, the developers of games such as Assassins Creed and Splinter Cell, has led this front by a making a small change: the significant reduction of the instruction booklet inside games.

For those of you that don’t know, most games, even those from the much older generations, come with an instruction booklet as well as the physical copy of the game.

The content of the booklet varies from game to game.

Sometimes it is a bare-bone description of the controls and how to play the game.

Other times it might be incredibly in-depth, even offering some insight into the game world and the various inhabitants you will encounter.

Ever since this initiative began, many games have been adding only a one or two page booklet with very basic information (usually the controls of the game), with the full game manual found on a disc.

According to Greentopic.com, this simple act of paper reduction has saved about 6,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, 15,000 gallons of wastewater and over two tons of wood.

If every developer began doing this, the overall collective energy saving could be monumental.

This approach could be applied to other industries and goods besides videogames.

Just off the top of my head, most consumer electronics also come with instruction manuals that aren’t really necessary (such as with a television or a media player like Blu-Ray).

But, for the sake of customer satisfaction/and the ability to service the greatest amount of people, all instruction manuals could be made available directly from the companies’ websites, available in PDF format to be printed at the users leisure (or not). And lets face it: who even reads the manual anymore?

Another change that the gaming industry has been making recently (as well as the DVD and software industries) is cutting down the plastic used for disc cases.

Certain disc cases are now becoming available with 20 percent less plastic than the full-plastic counterparts. However, this case is not easily replaced.

These environmentally friendly cases feel significantly flimsier and can still hold the disc in place.

But lord have mercy if your case unfortunately finds bottom of a shoe because the case and disc may not survive the encounter.

Companies have also been changing the actual model of their video game consoles so they use less plastic.

For example, the new slimmer Playstation 3 actually contains 34 percent less plastic than its bulkier older brother.

To top this all off, good news to all you Nintendo fans! According to the National Resources Defense Council, the Nintendo Wii is the “greenest” video game console of its generation.

It uses only one -seventh of the total power compared to its Xbox and Playstation rivals.

The video game industry even has its own system of recycling. Brick-and-mortar stores often have a used games system where people can come in and trade in their games for cash or store credit.

While the details of this system deserves their own column, I cannot deny the fact that it does keep the amount of disposable plastic down.

Going even beyond the thinner cases, there are plenty of clients such as Steam, GOG, Xbox Live and the Playstation Network that get rid of physical games and make them entirely digital.

This is obviously the greenest option as it cuts all physical materials from gaming entirely.

However, despite this, I dislike that it eliminates a certain sense of ownership. I enjoy having physical copies of my games for my collection. But who knows? If these trends gain momentum, the Xbox 360 game cases won’t be the only thing that’s green.