Case Study Report Play2Act

The Play2Act case study builds upon the GCS1 Exploratory study by validating the integration

of digital surveys into gaming environments as a tool for large-scale public engagement and

policy research. By collaborating with multiple game studios, Play2Act successfully reached

over 934,000 players from 228 countries, embedding surveys into popular gaming platforms.

This method proved effective for gathering data on climate change attitudes, demonstrating the

potential of digital games to reach diverse global audiences and generate high engagement.

The study’s findings highlight the effectiveness of gaming as a research tool. With a 90.7%

response rate, Play2Act showed games can overcome traditional barriers in public engagement,

such as geographical and literacy limitations. However, while the surveys provided valuable

insights into climate awareness and behavioural intentions, the study also identified challenges,

particularly in terms of demographic representation and participant engagement depth. Future

research should focus on integrating survey content within active gameplay to enhance

participant reflection and engagement, and on improving the representativeness of data,

especially in underrepresented groups.

Although Play2Act demonstrated promising results in engaging players on climate change, it

revealed that smaller behavioural shifts, such as changes in daily habits, were more common

than larger, more impactful actions. This suggests digital interventions should complement

policy changes to drive more significant societal impacts. Additionally, the study raised

questions about the extent to which gaming environments foster deeper climate policy literacy,

with participants showing limited knowledge of specific policies despite engaging with

environmental content.

Play2Act provides valuable insights into the potential of digital games as research tools. While

it successfully engaged a large, diverse audience, challenges in dataset representativeness,

engagement depth, and long-term behaviour change remain. Future research should explore

how digital games can more directly integrate educational content, encourage sustained

behaviour change, and strengthen their role in policy discourse.