The game to promote the capability of reducing, reuse and recycling waste

School of Technology and Management (ESTG) - Laboratory of Systems of Information and Interactivity (LabSI2) Polytechnic Institute of Beja, Rua Pedro Soares, Beja, Portugal

^* Corresponding author: elsa.rodrigues@ipbeja.pt

Abstract

This work aims to raise awareness of environmental problems through interactive means, which, today, are much more appealing than the traditional ones to the academic community. To better inform community members of the importance of the 3Rs – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, it was decided to develop an interactive 3D game, accessible through the Word Wide Web. This game includes 3 different activities which can be played in any order: solid waste recycling, saving water, and saving electricity. A small group of people evaluated the games; all participants were familiar with video games. It should be noted that the tests carried out focused only on the usability and interactivity of the game – the impact of the game at the 3Rs level – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle – has not been tested yet. The game makes the user more aware of the physical space where he moves (the school), showing his progress in real time. At the end of the game, the user is presented with the total time he took to finish his tasks and the total score achieved. In this way, the game becomes more interesting to the user.