Virtual gardening: Identifying problems and potential directions for ‘ecological awareness’ through soil management and plant recognition gaming

Gardening and farming are relatively common themes for videogames. Farmville (Zynga, 2009), Stardew Valley (ConcernedApe, 2016) and Caesar III (Impressions Games, 1998) are examples of successful games with a strong concern for (prominent theme of?) nature. From farming and life simulators to survival games to management games, a large variety of games about nature are available to players. Nevertheless, it is extremely rare that video games would take an approach that could be (is?) beneficial for environmental education. As noted by Alenda Chang, video games “exert an important influence on how millions of players conceptualize country life, food production, and right relations (Is this phrase in the original quote?) between humans, animals, and the environment. Contemporary farm games represent an array of missed opportunities to model more meaningful game ecologies” (Chang 2012: 251)