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I thought this was a really great way to promote awareness and actually drive people to go green. I feel that if more people were made aware of this, almost all neighborhoods would become more energy efficient. This game portion of it reminded me of the Sims franchise, which is still wildly popular. I myself would play this game whether it was related to environmentalism or not. I would call this a successful model of of conservation practice.
I feel like at one point almost everyone was playing Sims, so this is smart for using that concept to help spread environmentalism. I like that your virtual house is connected to your real house. It makes the game more believable and easy to follow. As the economy gets worse, more people will want to save money and this game shows an easy way to do it.
I think everyone, at some point in their lives, has played something like The Sims, so this seems like something that would be both smart and hilarious to invest in. The fact that it’s actually connected to your real-life home and its usage of utilities is also incredibly innovative. Think of all the bills that could be saved!
This is an interesting concept, or maybe more unusual. If this is really a Sims style game connected to your actual house I can see some issues. For instance, if everyone is out of the house for the day and I come home and the house is 85 degrees because my mom has this app on her phone and shes trying to beat all the neghibors in effiecncy, i will be very unhappy.
I thought that this was a great idea. I felt like the concept resembles the game “The Sims” and environmentalism morphed together in order to create social awareness with regards to the active involvement in maintaining low energy cost. By having a way to monitor your energy use helps to keep costs down and a game like this will ultimately become beneficial towards effectively monitoring energy usage throughout society. I found the unique ways of monitoring your energy usage seems practical. It reminded me on the Veldt though the idea that the house is monitoring the energy usage of the family. The idea of this device reminded me of technological determinism.
I think this seems like a really cool idea to get people to pay attention to how much energy they’re using! I could see it appealing to educated, tech-savvy families, though I’m not sure how much young people/singles/apartment-dwellers would be interested. The game could possibly expand its audience a bit if it didn’t seem so targeted to a particular demographic, but then again, maybe this is just the kind of thing people seek out on their own anyway. I think the video could also emphasize the money-saving aspect of it a little more…also, videos with virtual people/scenes don’t really grab me…but maybe that’s just me. Really neat idea though!
People can familiarize with this game easily because it seems much like The Sims. I like that they add a competitive aspect to it because many people like to play games where they are rewarded with something for being the best at it. It seems like a simple, fun and helpful way to improve on energy and money saving ways that anyone can learn to use quickly.
What the charismatic spokesperson failed to mention is that Frank recently lost his wife, and has gone into a deep slump of depression. To make things worse his depression has affected his job and has gotten him fired. He hasn’t been able to keep up with the normal maintenance of his household, let alone keep up with the new “GreenCraft” technology all the neighbors have adopted. His neighbors have began giving him dirty looks, as they see his house is extremely inefficient due to all the outdated technology he still uses. Alienated, widowed and unemployed, Frank is alone in the world.
This hypothetical situation may seem extreme, but with a little logical discernment, should be easily understandable. Not everyone can afford new technologies, and even though there are long term savings promised, the short terms costs of new technologies are always high. This video is basically advertising new products for consumers to buy, utilizing the environmental angle to cause guilt-purchases.
The competitive aspect, although in face value seems harmless, can easily be used to alienate families along socio-economic lines, and will only serves as another device to divide populations already at each others throats.
Anyway…. I think this technology is somewhat a good idea, because it not only shows people how they are wasting energy directly but how they could cut costs here and there saving themselves money. I am somewhat afraid though of the high cost of this machine and I wonder if normal families could afford it, perhaps the government can fund this operation. I’m not really interested in the whole online game virtual world aspect, I feel that it is useless but maybe it does give incentive for people who are into that kind of thing for gloating purposes. I also agree with Sam on the idea that it somewhat serves to put people in these elitist perspectives and may divide people. Overall it is an interesting concept, take away the game, implement the machine into real life.
