Ejercicio 1.2 · Inglés PAU Aragón Ordinaria 2026

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HOW VIDEO GAMES CAN INSPIRE A GREEN NEW WORLD

In September 2014, over 300,000 people packed the streets of New York for the People’s Climate March. One of the demonstration’s leaders, Sam Barratt, has cofounded Playing for the Planet, an initiative that aims to inspire environmental change in and through the video game industry. Barratt described video games as a precious medium, one that is so social and goal-oriented that it can raise awareness more successfully than movies, music, or even social media platforms.

Barratt sees video games as a perfect forum for climate discourse because they can engage large crowds in new kinds of conversations. Playing for the Planet has organised four “green game jams”, remote workshops in which game companies discuss sustainable themes and design gameplay mechanics. These efforts ultimately rest on the idea that the medium might help create a new generation of ecologically minded citizens.

Along with these top-down initiatives, players themselves have proven more than capable of playing “sustainably” and “eco-critically”, particularly within open-world games based on free exploration. The genre often employs natural landscapes which facilitate extensive player choice. Michelle Westerlaken, a researcher at the University of Cambridge, decided to play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as a vegan, avoiding the use of animal products. As part of a discussion about the topic on Reddit, she explained that she was able to follow the rules of veganism more strictly than in the actual world. Even though gaming is so often thought of as a lonely experience, a new kind of conversation was being created.

Games give players the chance to try new roles. For Nicholas Lund, the open-world Western called Red Dead Redemption 2 offered a space in which to express his real-life passion for birds. He exchanged physical binoculars for virtual ones, making the game’s protagonist pass the time birdwatching. This was the perfect game to do so, overflowing with so much wildlife that researchers say it improves knowledge of natural phenomena. “I really felt that I was transported to a place where the world was different”, Lund said. “We don’t feel the presence of nature like that anymore”.

These video games and their stories are spaces of possibility that ask us to experiment and act, all while encouraging a healthy, and perhaps underrated, sense of adventure. Such qualities are vital as we collectively consider what it means to live through devastating environmental change and imagine a greener world.

(Adapted from “From pixels to politics”, Atmos)

1.2. (2.4 points). Choose THREE of the following questions and answer them according to the information given in the text. Use your own words.

Each answer will be awarded 0.8 points. Provide only the number of answers requested; if you don't, only the first three answers you give will be corrected. The aim of this exercise is to evaluate both comprehension (up to 0.5 points) and linguistic accuracy (up to 0.3 points); in other words, the ability to communicate information inferred from the reading. Therefore, the literal reproduction of expressions from the text should be avoided. Points will be deducted if the response is incomplete or includes information that does not appear in the text.

1.2.1.

What is the purpose of a "green game jam"?

1.2.2.

What does Michelle Westerlaken's experience suggest about video games as spaces for experimentation?

1.2.3.

How did Red Dead Redemption 2 allow Nicholas Lund to express his interest in nature?

1.2.4.

Why are video games important when thinking about environmental change?