the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
| 19 Aug 2025
ClimarisQ: What can we learn by playing a serious game for climate education?
Abstract. Climate change education faces the twin challenges of conveying complex scientific concepts and inspiring urgent action. ClimarisQ is a web and smartphone-based serious game developed by the Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace (IPSL) to address these challenges by simulating climate–societal dynamics and extreme events in an interactive format. This article evaluates ClimarisQ's role as an innovative educational tool to raise awareness of climate issues. We outline the game's design (grounded in real climate models and IPCC scenarios) and its pedagogical objectives of illustrating the urgency of collective action, the complexity of climate-ocean interactions, and the ethics of decision-making under uncertainty. We present results from a user questionnaire (77 respondents) assessing learning outcomes and user feedback. Players rated the game highly in terms of usability, scientific content, and engagement (average 4.2/5 across categories), and qualitative feedback indicates that ClimarisQ effectively fosters discussion and systems thinking about climate challenges. However, many already knowledgeable players reported learning few new facts, highlighting the need to tailor content to varying prior knowledge. We discuss the strengths of ClimarisQ – notably its ability to simulate feedback and extreme events in an accessible way – and its challenges, such as balancing scientific accuracy with playability and ensuring inclusivity. Situating ClimarisQ in the broader context of climate outreach, we compare it with other educational games and initiatives. We emphasize the ethical responsibility of climate communication tools to empower action without misinformation or fatalism. In conclusion, ClimarisQ demonstrates how serious games can complement formal education and engage diverse audiences in climate-ocean literacy, an approach that is increasingly vital given the urgency of the climate crisis.
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CC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2025-2222', David Crookall, 19 Aug 2025
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Community comment on ms 2025-2222 -- ClimarisQ, Feranda et al – comment by David Crookall
Overall, I like the article, and the game ClimarisQ sounds excellent. I am not an official reviewer, and this commentary is not a review. However, I wish to pick some bones with you in the hope that it will help you improve your article. The topics concern terminology, debriefing and some other, minor things that I came across as I read your ms.
Terminology. I think that the term ‘serious game’ is far from serious, and should be eliminated from most scientific literature. I could write a lot about the reasons why, but I wish to keep this commentary short. My reasons are summed up in this chapter: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/374344073_Debriefing_A_Practical_Guide, where I wrote:
A basic contradiction emerges here. If games are fun (and therefore result in learning) why would we wish to make them serious? If our games are serious, how can we have fun and so, one assumes, help people learn? We cannot have it both ways.
It is rather ironic that some teachers use the term serious game and in the next breath assert that it is the fun that guarantees learning. My impression is that once people latch on to the superficially beguiling term, it becomes a language habit, and used without much thought about the implications. Once one pronounces such a term, it tends to lock the speaker into a social commitment, and switching back to another term can give the feeling of losing face with one’s peers.
The term serious game is a misnomer and is riddled with problems and impossible paradoxes. A preferred term is learning game or educational game—or simply game, in the way that we have been using it conveniently and widely, for decades, among gamers as an informal short-hand term for simulation/game/role-play/etc.
Also, in the way that many language fashions tend to come about, use of the term in France seems to have gripped people unawares, and they will use it ‘unthinkingly’ in English while speaking French. Of course, they sometimes use the French version ‘jeu sérieux’, which - in my ears - sounds even stranger. Go to an international meeting like ISAGA and you will hardly hear it.
In addition, your own website about ClimarisQ does not use the term; you use only the term ‘game’. So, why use it erroneously in your article and detract from your excellent game? [Moreover, you use a slightly clumsy phrase “experiences with climate serious games have shown” (l.129), when it is more natural to say ‘serious climate games’.] I could say more here, but do not wish to belabour the point.
Debriefing. You will have noticed that the above ref’d chapter is all about debriefing. May I suggest that you skim read it only. The basic idea is that all simulation/games need to be debriefed, even game apps like ClimarisQ. Take a look at the references in my chapter, and you will see how widespread it is. For an overview, see my slides here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/391836828_Debriefing_keynote_Experiential_Learning_Congress_Katowice_March_2025
Also, see page 152 of the chapter. If you make any changes to ClimarisQ, I suggest that you work on a on-line debriefing protocol, so that players move directly into a debriefing when the game ends. Even better would be to have one or two mini in-game debriefs during brief pauses in play. In any case, I think that you would do well to explain the lack of debriefing; you could, for example, say that this will be accomplished in the next stage of development of your game.
Fun. In line 172, you mention fun. This is another trap that many fall into. It is not so much fun as engagement that pulls people into a game. See Whitton and others on this, and see pp 124 & 125 in the above chapter. If we wish to promote our games as effective methods to achieving climate literacy, we must be careful not to trivialize them and to be realistic about what it is in them that promotes learning.
