Eco-Friendly Gaming:
What the hell does eco-friendly gaming mean? For a little bit of a framing reference, there’s a whole lot of gaming out there that is not eco-friendly. While I absolutely love to play board games and have an entire closet full of them, I will be the first to admit that they are one option for gaming that is far from environmentally friendly. The average weight of BoardGameGeek’s top 100 board games is over 2 pounds or almost 1 kilogram each. Some games weigh in at a staggering 20 pounds or 9 kilograms apiece. In almost all these cases, that weight is coming entirely from large amounts of paper, cardboard, and plastic. While there certainly are some board games out there that tout the fact that they are constructed using recycled components, this still does not discount the energy that’s utilized to manufacture their components and the energy that’s expended shipping them across the world. It’s not common practice to think about the ecological impact that shipping games across the world can have. This comes into play with murder mystery games as well. Murder mystery box games are usually made utilizing an absurd amount of paper and cardboard. Also, unlike online games from Dastardly Deeds Murder Mysteries, they must be shipped across the world, creating a massive carbon footprint. Murder mystery box games are one of the most wasteful culprits out of any type of board game on the planet. Not only do they need to be shipped across the globe and not only do they usually use a ton of paper products, but most of them are one use only. This means that unlike your standard board game that you purchase, and you can play multiple times in the future, murder mystery box games are one-time use only and one of the most environmentally unfriendly games anyone can participate in. With prices up to $100, this style of one-hit-wonder gaming is not economical or ecologically practical.
Please Recycle.
Ohhhhhhh Yeahhhhh!
Ditching Murder Mystery Box Games:
Thanks to the amazing potentials of online gaming and multiple video platforms now being offered for free, it’s never been a better time to ditch murder mystery box games. All Dastardly Deeds online murder mystery games are intended to be played at home either utilizing a cell phone or a computer. This doesn’t negate the fact that your electronic device may well be powered from coal or fracking, but it can be argued that the environmental impact is still significantly less than shipping out physical products across the world. New online murder mystery games prove that everyone can still have a fun time and help save the environment in the process. Ditching murder mystery box games has never been easier.
Eco-Friendly In-Person Murder Mysteries:
Things become a lot more complicated when you’re trying to play eco-friendly in-person murder mysteries (I’m condoning in-person games for the time being). While it is the intention for several components of in-person Dastardly Deeds Murder Mysteries game to be printed for players, we’ve tried to keep the amount of content printed to a minimum. It’s not necessary to print any components to successfully play an in-person Dastardly Deeds game. If all players all have access to a mobile device, they can simply access the appropriate information from there. Our innately eco-friendly murder mystery games utilize single pieces of paper for all the information related to a character including abilities, items, background info, and goals. That means for an in-person murder mystery at most you will be using one piece of paper for each of your players. The rest of their information can be easily accessed via mobile devices. Not only is this style of in-person gaming much more environmentally friendly, but it also is significantly easier than what most other murder mystery games entail. All the other games we’ve played in the past from other companies involve cutting out multiple pieces of paper and sorting through slews of different items. This is followed by the arduous task of putting them either into envelopes or using paper clips to try to keep them together for your players. Dastardly Deeds Murder Mysteries’ new single-sheet form for characters makes this a thing of the past. Now it’s easy for players to carry around all their items, abilities, goals, and background info in one unified location that is not only easy to use but surprisingly economic.
Is there anything more holistic than recycling human flesh?
Other Environmentally Unfriendly Murder Mystery Games:
There certainly are other styles of murder mystery games that have gained popularity lately. Some of these games entail mailing in physical items and pages into certain locations to receive clues, which are then either sent out physically or online. While this certainly is an amusing prospect, it’s extremely environmentally unfriendly. In the U.S., the last thing our postal service needs right now is a bunch of people mailing back and forth murder mystery clues. This new gaming style of murder mystery seems to be gaining popularity and is one of the most environmentally unfriendly styles of gameplay ever conceived of. Physically mailing objects back and forth is not only a burden on the system but it’s an incredible waste of resources when we have the technology to utilize things like video chat, voice chat, text chat, phone calls, text messaging, and email. Simply put, we’ve entered a day and age where there’s no reason not to utilize technology to the fullest.
Not only does technology make it extremely easy for everyone to get together and still party online, but it also has other random unforeseen benefits. In all our past in-person murder mysteries, one of the biggest conundrums was making sure that everyone got home safe after a night of inevitable heavy drinking. With the rise in popularity of online murder mystery games from Dastardly Deeds games, this no longer is an issue. I know that I, along with many of my friends, have spent many a lovely evening wearing pajamas and a costume from the waist up sitting on my couch drinking shot after shot of gin. All right, maybe I was the only one drinking gin. But that’s fine, no one needs to be judged when they’re drinking booze in their own house and playing games online, right? Not to get all preachy and say, “think of the dolphins” or something like that, but think about how much less pollution we’re creating not driving all over the state to play games in person.
Playing online games is not only eco-friendly, but a whole lot of fun!
Overall:
Overall, I’m not saying you should throw away all your amazing board games because they’re not environmentally friendly, I’m just saying the next time you decide to play a murder mystery game think about the impact it might have. When you purchase an online game from Dastardly Deeds Murder Mysteries, you can rest assured that the only resources being utilized for their production are alcohol and electricity. Even when it is safe to start playing large party games in person again, Dastardly Deeds will endeavor to make sure that all of our games have the smallest footprint possible if you chose to print any of the components. By intentionally going into murder mysteries with a minimalist viewpoint, not only does it make them much easier to access for new players, but it also alleviates a little bit of burden on the environment as well. So next time you’re thinking about printing out that hundred-page murder mystery, ordering that murder mystery box game, or mailing in for the next murder mystery fad, think instead about Dastardly Deeds. Find a game that will be equally as fun, just as user friendly, and worlds better for the environment.