Watching this, I was immediately reminded of the Foursquare application some of my friends use. By visiting a place multiple times, one can become the “mayor” of a place, and the competition to become mayor seems similar to the eco-friendly competition in the Greencraft game. Some people take their Foursquare territorial battles very seriously, and I can see people becoming invested in this game in a similar way. It is also akin to the Sims franchise, another popular and well-liked game. However, I agree that the game immediately puts some people at an immediate disadvantage. I have eight people living in my house, even if we spent tons of money on eco-friendly appliances, we still probably wouldn’t be able to “win” against my neighbor who lives alone. I think that the meter is a useful tool and the game could be popular and effective, but I’m not sure that it is a game I would want to play.
This is a great concept, and I kind of wish I owned the contraption behind it all. It promotes eco-friendly aspects in a way that everyone can enjoy. Through money. And everyone loves a bit of extra cash saved here and there. The virtual aspect of it however is lacking. It creates a competitive environment for the families, which is a double edged sword. While it can create a sense of going green, I feel that the importance of it all could be lost within the “keeping up with the Jones” syndrome that many suburban areas are afflicted with.
In a day and age where technology has consumed our lives, we sometimes forget about the impact it causes on our surroundings. This idea of creating a device that measures how efficient you are and then creating a competition out of it is one of the smartest innovations to come out of this particular field. The invention not only contributes to the conservation of the environment, but it’s also a tremendous boost towards our own well-being financially speaking. With the counter, not only can we help to adjust our usage of everyday appliances, but also find new ways to conserve our funds without recklessly spending it on unnecessary electronic needs.
I wouldn’t find this effective for me, but I guess it would work for other people. I tend to unplug appliances not in use and open up my shades to allow light to come in instead of using the lights in my home. I use florescent light bulbs instead of regular light bulbs.
I like the idea of the smart energy and having the ability to see where I can reduce my electricity bill but I don’t think this will work well as a game. I like having the ability to see my energy usage on my computer or on my mobile but that is the extent of it. I wouldn’t play this game whether there was an environmental connection to it or not because I am not into video games in general.
The fact that this taps into my home network is somewhat scary. I fear the mass-control of humanity by an oligarchic order, and this just seems like a great tool for them enforce their rationing and usage policies. Plus it seems like it would mirror the real world situation of your home, which would mean people could theoretically see when I wasn’t home, and then come and rob my ass (I’ve got nice things. Please leave them alone). Overall, the fact that it was a SIMS clone made me sad. I personally had to go rehab for the SIMS, and this makes me get that itchy feeling in my veins *smack-smack*. NEED TO MAINLINE SOME VIRTUAL GODHOOD.
I liked this idea, Sims goes green. The fact that is gives real-time feedback on day-to-day decisions appeals to my competitive side. “Keeping up with the Joneses” is taken to another level as neighbor is pitted against neighbor on which household can be the greenest.
As mentioned by other commentators, I’d air on the side of caution, being weary of being too much engulfed in “the grid.” With social networking sites already such a major part of daily life already, I don’t know if I’d be comfortable with telling the world even more information about myself.
I don’t like that they knocked off The Sims. I highly doubt anyone would use this, it seems boring and if you do use it regularly it would be a use of electricity. There’s no real interaction between characters, which seems boring. I also don’t think people need a game to tell them how to turn off a light switch to save energy. If someone cares enough about energy consumption, they wouldn’t bother playing this game.
On the one hand, I understand the sales pitch and I see the point of it. If it’s really supposed to monitor your real life power usage and compare with your neighborhood, though (which is the point, I think), it could cause trouble. What about houses where nobody uses a smartphone? I don’t, and my parents and sister don’t; I think it’s a pretty common circumstance. If we don’t buy the app, would our house be ‘dark’? Would it still tell our neighbors how we’re doing? The latter seems like an invasion of privacy. Even the former, I could see pushy neighbors urging us to do it. This seems like it would cause a lot of neighbor trouble.
The idea of wanting people to improve their energy use? Good. Is it realistic? Not entirely. America runs on comfort these days. Screw Dunkin’. People want nice things and want them now. It’s pitiful, but that’s what it is. If this little device tells you to turn your lights off, change these lightbulbs, and replace your refrigerator, how many people are going to get up and do that on a whim? Even long term. I think the idea of greening minds before greening houses might go farther. Make people interested in wanting to use something like this first. Then, as you can see above, make them less scared of totalitarian rule.
