Playing Dirty

Sewage and smog aren't playful topics, but as public concern for the state of the natural world grew in the 1970s, game makers turned to the environment as a subject for play. 

Through board games, players learned about the problems around them—and envisioned solutions.

In the 1960s and ’70s smog was an everyday reality for many. Smog could engulf entire cities, as seen in this 1972 photograph of Birmingham, Alabama.

Smog occurs when pollutants from industry, car emissions, or fire accumulate in the air and undergo chemical reactions.

In 1970 Congress strengthened the Clean Air Act by regulating emissions levels and giving the Environmental Protection Agency authority to enforce the new limitations.

Smog: The Air Pollution Game was released the same year. 

Water pollution was also a concern for many in the 1970s. Pesticides, fertilizer runoff, industrial pollutants, and trash polluted waterways across the country.
 
This image shows the St. Croix River in Maine. The foam is a sign of contamination from upstream paper mills.

In 1972 the United States Congress passed the Clean Water Act to protect waterways by setting water quality standards, limiting the pollutant levels and funding new sewage treatment plants.
 
That same year, Urban Systems Inc. released Clean Water.

In Clean Water, players began by choosing a lake to manage. The player to their right was “upstream” of them; the player to their left was “downstream.”

But the next player was downstream: they were powerless to stop upstream polluters and suffered the consequences of pollution even if the previous player had chosen pollution abatement. This game mechanism highlighted the interconnectedness of resource usage.

Game designers of the 1970s also targeted younger audiences.
 
Gomston was a 1973 roleplaying game for middle and high school students. Acting as members of city interest groups, players addressed water and air pollution, the two main forms of pollution in the city of Gomston.

Players needed to cooperate to solve Gomston’s pollution problems.
 
During the game, students were divided into interest groups. As they played, they advanced their own group’s interests with solutions they devised themselves.

Forestry and wildlife teams advocated for nature.

Members of the media reported on the daily developments of other groups.

Strategy was also part of the game. Steel and chemical teams might attack other groups to deflect attention from the damage caused by economic interests.

As a class, the groups came together as the Gomston City Council to discuss their proposed solutions and forge a path forward. If they found a workable resolution for all the interest groups, the whole class passed. Without a consensus, the entire class failed.

In 1990, Oil Spill helped players understand the complexities of shipping oil in sensitive environments.

Players learned how environmental ethics, legislation, industrial design, and technology could make transporting harmful materials through sensitive environments safer.

In the game, players were oil tanker captains who picked up oil barrels while avoiding collisions with obstacles.
 
The die roll determined the number of spaces a player can move. During a turn players needed to move in straight lines. They could change direction once per turn.

Challenges such as reefs and ice made the game a navigational challenge. Players needed to get to the barrels of oil without hitting those obstacles. If their path went through these objects, it resulted in an oil spill.

As players navigated the sea, they received chance cards if they landed on a Coast Guard square. These cards promoted safer practices for transportation, technological development, and regulation.
 
The first player to reach the refinery with at least three barrels of oil won.

Not all environmental games of the period focused on disasters. During the 1980s and ’90s, children encountered the “3 Rs” at an early age. They learned to reduce, reuse, and recycle alongside reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic. Pollution Solution tapped into such values.

Players began by distributing numbered land section cards.

Each card had a source of pollution on one side and a potential solution on the other. 

Players laid down a solution card with an even roll and a pollution card with an odd.

The game ended when cards covered the board.

A player who rolled an even number could clean up a polluted square by giving a solution to the problem.
 
Some of the problems could be solved on the household level, such as switching detergents. Other problems required large-scale solutions, such as changing energy sources.

Pollution Solution also allowed players to create their own solutions, which could be accepted if other players agreed that the idea would solve the problem. As in Gomston, this open-ended format encouraged creative thinking.

Games about pollution revealed a surprising history about how this medium created an interactive way for Americans of all ages to think meaningfully about threats to their environments and potential solutions. They provided spaces to think, act, play, and reimagine.