The slides present our work on developing ecomodding, i.e. the creation of game modifications to explore ecological issues, as a playful, critical teaching and research technique.

1. Slide No. 1GAMECO2019 Symposium, ERMeCC – 21st August 2019
ECREA Gaming 2019
Ecomodding as Cultural Public Sphere
and Creative Research Practice
Dennis Jansen
Dr. Stefan Werning
(Utrecht University)

2. Slide No. 2GAMECO2019 Symposium, ERMeCC – 21st August 2019
Premise
• As games become a ‚reference medium‘,
more people interpret their lives
through the ‚lens‘ of games and game
co-creation
• NRC article on changing Hasbro‘s Game
of Life to reflect real-world lived
experience
– “Spelkaart 1: Je besluit dat tijd meer waard
is dan geld. Verkoop je bezittingen en trek je
terug in het groen”
– “Spelkaart 2: Je wil géén standaardgezin.
Geef je buggy weg en start een ander soort
familie”
– “Spelkaart 3: Je hebt geen huis nodig. Leen
een tent of camper en zwerf een tijdje rond”

3. Slide No. 3GAMECO2019 Symposium, ERMeCC – 21st August 2019
Goals
1. Conceptualize game modding as a “cultural public sphere” (Burgess et al. 2006) and
potential site for productive eco-critical conversation
1. Shift focus towards ‘discussing’ ecocritical concepts in widely popular COTS games
(rather than contributing to the abundance of existing eco games)
1. Provide a methodological framework for refining the ‘language’ of ecomodding
– Game co-creation, bricolage, critical making, “epistemic objects”
1. [Evaluate the impact of ecomodding practices]
– Against established definitions of game-based persuasion
and environmental/ecological literacy

4. Slide No. 4GAMECO2019 Symposium, ERMeCC – 21st August 2019
From Game Modding
to Eco-Modding • Game Modding
– Collective, playful co-creation using
ready-made tools and (often) materials
• Existing ecocritical analyses of eco
mods (e.g. Bohunicky 2017)
– Can help alleviate weaknesses of
games (cf. Jansen 2019)
• “Relegating environment to background
scenery”
• “Relying on stereotyped landscapes”
• “Predicating player success on extraction
and use of natural resources” (quoted from
Chang 2011)
– Reaccentuating environmental themes
• Kazoomie’s “Birds and Flocks”
• MightyNINE’s “Trashcans of Skyrim”
• Quayvetocar2’s “Realistic Weather Mod”
Chang, Alenda Y. 2011. “Games as Environmental Texts.” Qui Parle
19 (2): 56–84. https://doi.org/10.5250/quiparle.19.2.0057.
Bohunicky, Kyle Matthew. 2017. “Ecomods: An Ecocritical
Approach to Game Modification.” Ecozon@: European Journal of
Literature, Culture and Environment 8 (2): 72–87.
https://ebuah.uah.es/dspace/handle/10017/31327.
Jansen, Dennis. 2019. “The Environment at Play: Confronting
Nature in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and the ‘Frostfall’ Ecomod.”
Press Start 5 (1): 1–18. https://www.press-
start.gla.ac.uk/index.php/press-start/article/view/125

5. Slide No. 5GAMECO2019 Symposium, ERMeCC – 21st August 2019
Eco-Modding and/as
Cultural Citizenship • Eco-Modding as a form of public discourse
– Can constitute a “cultural public sphere”
(Burgess et al. 2006)
– Might allow for performing “cultural
citizenship”
• Addressing the „crisis of imagination“
(Bendor 2018) with regard to sustainable
futures
• Characteristics
– Unusually productive as a platform for online
discussion (Owens 2011, 489-90)
• “self-reflection, courtesy and a constructive disposition”
– Agenda setting
• Cf. list of existing eco-mods and their themes
– ‘Quoting’ and ‘re-framing’ procedural rhetoric
from the original game or earlier mods
Burgess, Jean E., Marcus Foth, and Helen G. Klaebe.
2006. “Everyday Creativity as Civic Engagement: A
Cultural Citizenship View of New Media.” In
Communications Policy & Research Forum. Sydney,
Australia: QUT ePrints.
Owens, Trevor. 2011. “Modding the History of Science:
Values at Play in Modder Discussions of Sid Meier’s
Civilization.” Simulation & Gaming 42 (4): 481–95.

6. Slide No. 7GAMECO2019 Symposium, ERMeCC – 21st August 2019
The Sims and Civilization
as Co-Creation ‚Platforms‘
• The Sims (2000-)
– Bottom-up perspective (eco lifestyles)
• Civilization (1991-)
– Top-down perspective
– Issues of sustainability only explicitly
addressed in the most recent
expansion Gathering Storm
• New climate system, trade-off between
powering late-game buildings and global
CO2 levels rising
• Natural catastrophes (which, however, can
also have long-term benefits like increased
fertility of soil tiles)

7. Slide No. 8GAMECO2019 Symposium, ERMeCC – 21st August 2019
A Diachronic
Perspective on
Procedural Rhetoric
• Procedural rhetoric
– Games communicating persuasive messages
– Usually defined with reference to one game
• Modding requires a diachronic
perspective on procedural rhetoric
(Werning 2018)
– Changes in game mechanics/dynamics over
time can be just as rhetorically relevant as
any given state of ‘the game’ itself
Werning, Stefan. 2018. “Modding as a Strategy to (de-
)Legitimize Representations of Religion in the
Civilization Franchise.” In Participatory Digital
Cultures and Contemporary Discourses of
(De)Legitimization, edited by Andrew S. Ross and
Damian J. Rivers, 307–25. New York & London:
Routledge.

