Perhaps the video game industry is taking environmental concerns raised by Greenpeace last year to heart?
According to Walmart’s official blog, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and a few publishers such as EA and Activision recently attended a green gaming summit where they discussed various ways to be more environmentally friendly. Here are a few suggestions reported by Joe Muha, Walmart’s gadgets and gaming guy:
- Switching to cardboard packaging would be like taking almost 4,000 cars off the road in terms of equivalent green house gas emissions.
- Working with console manufacturers on coding and power usage design can reduce the power consumption when we use our devices for media playback.
- Focusing on the next generation of consoles would allow the machines to be built from the ground up to use less power while providing an even better experience.
- Developing software and hardware that allows us to save the game so we do not have to leave it on would allow us to turn it off during a meal break or overnight without loosing our place. Additionally, come clever programming would allow the console to go into a lower power, standby mode when not in use.
Muha elaborates on the game save issue in his blog’s comments section:
Not every game allows us to save whenever we would like. We even discussed the idea of an "autosave" if the game is left alone after a set period of time and the console would go to a low power mode.
Via: Kotaku
-Reporting from San Diego, GamePolitics Correspondent Andrew Eisen
Comments
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
which evil corporate empire are you taling about?
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Umbrella Corp. Duh.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Umbrella Corp. Duh.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Let's make MORE waste.
I'll probably throw away cardboard packaging (ala Gameboy Games) and buy plastic cases. You're WORSE off.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Wood is a renewable resouce. Plastic isn't.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
You don't get my point.
Plastic cases: I keep the cases for storage
Cardboard cases: I throw away the cases, buy plastic cases.
There's a net LOSS of what's in the cardboard instead of if they just shipped it in plastic in the first place. Yes it's renewable, but it's better if you don't use it in the first place if it doesn't save you anything.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Congratulation Wal-mart, you lost my respect.
Sam Walton was a cool cat, and quite the business man. Wal-mart employees are better paid than most people doing the same job, and they get to save the money a pesky union would steal from them.
But this is bullshit. Going green is idiotic in the first place, and this won't make Greenpeace like you anymore.
Do you know why? Because Greenpeace is no longer about the environment, its about being anti-capitalism and anti-corporation.
Just ask Patrick Moore, the man who co-founded the idiotic group. Sure, Greenpeace denies it now because he's criticizing their constant lying, but believe me, he knows more about the group he founded than the group itself wants to let on.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
really? Man, as a GP manager i must be missing those meeting were they encourage us to blow up the ''evil capitalists'' and only going to to the carbon footprint meetings. And moore left becuase they decided to oppose chlorine, which was stupid and many of us agree with him.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Hey, how did you enjoy Penn and Teller's experiment when they got your idiotic followers to sign a petition to ban Dihydrogen Monoxide (H2O)? Seems like the second they said 'corporations and companies use it' your followers were all too quick to try and ban water.
Face it, Greenpeace isn't about helping anyone, its just about pushing your idiotic and unscientific agenda.
You're all for doing things to help the environment right until its not convenient for you anymore. You're a bunch of fucking hypocrites, just like PETA, and you try and force your ideals of right and wrong on the rest of us.
Here are some facts for you:
Nuclear Power is fucking amazing. Far better than Coal, Solar, and Wind power.
There is no deforestation occuring because of logging. They rotate their cutting, allowing trees to grow.
Global Warming is bullshit, and while we're at it, the Polar Bear population is at least five times higher than the numbers often quoted both by your group and PETA, which are taken from 1975.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Heh...I figured you watch P&T. Good show, that.
Signed,
the other anon dude who's speaking for nukes, and against global warming and the general green movement.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Penn and Teller are alright in my book. I enjoy their open mockery of stupid people and frauds. The only things I disagree with them on are the whole 'existence of God' thing, and the show they did on Capital Punishment, but both of their arguments are well thought out and well presented, unlike Global Warming which has no thought and is presented in a way that if you don't agree, you're a terrible, terrible person who hates the world.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Polar Bear population is at least five times higher than the numbers often quoted both by your group and PETA, which are taken from 1975.
Wow, I guess someone better tell that Dept. of Int., because they just put it on the endangered species list. As in a couple of months ago.
Global Warming is bullshit
from the notoriusly unscientific and partisian agency NASA : http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2005/
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Considering that a large amount of species removed from the list are removed because they were mistakenly added, I'm not willing to trust that piece of garbage any more than I'd trust you.
As for getting on the list, if a group bitches long enough, they'll put anything on the list. Hell, I'm willing to bet if I cared to spend the time and money doing it, I could get cockroaches put on that list.
