FACEBOOK is not just a place for social networking.
Aboitiz Power, one of the country’s biggest power firms, launched a Facebook application promoting environmental awareness last February 25.
Aptly called “Alter Space,” the game’s goal was to reduce one’s carbon footprint by doing tasks such as recycling and conserving n electricity.
The main concept of Alter Space is for players to take care of their own little planet. They need to balance their Happiness, Current-cy (the game’s term for money) and carbon footprint (CF) levels while accomplishing tasks.
The real challenge for the players though is keeping their CF percentage low throughout the game, lest they encounter “disasters” that will harm their planet. That is the reason why every player’s decision is tantamount to a catastrophe or success.
“The game is an innovative, powerful, and fun tool informing the public about protecting the environment,” said Alodia Gosengfiao, cosplayer and tv personality, and one of the game’s endorsers.
“40 percent of energy is renewable,” said Erramon Aboitiz, CEO of Aboitiz Power. “We must harness this energy for the environment.”
Aboitiz said the game was created to ‘inject’ further environmental awareness among Filipinos, especially the youth.
“We want to generate environmental awareness among the populace,” he said.
According to one of the game developers, James Ho of Indigo Games, the Facebook game was a ‘labor of love.’
“It took us 5 months to develop the game,” Ho said. “When Aboitiz Power approached me, I instantly took the opportunity to create such a game.”
The unique hook of the Alter Space is the fact that it has a total environmental theme when one starts playing the game.
Alter Space is the first Filipino made Facebook application with an environmental theme. The first locally-made Facebook application was Wordtrotter.
An estimated 18 million Filipinos are Facebook users. Antonio Ramon H. Royandoyan
