Catan- New Energies: How board games spark conversation about climate change
Catan (also known as Settlers of Catan) is a multiplayer board game where players take on the roles of settles and attempt to build and develop settlements while trading and acquiring resources (such as wool, grain, lumber, brick and ore). The game was first released in 1995, has sold over 40 million copies worldwide, and is available in 40 different languages. The Catan series has released many extensions and expansion packages to include more players or to include more concepts such as knights and pirates. Star Wars and Game of Thrones versions have even been released over the years.
In June 2024, a new version of Catan was released to cater to the environmental board game players worldwide. Catan- New Energies is a standalone game that incorporates Catan’s harvesting, trading, and building system. As the name suggests, players must decide to invest in clean energy resources or opt for cheaper fossil fuels, which, much like real life, could negatively impact societies.
All players begin with cheap fossil fuels that can cause pollution events. Similar to how it is in the real world, it is faster and more affordable for players to build fossil fuels than renewables. As the game progresses, players can invest in renewable energy sources and are rewarded for sustainable strategies (such as picking up more resource cards). The twist is that the most sustainable player doesn’t necessarily win. Sometimes the people playing fossil fuel will win because that’s what happens in the real world. The game will end if pollution levels remain too high for too long. In that case, the player with the lowest carbon footprint becomes the winner by default.
While these games are designed for players to have fun, there is an underlying message in that players will end the game thinking about the future of our planet and that it will inspire action and activism. They are also designed to normalize some of the difficult conversations we sometimes have around fossil fuels and energy. Moreover, the game highlights some of the more unfair realities of the effects of climate change. Such as illustrating that island nations that generally produce less greenhouse gas emissions will experience the impact of climate change and disasters much more than places with more emissions.
Keeping up with the environmental theme, the game itself is printed and assembled in the US using sustainably sourced wood and paper, with no plastic components. There is also no plastic shrink wrap to keep the boxes sealed.
This isn’t the first time that the Catan brand is confronting the topic of climate change. In 2011, an expansion pack for its base game called Catan: Oil Springs was released. This expansion pack was designed for players to think about using oil as a resource and how that usage would impact their society and the earth. A 2017 study found that people who played the Catan Oil Springs expansion were inspired to take more sustainable actions.
As climate change continues to take its toll on the world is important that we spread the word to the masses to take action. Using board games like Catan- New Energies to share these messages allows players to think about how their decisions can impact our planet. These games are also a fun way to address a rather grim topic.
Catan has been a popular board game name for almost 30 years. Using their popularity to create a version of their game based around climate change can potentially impact how we use our resources and work towards building a more sustainable future.