As for your second bit, did you see the average temperature for 2007? Where it was 2 degrees farenheit lower than the previous year? Sounds like global warming to me.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Yeah and of course their response to the temp drop is that just because there's a drop, it doesn't mean there isn't Global Warming or actually, the drop is BECAUSE of global warming! >_<
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
The way Moore usually tells it, it's because the group was hijacked by socialist groups that wanted to use the green movement to further their causes of anti-globilization and anti-corporation. But then again, he could have gotten his own story wrong.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
I especially enjoy their retarded stance against genetically engineered fruits and vegetables, even going so far as to convince an African nation to reject millions of dollars worth of free food that could have helped their poor and starving populace.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Are you trying to ironic or not? Becuase if you aren't, that's kinda sad. Yes, Greenpeace is a little crazy(a little extreme, but far from the ''Zomg commies!" that you portray them as), but there are many more reasonable enviormental groups out there. And no Wal Mart employees are not well paid, they actually get 20% less than industry average (not to mention shitty working conditions). And Wal-Mart employees have tried several times to join those ''pesky unions'', only to denied by the corporation. And i guess going green is idiotic if you don't give a shit about the enviornment, or buy whatever BS science exxon-mobil putting out this week.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
I think its funny that you make some of these claims.
1. Yes, greenpeace is anti-capitalism. If you can't accept that, you're wrong; this isn't an opinion, this is an actuality.
2. Wal Mart employees are very well paid, despite what you would like to think.
3. You're right. I should ignore the 4 largest weather tracking groups in the world, countless scientists, and common sense, and listen to a jackass like Al Gore.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Do you have any links to backup any of the typical Republican talking points you've been spewing in this thread? My own research and experience backs up almost nothing you've been claiming and your principal argument always seems to be "This is how it is and if you disagree you're wrong."
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
First, a report about a well documented MIT professor
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2006/08/30/mits_inconvenient...
a book where the same facts used to boost environmentalist claims are shown to also point to a different conclusion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skeptical_Environmentalist
This stuff we're talking about isn't specifically a Republican talking point. The fact is that what studies there have been on any cause or effect of Global warming are never accurate, and don't hold up to thurough scientific peer reviews. People are shouting about "fact" when there isn't yet a fact to argue about. Hell, we can't even predict what the weather will be like in a week let alone map out the course of climate change for the next 10-20 years.
The fact is that taking a stance against global warming claims is a skeptic's talking point. I love the outdoors, love nature, yet I look into all sides of an argument and I usually get a conclusion that's against 99% of "green thinkers." I can tell you why nuclear is the best environmental choice for power. I can tell you why hybrid cars hurt the planet more than a gas-guzzling SUV. I can explain why carbon credits are pointless. Most of this info is a bit harder to find, as it paints a picture that the world isn't on the brink of destruction. The reason why that would matter is because broadcast stations, news networks, and political groups can't get attention if they say everything is fine with the world.
Thus, I get to my final point. There is always a counter argument. To say that something is absolute is foolish, as that would require testing and observations of an infinite number of possibilities. This means that there is always a possibility to be proven wrong, and thus there is always going to be someone out there who is arguing for the other side. In the case of Global Warming, there is just as much facts against it as there are for it. The reason why you never hear that side of it is simply because it doesn't get people's attention as much as "Global warming will be the end of this planet in the next few decades."
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
So, you're saying that (deep breath) all of the nations that signed the kyoto protocol, NASA, most of the democratic party, a large percentage of republicans, exxon mobil itself, barack Obama, countless enviormentalists, mike Huckabee, john mccain, the UN, and the scientists behind the vast majority of climate change studies, are all in massive conspiracy, or are merely ''jackasses''. I mean , that's gotta be one hell of a conspiracy, as the scientific consensus is that global warming is real, so they'd have to bribe millions of scientists.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
No, it's not a conspiracy. It's simply a political point that allows them to look good if they support it. Cause really, how can you be so evil as to not want to save the world? Seriously, by saying "because these political people and political organizations say it's true, means it must be" you're basically giving away your right to actually think for yourself. Just because the church said the world is flat hundreds of years ago didn't make it true.
Also, yes, the scientists were bribed. When the bastion of all things global warming related, Al Gore, was VP, he was so gracious enough to go around academia, seek out and find any scientist that didn't believe in global warming, and cut their funding. Hell, even though he's no longer VP, his influence is still going on. In academia, you basically have to believe in global warming, otherwise you'll probably get your funding cut. Then there are the climate change studies, which are some of the most unscientific studies I've ever looked upon. They always start off with the premise of climate change, and more specifically global warming, to be an absolute fact, and then go from there. Nothing is an absolute fact, or should be treated as such by anyone claiming to be a scientist.
