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Videogame industry joins 'going green' crowd

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It was only a matter of time before the videogame industry decided to “go green.” After all, “green” has been “in” for the past year and kids are a key component of the future greening of the world.

Nickelodeon has launched a new Big Green Help Global Challenge (www.nick.com/BigGreenHelp), which is part of a cross-media push to generate action amongst kids to help save the planet. The heart of this initiative is a new four-player online game that allows players to assume the role of popular Nicktoons characters like SpongeBob SquarePants and Timmy Turner.

The objective is to team up with three friends online and play together to protect the last green cities against an onslaught of CO2 monsters like the Guzzler truck, which is a diesel truck that spews out harmful emissions. All of the characters have Ghostbusters-like eco vacuums that suck the bad energy out of monsters and turn it green. Players explore the world and collect monster cards that connect to real world themes like recycling.

Gaming is just part of this initiative. Before kids can even play the game, they have to take a green pledge and commit to working in the real world to helping the planet. Nick.com will track kids’ hours in both the real world and in the game. The game has been designed with replay in mind, especially with the cooperative play. Throughout the adventure, green kids appear during any transition screen to give tips that can be used in the real world. In addition, players will have to contend with boss levels and a lot of variety.

In addition to marketing across all of Nickelodeon's websites and television channels, partners like the NFL, 4H Club, Girl Scouts of America and the Boys and Girls Clubs are encouraging kids to get active in the "green" movement. While the game will remain live for years to come, the key push is happening between now and Earth Day 2009.

With so much media attention focused on the negatives of gaming, it’s great to see these types of initiatives that encourage kids to get outside and help recycle, volunteer and make a difference in the world. In conjunction with the recent popularity of fitness games – Wii Fit is a hard-to-find Christmas item – these types of games are helping kids live more rounded lives.

Gaming Guru

John Gaudiosi is a national journalist who has been covering the video game business for more than a decade. In addition to blogging for WRAL.com, he also writes about gaming for Wired Magazine, The Washington Post, Xbox.com and Yahoo! Games. Read more articles…