Feature

10 Weeks To Save The Games Industry – Week 3

Matchmade CEO Jiri Kupiainen and GamesForest.Club's Maria Wagner's quest continues

10 Weeks To Save The Games Industry – Week 3

The 10 Weeks To Save The Games Industry campaign continues. Matchmade CEO Jiri Kupiainen and GamesForest.Club's Maria Wagner are sustainably travelling around Europe spreading the message to games makers and communities that we all need to get serious about what we can all do to help save the planet.

The message is a simple one. Unless we all get smarter about the necessity and logistics of our business travel, the global turnaround in CO2 production that we're all praying for simply isn't going to happen.

The duo are now three weeks into their campaign and each week they'll be reporting into PG.biz and sharing a new video on their YouTube. Here's the latest episode (with a video below). Get part one here and part two here and be sure to subscribe to their YouTube here and keep up with their journey.


 

Jiri Kupiainen: I’m writing this in a coffee shop in Barcelona, and had to check how many days we’ve now been on the road, which means my brain has definitely switched into travel mode. It’s day 20 of 70, for anyone keeping count.

The second part of our London episode went live earlier today, and even though the editing and camerawork leave a lot to be desired, I’m really happy about the content. It’s an honor to have industry giants like Hilmar of CCP and María of ustwo talk openly about everything from gender and representation to love and friendship, and especially about how it all relates to video games and our industry’s responsibility in shaping the world to come. These interviews gave me a lot to think about, and I hope they will do the same for people watching this episode.

Getting from Paris to Barcelona unfortunately didn’t give us many anecdotes about how easy, convenient and affordable sustainable business travel in Europe is. Complicated connections, mandatory reservations that were impossible to make, and cancelations due to a strike were all part of our journey here.

The trains themselves are fast and comfortable… if you manage to get on them, but we still have a long way to go when it comes to the convenience and reliability of booking these journeys. In the end we had to switch to a bus to get from southern France to Barcelona, but at least this was a positive surprise in terms of how comfortable long distances buses nowadays are!

Enthusiasm to participate in our project seems to vary widely depending on where we go. In London we had no trouble finding interesting people to interview, but in France and Spain it feels people generally have other things they’d rather be doing. Our next big destination after Barcelona is Lisbon, and at least the games community there has been really enthusiastic about talking with us.

As a former San Franciscan, I’m of course curious to see if the rumors about Lisbon turning into San Francisco 2.0 are true, and what that means in practice. More next week!


Editor - PocketGamer.biz

Daniel Griffiths is a veteran journalist who has worked on some of the biggest entertainment media brands in the world. He's interviewed countless big names, and covered countless new releases in the fields of videogames, music, movies, tech, gadgets, home improvement, self build, interiors and garden design. Yup, he said garden design… He’s the ex-Editor of PSM2, PSM3, GamesMaster and Future Music, ex-Deputy Editor of The Official PlayStation Magazine and ex-Group Editor-in-Chief of Electronic Musician, Guitarist, Guitar World, Rhythm, Computer Music and more. He hates talking about himself.