How commercial video games engage with biodiversity and conservation: a systematic map of literature
We produced the first systematic map on how commercial video games engage with biodiversity and conservation. This includes 380 papers, five languages, 450 unique games, empirical and non-empirical literature, as well as an interactive online database of the available evidence. Non-empirical work often scrutinises the extent that game design encourages or condemns exploitation of nature. Empirical papers are overwhelmingly non-experimental; research most often explores how video games represent real-world wildlife, influence players’ ecological perceptions, or inform players’ interactions with virtual nature. Despite the volume of literature, it is difficult to infer the causal effects of video games – especially on driving real-world pro-ecological action. Our map highlights several promising areas for future study, such as: consider the role of player differences on the impact of games, observe actual behaviours and how these change after play, and pursue interdisciplinary collaborations with the games industry for more thorough, applicable, and novel findings.
Authors
- Takahiro Kubo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4832-5539)
- Claire Petros
- Sofia Castelló y Tickell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9476-3804)
- Silvio Marchini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8184-1631)
- Kota Mameno (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8866-7421)
- Adam Gleave (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3467-528X)
- Ugo Arbieu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0655-8756)
- Diogo Veríssimo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3519-6782)
- Carla Rodriguez-Sanchez
- Kaiwen Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0475-8620)
- Paul Johnson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6160-9045)
- Sandra Lai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0128-3738)
- Cedric Tan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6505-2467)
- Vera Sequeira (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7173-4982)
- Katie Blake (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8926-769X)
Institutions
- University of Alicante (ES)
- University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (MY)
- Sun Yat-sen University (CN)
- Royal Holloway University of London (GB)
- National Institute for Environmental Studies (JP)
- Hokkaido University (JP)
- AgroParisTech (FR)
- Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (US)
- State Hydrological Institute (RU)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Institute for Biodiversity (DE)
- National Zoological Park (US)
- Aquatic Systems (United States) (US)
- Wildlife Conservation Society United Kingdom (GB)
- Conservation Biology Institute
Publication Details
- Journal
- Games Research and Practice
- Published
- 2026-05-08
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3811918
- Primary Topic
- Educational Games and Gamification
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00