ABSTRACT
From small, independently developed projects to massively popular titles, digital games continue to nuance our understandings of environmental issues. In our contemporary moment, a wide range of computer games support, critique, and reflect upon how humans conceive of “nature.” These claims are supported by innovative, though mostly isolated, scholarly essays. For example, Benjamin Abraham and Darshana Jayemanne’s 2017 analysis of the relationship between climate fiction and digital games, Colin Milburn’s 2014 codification of “green games,” Alenda Chang’s 2011 argument that games are environmental texts, and Matt Barton’s 2008 examination of weather simulations demonstrate the value of identifying and assessing how digital games communicate ideas about nature. Similarly, Melissa Bianchi’s and Kyle Bohunicky’s articles in the 2014 special issue of Green Letters also contribute to this expanding field of scholarship by explaining how specific games operate as critical lenses for environmental perspectives. These works and others illustrate the importance of studying digital games as environmental and ecological media, or ecomedia.