You would be surprised at how competitive some people will become in the gaming world. This is a great idea to promote energy efficiency if they can some how incorporate their real world conservatism that translates to the video game. This would be awesome however I feel that there are going to be cheaters and somehow manage to do good in the video game world without really doing anything in real life. There’s always a shortcut that can be found.
Why it’s called World of Greencraft I don’t get because it’s designed like a Sims games. Besides that though, it seems like a neato idea but it just seems like an annoyance after awhile. After a while, I’m pretty sure others and myself wouls get annoyed at constantly checking to see if their house was more energy efficient. And anyway, all electronics are constantly using energy, even when turned off. Completely unplugging is the best solution, but who wants to repeatedly do that? Not I. Nor do I want to see how pretty my house is on some simulated world. Cool concept, but I doubt people would do it for very long, despite the money they could save.
I don’t know about this. It seems like a good idea, and I like how the way to do well in the game is to actually start saving energy in your home, but the interface seems too boring. I don’t see many people being interested in the “Virtual home,” because it really just looks so bland. With a bit more style and imagination this concept could really catch on and become a fun and addictive way to save energy, but right now I don’t think it’s anywhere near that point.
After watching the video my initial reaction was that this is a cheap knock off of The Sims and all they added to it was an “environment-saving” meter. As good as its intentions are I don’t believe its legitimate enough of an idea to get people to consciously change their normal routine of life and energy consumption. There needs to be a greater awareness through much more effective means than trying to target children and video games.
This is an interesting idea, but I don’t know if I want all of my neighbors to be aware of how I spend my personal time. They might see how much time I spend surfing the internet and watching t.v., and how little time I spend on the treadmill.
I’m not convinced this would be that effective as a promotional tool. As previous commenters have said, the system seems too bland to hold people’s attention. It seems more like a PvP (Player vs Player) than PvE (Player vs Environment) type of game which means that PvE minded people who don’t like to team up with others online will have virtually no interest in this kind of game. If it were to be modified to include some sort of global effect rather than a glorified social network then it might hold more interest. Of course, then you have to consider that there are gamers out there (myself unashamedly included) who like to play the bad guy online… which would have rather dire results in that world.
I saw something like this before that you would attach to your home and everyday would send the watts used to a twitter feed. I can see the usefulness in showing people how much money they waste in electricity and well everyone likes saving money. Even the competitive nature I can see becoming something people would take into account.
It looked cool for a few seconds then I lost my attention. I could be competitive and junk with my energy usage, but I already unplug everything and attempt to make some of my appliances efficient. Over all, it’s useful and interesting, but I don’t see it going anywhere.
my intrigue in this is vastly outweighed by the sheer terror of a video game having access to my home life. I know it would only be in energy usage, but still there’s something very science fiction horror flick about the whole thing.
I have always loved playing the Sims games so this immediately grabbed my attention. I think the concept is interesting, to link your real life energy uses to a virtual one, however I don’t know how long people would actually keep up with conserving their energy. For a short time it might be fun, but in the long run it might not be too realistic. However, as a game to try and play, I would probably attempt it once. And if in real life you didn’t want to continue with the game’s link, then they should still allow you to have your Sims competing with neighbors at least.
First thing that came to mind was The Sims…alternate reality and such. Second thing, the whole concept of neighbors being able to view your energy consumption is invasive by my standards, even more so when it’s being applied to a competitive means of observation. This approach to pormoting enviornmentalism started out effective with the promotion of energy efficiency and the regulation of your own energy use through a virtual model of your home; however, the idea of mixing reality with the peer pressure incentives of a competitive game does not prove to be a successful long term solution in promoting enviornmentalism. One should want to conserve enegy because they’re aware of its impact on the enviorment and not so they can ‘win’ at wasting less energy than their neighbor.