Making pest management research accessible via computer games
Researchers in all fields of science are increasingly using complex computer models to manipulate very large quantities of data to mimic the real world and assess the consequences of various actions. One characteristic of such models is that they provide a vastly cheaper and faster way of finding the best course of action to solve a problem compared with working in the real world. This is because models have the ability to try multiple strategies simultaneously, and start again from scratch if the selected strategy fails. Pest management to protect New Zealand’s biodiversity is a great example of this approach: trying out a range of control strategies ad hoc would not only have serious social, political and economic costs, but could take decades to find out which strategy was the best, by which time the ecosystem itself would have changed.
However, there is little point in researching new pest management technologies and strategies if the public won’t accept them. Pen Holland and Bruce Warburton and colleagues at the HITLabNZ (Human Interface Technology Laboratory, University of Canterbury), in conjunction with Driedfrog, a game development company, have come up with a new way of making the science of pest management available so that anyone can engage with the problem and understand the consequences of invasive pests on forest health. Ora – Save the Forest! is an online, fun-filled ecosystem adventure game based on real-life data and forest-pest-management models.
Are you ready to play?
If Ora sounds too serious for you, then there is Possum Stomp!, a less serious alternative. This mini-game is unlocked when the Ora storage facility explodes with possum pressure, but as it is so much fun to play, the research team decided to release it as a mobile app on iPhone, iPad and Android.
Possum Stomp!
Stompy the Kiwi is peacefully guarding his nest when marauding zombie possums come out of the forest and try to steal his eggs. The zombies represent invasive pests throughout New Zealand, and they are mercilessly rampaging towards a nest of eggs, representing native biodiversity under attack. Players must help Stompystomp through multiple waves of zombies on three levels of attack, by day and by night. Successful stomping activates ‘power-ups’ like the Slow Bomb (lathering zombies in icy-cold goo, slowing them down so that Stompy can squash them flat), or the rain of Decoy Eggs (craved so badly by the oncoming zombies that they forget about the real nest). A big one-footed stomp wipes out all zombies in close range (local eradication), but the ultimate weapon is a two-footed MEGA STOMP – large-scale eradication that gets players one step closer to an epic win. Possum Stomp is now available via playora.net/possumstomp.
Citizen science and crowdsourcing – the serious side of fun
By going to playora.net, you can read more about both Ora and Possum Stomp, follow developments as they happen, and sign up to take part in user tests and be notified when the first release of Ora is available.
Pen Holland, Bruce Warburton
Hazel Bradshaw (HITLabNZ/Driedfrog)