Global warming is a political ploy, meant to make you scared of the world today and follow the people who are in charge to help "fix" it.
Oh, and don't credit NASA with anything to do about global warming. NASA is a shadow of its former self and is basically a shell devoted to nothing but bureaucratic bickering and partisan politics. It isn't your Apollo themed NASA anymore. Sadly enough, I hate what it's become yet my ultimate goal is to probably work there. Why must I be such an optimist?
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Let me take you back a bit in history, when we are all in fear of GLOBAL COOLING!
Pretty much the same thing, widespread panic, NASA, the entire democrat party, the UN, and all these other groups were saying by 2010 we'd be on a rock that was uninhabitable.
I guess that having a scientific consensus made that right too, eh?
Consensus means that there's no real proof, but we agree that it could, just maybe, be happening.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Global cooling never had any significant scientific support, global warming does.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
The scientific proof for global cooling was the exact same as for global warming. Massive amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere caused by man made objects like power plants and automobiles. If you replaced any of those scientific articles back then with the word warming instead of cooling, you'd get basically the same arguments.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
I'd like to take this opportunity to say 'this is exactly what I was talking about'.
Thanks man.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
They actually had the same amount of scientific support, except global warming has the added weight of being proven wrong by the four leading temperature tracking groups in 07, when the worldwide temperature dropped, on average, 2 degrees farenheit.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
On average, Wal-mart employees get paid over $10 for lower level jobs. 90% of all managment level jobs in Wal-Mart are people who started out in floor jobs in the store, or in other words, Wal-Mart promotes from within. Any movement towards making unions haven't been squashed by the corporation, as that would be illegal, but rather was squashed by the other employees. And don't try and say that Wal-Mart covered up killing any movement towards unionizing, seeing how it's been inspected by the federal govenment multiple times due to such rumors spread by some of the more powerful unions.
Wal-Mart very rarely is subject to employee abuse. When it's found that it has been, which are relatively few occasions, it has compensated its employees. An addition of a Wal-Mart into a community usually increases the economic stability of that area, especially if the area is a lower than average economic area (say somewhere in downtown LA). It makes jobs for people that need jobs, and very very rarely (if ever) does it pay its incoming workers as low as minimum wage.
Honestly, all talk against Wal-Mart is just poorly informed "facts," spread around, started, and heavily influenced by large unions. Wal-Mart employes 1.5 million people in the United States. Were it to unionize, each one of those employees will have to pay monthly dues to the union, ranging anywhere from $20-$60 per month. This leaves the "wal-mart union" making hundreds of millions of dollers a year, which would be money that could be spent in conjunction with other unions to strenghten their own wallets. The increase in pay that would have to be given to each employee means that many will have to be laid off, and all the extra spending will be passed on to the consumer.
Seriously, people accuse Wal-Mart of using its business to get rich at the expense of the employees, when all along it's the unions using their business to get rich at the expense of the union members.
Upon actual inspection, any hatred levied against Wal-Mart is mostly undeserving. Sure, it sometimes treats its employees like shit, but what buisness doesn't? And honestly, if the working conditions really were all that bad, the workers would have unionized by now. I mean...it has been around since 1962.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
The whole point is probably just to look like they give a crap for PR reasons. I agree that it probably won't help Wal-Mart at all seeing how they will always have unions and groups affiliated with unions that will always say evil about the company.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
I would not like for them to change the game packaging to cardboard. I LIKE the plastic cases. They keep the disc safe, have a place for the manual so you don't lose it, and are universally easy to store. Cardboard would probably mean going back to those damn white sleeves to put your discs in.
Although, it would be hilarious if they tried to package them in cardboard, and ended up just putting the plastic cases in a cardboard box.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
"Switching to cardboard packaging would be like taking almost 4,000 cars off the road in terms of equivalent green house gas emissions. "
Yeah but it will seriously leave them open for water damage and the like and it would be a grand step backwards. I wonder how green it would be if we switched to PS1 style CD cases.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Ooooh, a whole 4,000 cars! That number is so insignificant that it's almost like this stupid ideas teachers made us come up with back in middle school in how to reduce pollution.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
THEY'RE TRYING TO KILL GAMES! DESTROY THOSE FREAKS!
I've seriously considered upon multiple occasions creating an enormous machine that does nothing but take in gasoline and puff out greenhouse gasses, just to annoy these people.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Save states/quick save/load FTW!!!!!!!
I is fuzzy brained mew =^^=
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(in need of a bad overhaul)
Copyright infringement is nothing more than civil disobedience to a bad set of laws. Let's renegotiate them.
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Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
yes! quicksaves and save states everywhere!
