It’s all in the games
“Have you given any thought to your avatar’s carbon footprint?”
Um, say what?
That’s actually a serious question: the larger virtual worlds and MMOs require thousands of servers to run, and that expends enormous amounts of electricity.
Second Life Carbon Offset Exchange is an offshoot of carbon offset retail site 4offsets.com, and if you have a Second Life account you can visit the company’s SL headquarters (direct teleport at this link). Then if you have enough Linden Dollars, the world’s official currency, you can start buying the offsets.
I have no experience with these games, so I will take this at face value. Meanwhile, I wonder what sort of environmental changes we can expect in non-computerized games, like, oh, Monopoly:
- Engine idling prohibited on Free Parking
- Water Works faces EPA mandate to clean up stormwater drainage
- Luxury Tax superseded by Carbon Tax
- Electric Company charges variable rent based on the time of day you land on it
- Passing Go now earns $185; $15 congestion charge assessed
- Railroads switch to cleaner diesel, raise rents
- Mediterranean Avenue declared brownfield
- Race-car token replaced by bicycle
I shudder to think what might happen to Scrabble.
(Via Tim Blair.)
McGehee said:
19 April 2008 @ 10:54 pm
Engine idling prohibited on Free Parking
Except above 60° latitude in winter, unless there are plug-ins. And if you use the plug-in, how much carbon supports that power output, compared with idling the engine?
Dwayne "the canoe guy" said:
20 April 2008 @ 4:10 am
Next, they’ll be going after one of my favorite games, Power Grid.