The Value of Everything

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about how computer games could initiate a rethinking process that ultimately makes the world to a better place.

Recently, as I was evaluating my lunch options, I saw the following offer at a small bistro: „Chicken wings and fries – €2.50“. Although this might sound like a great lunch opportunity, it seemed not very appealing to me. How can food be this cheap and still be healthy? The poor chickens must have lived under terrible conditions to be finally sold for such a low price.

Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Our culture enjoys a lot of meat-based meals which currently are offered at a very low price. This generates a huge demand for meat. To fulfill this demand and to keep the price low, meat has to be mass-produced. As a result of this, the way to handle the animals needs to be as efficient as possible. Their food needs to be cheap and their living space needs to be as small as possible to fit the highest number of animals into a particular area.

Fulfilling these conditions comes at the price of the animals‘ quality of life. They need to be vaccinated to reduce the chances of deseases and be kept under control so that they do not attack each other. Overall, this results in the animals living under terrible conditions to fulfill the high demand for cheap and meat-based food.

These problems, however, are often overlooked by the consumers. The only important thing is the price when it comes to selecting a product. Therefore, to start initiating a change of this process, it is important to raise the general awareness for these problems. Computer games could be one approach to achieve this goal.

Computer games could demonstrate the conditions under which the animals live by putting the player into the role of such an animal. This, however, would not really help to initiate a rethinking, as it provides not enough information about the decisions involved in the food production process. A potentially more effective way would be to involve the player in the complexity of the food industry by designing a tycoon-like computer game.

This game needs to evolve around the goal to effectively and efficiently lead a food company. While the player’s main goal should still be to achieve commercial success, other factors such as the happiness of the animals as well as the quality of the produced products have to play an important role. If designed well, this kind of computer game can inform players about the complexity of the food production as well as the side effects of mostly aiming for cheap products.

In conclusion, while computer games might not address the majority of the consumers, they still can start to initiate a rethinking. Players of these computer games might get convinced that they can put pressure on the food industry by selecting different products. Also, they can discuss the lessons learned with others and convince them as well.