-I apologize-
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Wait. So we eliminate using plastic in out packaging by chopping down more trees to make cardboard packaging? I don't think someone thought that through very well.
Saving games more often would certainly allow you to turn off the console more often. And yes there are still plenty of games that limit your ability to save. So don't argue that that is a moot point.
E. Zachary Knight
http://www.editorialgames.com
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
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E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
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Random Tower
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
You know, I buy games frequently and have a collection of over 1000. For the past several years, I haven't encountered a single game where a save point either isn't instant, or within an hour of gameplay. Those I have heard of without save games are things like old school, under half an hour to beat games. So yes, I say leaving a system on overnight is pure ignorance. Unless you're doing something like autogrinding or setting up a 24hour race in GT or Forza and then that becomes the designers fault for being a dumb bastard.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
My problem with paper game packaging isn't with the ecological aspects as it is the fact that paper doesn't hold up nearly as well as plastic to normal wear and tear, kids, pets, acts of God, etc.
If they want to go that route, they might want to recommend that customers purchase a CD/DVD binder to hold their games, and recycle the cases.
At the same time, they should strongly recommend retail outlets bump up their security; most people who steal video games are stronger than cheap cardboard, and a few of them carry knives, nail clippers, and other cutting utensils. If retail stores want to market cheap cardboard cases, they'll have to get security cases to hold them, if they don't already. I'm looking right at you, Walmart.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
The usage of paper actually causes more trees to be planted. Think of it in the simplistic terms of supply and demand. If there is demand for paper, then the makers of paper would go out of their way to make sure that there is a steady constant source of resources to supply that demand. Add that to the fact that all paper made is grown from trees which were planted for the sole purpose of making paper, and you get to the fact that every time you buy or use paper, you're basically putting in an order for more new trees to be planted.
But I don't quite see the benefit of swapping to paper packaging. I mean...only 4 thousand cars? That's basically nothing, and the added cost of going green in this sense would not economically justify the very small environmental payout.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Useing recycled paper/fiber products would be better, unless you use less chemicals for recycling plastic products.
I is fuzzy brained mew =^^=
http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/
(in need of a bad overhaul)
Copyright infringement is nothing more than civil disobedience to a bad set of laws. Let's renegotiate them.
---
http://zippydsm.deviantart.com/
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Recycling plastic products is actually worse than throwing the used ones away and making new plastic products.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
regarding the disposal of nuclear waste...
when you are outdoors, look up please you will notice that there is quite a lot of space up there... is it too unreal for us to dump our waste in space? I mean, maybe if we do, any other intelligent life in the galaxy may be drawn to it, and allow them to discover us! The radiation would be like a beacon to aliens right?
Your soul is a tasty refreshing treat to ones such as I
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Sure. Now give us a cheap way of getting it up?
Not like that.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Not only would that be needlessly expensive, but would be a red tape nightmare. Imagine if the rocket exploded? Then you'd have a bunch of blown up spent fuel rods all over the place. Since they'd explode, it'd be much more difficult to handle the contamination. Granted, the exposure is about what you'd get during an xray, but still...the simple possibility of it happening would cause environmentalist nuts to fight the idea with everything they've got.
Then there's the possible moral application of if we have the right to use space as a dump site.
Then there's the fact that the radiation in the spend fuel rods would be enough to destroy most any nearby satellite's electronics.
Basically, it's a good idea you have, but it's one that has been thought up a while ago, and the facts show that, aside from any ecological disasters dumping anything in space might bring, it's just way too expensive.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Transportion issues aside, what about chucking them into the sun?
Also, let's not forget about fusion. :D
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
but OMG holy shit guys that could like...totally irradiate the sun and ruin it for millions of years.
Joking aside, burning it to non-existence on the surface of the sun would definately get rid of it. However, with the case of space travel, it's unreasonable to say "transportation issues aside." Once it becomes super cheap to launch a Delta V heavy into space, and launch failure rates as well as spacecraft infant mortality rates become near non-existent, then we can start thinking about tossing our junk into the sun.
*note - in the Aerospace sector, infant mortality refers to a spacecraft or satellite that dies before a full power up once in space. This usually happens within the first hour, and is never a fun thing to have happen.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
If we were to switch to nuclear power we'd have hundreds of power plants and I doubt that it would be practical to ship all that waste out into space.
Fortunately though we do have (or more accurately will have) Yucca Mountain.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
Yucca mountain is nearly complete, and if idiots like Obama would stop trying to halt its progress, it would've been done long ago.
Re: Wal-Mart Wants to Turn the Game Biz Green
If they really want to make a difference they should promote more digital distribution. Of course, that wouldn't end well for Wal-Mart.