Games create intimate relationships between player and place in a way that no other medium can replicate. Suddenly changing a digital environment can have a huge emotional impact which can not only Facilitate Grief for the World, but even Forge Emotional Bonds with Nature.

In its first level, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 sets an iconic example by introducing a lush, vibrant jungle environment for about one minute, before the game’s first mini-boss sets all of Angel Island Zone on fire.

Gibbon: Beyond the Trees makes that story the heart of the game, where the vibrant color palette of each level shifts the mood and creates empathy for the game’s simian avatars by making players feel what they feel. The forest changes from a welcoming green in the early levels to a painful red as the jungle gives way to a burning wasteland and endless oil palm plantations.

In the 2018 campaign The Last Tree Standing, Greenpeace Poland expertly utilized Investment in Specifics to build a 1:1 Minecraft replica of the primeval forest of Białowieża, which was threatened by logging. After getting players acquainted with the forest map, they introduced a version where the forest had been decimated save for a single tree, and tasked the streamer Gimper with finding it.