8. Slide No. 9GAMECO2019 Symposium, ERMeCC – 21st August 2019
• Playful Mapping as eco-critical communication
– Contributes to the role of fiction and worldbuilding in
“climate change imaginaries” (Whiteley et al. 2016)
– “Video games can make players participants in the
flawed worlds and allow them to become part of the
underlying logic of how these worlds are created and
sustained” (Schulzke 2014)
• Placing environment tiles and natural resources
– E.g. based on contemporary projections like
https://wad.jrc.ec.europa.eu/aridityprojections
– E.g. severely limiting specific resources
• Using scenario features
– e.g. max turns, limited victory types and other
evocative game options
Wilmott, Clancy, Chris Perkins, Sybille Lammes, Sam Hind, Alex
Gekker, Emma Fraser, and Daniel Evans. 2016. Playful Mapping
in the Digital Age. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures.
Whiteley, Andrea, Angie Chiang, and Edna Einsiedel. 2016.
"Climate change imaginaries? Examining expectation
narratives in cli-fi novels." Bulletin of Science, Technology &
Society 36 (1): 28–37.
Schulzke, Marcus. 2014. “The Critical Power of Virtual
Dystopias.” Games and Culture 9 (5): 315–34.
Phase 1: Map-Making

9. Slide No. 10GAMECO2019 Symposium, ERMeCC – 21st August 2019
Phase 2: Scripting
• Defining new in-game behaviors and
agents
– E.g. Boyan Slat’s Ocean Cleanup project trying
to tackle the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
– E.g. protesters coopted by civilzations/nation-
states
• Example: Implementing wildfires
– Gap in the existing procedural rhetoric
– Concrete implementation?
• What creates them?
• Can they be instrumentalized, e.g. in territorial
conflicts?
• Potential effects and countermeasures?
• “Dividend for owning the air”
– From Peter Barnes’ book “Climate Solutions”, quoted
after (Lakoff 2010)
• Putting a “price on carbon”
– One of the ‘solutions’ from the documentary film
Before the Flood (2016)
Lakoff, George. 2010. “Why It Matters How We Frame the
Environment.” Environmental Communication 4 (1): 70–
81.

10. Slide No. 11GAMECO2019 Symposium, ERMeCC – 21st August 2019
Institutionalizing Ecomodding
• Game jams as established
‘engines’ of collective
creativity
• Modjams?
– E.g. multiple shorter stages
– First remake a given simple mod,
then remake each other’s mods
– Implement the notion of
modding as an ongoing
conversation through the
structure of the jam
Locke, Ryan, Lynn Parker, Dayna Galloway, and Robin J. Sloan. 2015.
“The Game Jam Movement: Disruption, Performance and Artwork.”
In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on the
Foundations of Digital Games (FDG 2015). Pacific Grove, CA.
Preston, J. A., Chastine, J., O’Donnell, C., Tseng, T., & MacIntyre, B.
(2012). Game jams: Community, motivations, and learning among
jammers. International Journal of Game-Based Learning (IJGBL),
2(3), 51-70.

11. Slide No. 12GAMECO2019 Symposium, ERMeCC – 21st August 2019
Outlook
• Ecomodding in the context of “creative visual methods” (Buckingham 2009)
• Use ecomodding to concretize Norton Long’s “ecology of games”
– Facilitate rethinking institutional interaction from a game designer’s perspective
• Towards less agonistic rhetoric in Ecoplay?
• Aristotelian notions of rhetorical persuasion predicated on conflict and agonistic
relationships
– Using ecomodding to explore Burke’s notions of “identification” and “consubstantiality”
(e.g. Burke & Zappen 2006)
• Evaluating the impact of ecomodding as scholarly and cultural practice
– Environmental literacy ⬄ Ecological literacy ⬄ Ecoliteracy (McBride et al. 2013)
Buckingham, David. 2009. “`Creative’ Visual Methods in Media Research: Possibilities, Problems and Proposals.” Media, Culture & Society 31 (4): 633–52.
Burke, Kenneth, and James P. Zappen. 2006. “On Persuasion, Identification, and Dialectical Symmetry.” Philosophy & Rhetoric 39 (4): 333–39.
McBride, B.B., C.A. Brewer, A.R. Berkowitz, and W.T. Borrie. 2013. “Environmental Literacy, Ecological Literacy, Ecoliteracy: What Do We Mean and How
Did We Get Here?” Ecosphere 4 (5): 1–20.

12. Slide No. 13GAMECO2019 Symposium, ERMeCC – 21st August 2019