Play to learn

Video games are a rapidly growing sector and have achieved leadership in the cultural industry sector, in terms of profit. The pandemic has certainly favored the development of innovative entertainment and training systems.

The term video game mainly suggests a playful experience, associated with entertainment, without additional purposes. In reality, in a few years a trend of video games identified with the term gamification has developed, which has taken hold in both educational and work contexts. Taking advantage of the interactivity possible with modern technologies and the principles underlying the very concept of entertainment, gamification can be an effective tool capable of conveying various types of messages, depending on needs, and to induce active behavior on the part of users, allowing specific personal or community objectives to be achieved. An intrinsic characteristic of gamification is placing the user (the player) and her active involvement at the center of the approach. This approach can therefore be particularly engaging and effective.

The United Nations has also chosen to exploit this strategy to raise awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). From 2019 to today, a Green Game Jam (ggj) event is organized every year, where the video game industries work alongside the United Nations to design virtual worlds that facilitate the ecological transition and the achievement of the individual objectives of the 2030 Agenda. The idea is to exploit the game to make it a driving force capable of inspiring simple and concrete actions that can change the behavior of individual people, favored by being part of a community of players.

It really amazes me that being immersed in a virtual situation through a video game allows you to identify more with reality, where each of us is called to live and intervene. Probably the new generations, digital natives, have an approach to reality that can be favored by an initial approach through virtual tools. However, the belief remains that no gaming system can surpass the sensations we experience in a real environment: seeing a beautiful landscape, walking in the mountains, eating a fruit just picked from the tree, admiring the behavior of animals, feeling the freshness of the water , are experiences that cannot be fully experienced in a video game. This UN proposal comes alongside many other awareness and action initiatives aimed at achieving sustainability objectives; the projects to promote care for the future of our planet and its life are diversified in order to reach as many people as possible.


Valentina Turinetto
NP March 2024