Stats. In Fig 5, why use two different graphic types? You say, l.197, that a ‘large majority’ and then say 35%; do you not mean large minority? Maybe I am missing something?
I wonder if you tried teasing out how different types of participants (players) experienced the game, e.g., was it possible to detect any significant differences between women and men, or among age groups, or education level, or political persuasion? Here you would probably have to use non-parametric stats. In any caser, things like that would be of interest, especially as they are part of the landscape of climate communication and education.
Learn about. I see that respondents are reported as saying that they “learned about X”. Be careful not to interpret that as that they learned X. Many self-report studies tend to assume that respondents have actually learned, when they are simply reporting the impression of. To know if something was learned, one would have to conduct a far more elaborate studies, for example, using pre- and post- tests and even control groups.
Abbreviations. Do not use abbreviations, like “most didn’t” – that is a no no in academic writing.
Comma before ‘but’.
Avoid there is/are. For example, instead of “even if one tries to do the right thing environmentally, there are economic and political constraints that can hinder success”, you can write more simply and elegantly ‘even if one tries to do the right thing environmentally, economic and political constraints that can hinder success’
Refs. Your ref to Kwok 2019 does not seem to exist. If you have it, I would very much appreciate your sending it to me. However, maybe you mean Kwok, R. (2019). Can climate change games boost public understanding? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(16), Article 16. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1903508116
I had better stop there before this gets too long. Good luck with the review process. I hope that it gets through and is published, especially if you can ‘fix’ the main things, such as debriefing and terminology.
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2222-CC1 -
AC1: 'Reply on CC1', Davide Faranda, 19 Aug 2025
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We would like to warmly thank David Crookall for his thoughtful and constructive commentary on our manuscript ClimarisQ (ms 2025-2222). Although this is not part of the formal review process, we value such contributions from the community, as they allow us to reflect, improve, and situate our work more effectively within the wider field of game-based learning and climate communication. We will take all the points raised very seriously in preparing the next version of the manuscript.
On the issue of terminology, we are grateful for your detailed remarks. We now realize that the term serious game is more problematic than we had appreciated, and we are sorry we were not fully aware of this debate when drafting the manuscript. In light of your comments, and of the literature you point us to, we will revise the terminology in the next version of the article. Where possible, we will avoid the expression altogether and instead use clearer terms such as educational game or learning game, while also acknowledging how different communities (particularly in France, as you mention) have adopted “jeu sérieux.”
With respect to debriefing, we completely agree on its importance as an integral part of the learning process. The current version of ClimarisQ does not include a structured debriefing protocol. This omission is not because we underestimate its value, but because of very concrete resource limitations: the game was developed on a very small budget, and we did what we could within those constraints. As you suggest, developing an online debriefing module—or even short in-game debriefs—would be a natural next step, and we will state this explicitly in the revised manuscript. We will also cite your chapter and related work to highlight how debriefing practices could be integrated in future versions of the game, should funding permit.
On the question of fun versus engagement, we accept your point that engagement is the more precise concept for understanding the pedagogical effect of games, and we will adjust our phrasing accordingly to avoid trivializing the learning experience.
Concerning statistics and self-reported learning, we take note of the ambiguities in wording (e.g. “large majority” vs. 35%) and will correct these. We will also clarify that what we measured is the perception of learning, not actual knowledge gain, and that more robust methodologies (pre/post testing, control groups) would be required to substantiate claims about actual learning outcomes.
We will also address your very helpful observations on style and academic writing, including avoiding abbreviations, revising clumsy constructions, and correcting language such as “there is/are.”
Finally, we acknowledge the error in our reference list: as you correctly suggest, the proper citation is:
Kwok, R. (2019). Can climate change games boost public understanding? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(16), Article 16. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1903508116.
We are grateful for your catching this and will correct it in the revised manuscript.
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2222-AC1 -
CC2: 'Reply on AC1', David Crookall, 19 Aug 2025
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Thank you for your swift response. This is a quick note to note that your AC2 is a repeat of your AC1. I am not sure if you are able to delete it. If not, let me know and I will ask Copernicus.
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2222-CC2
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CC2: 'Reply on AC1', David Crookall, 19 Aug 2025
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AC2: 'Reply on CC1', Davide Faranda, 19 Aug 2025
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Publisher’s note: this comment is a copy of AC1 and its content was therefore removed on 20 August 2025.
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2222-AC2
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AC1: 'Reply on CC1', Davide Faranda, 19 Aug 2025
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