How a solar Minecraft server is changing the way we play video games

Video games have always been a showcase for new technologies. They help create new audiences and new markets. In the 1990s, computer parts manufacturers advertised the speed of their video cards in terms of the frames they could render per second of popular video games like Quake.

Developing and playing video games takes up a lot of computing power, but relatively little consideration is given to the rising cost to the environment. Big-budget video games come with big energy costs. Advanced graphics, immersive technology and artificial intelligence are consuming unprecedented amounts of power, locking the game industry and high-performance computing in a climate death spiral.

But video games can still help us imagine new ways to use new technologies, and great gaming does not have to be carbon intense.

At Concordia University's Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology, our research group - the Minecraft Bloc - is designing low-power, low-carbon Minecraft experiences that are still fun to play.

As the COP29 summit gets underway and zero-emissions goals seem further away than ever, we must find new pathways for people to imagine plausible low-carbon futures.

Minecraft is one of the most played video games on the planet. It's what is called a sandbox game. Players are able to navigate, build and alter their worlds in a variety of ways.

Despite its kid-friendly esthetics, the average age of Minecraft players is around 23. The carbon emissions related to any one gaming console or PC are minimal, but as an unchecked aggregate, the global long-term carbon cost of many millions of game hours starts to be significant.

In the Minecraft Bloc, we aren't just interested in making games with a message about energy transition. We want to make energy transition part of our games. Our group has been thinking about ways to get video game players to consider the systems that power their game worlds. We are asking this question: What happens when we put players into direct contact with the nuts and volts of computing?

SunBlock One is a solar-powered Minecraft server that lives on the roof of a downtown building at Concordia University in Montreal.

SunBlock One runs on an inexpensive mini-PC connected to a 12V 50Ah lithium ion battery powered by a 100 Watt solar panel. To make software development easier for ourselves and others, we use a Java-based Forge-modded version of Minecraft, which is supported by one of the largest game-modding communities in the world.

To connect our server's power system directly to the game world, we designed a simple data logger and in-game heads-up display (HUD). The HUD tells our players the real-time status of the battery, the power draw of the CPU and system, and the power being produced by the solar panel, along with details about the local time and weather in Montreal, all visible in real time. With a full battery charge from a sunny day, we can run SunBlock One on idle at very respectable 10-12 watts for nearly 48 hours.

This is already significantly less power than the average commercial Minecraft servers most players use, but we are not doing this to save energy. Instead, what we want to show is the direct relationship between playing video games and energy use.

One interesting discovery we made early is that flying in Minecraft consumes more power than walking. Minecraft players everywhere know that finding an Elytra (a set of wings for the player to use) is one of the great rewards of the game. In our world, though, too much flight will deplete the battery faster and shorten the uptime of the server.

This tradeoff becomes even more interesting in multiplayer games, where the actions of one player have serious consequences for the experiences of others. Will some players work out ways of co-ordinating their play to maximize energy efficiency and server uptime? Will others essentially drain power by flying around indiscriminately?

These are the same difficult questions we must ask ourselves as our societies move to deploy alternative energy technologies, then discover that there is no quick technological fix for the climate crisis.

The use of energy has always been a social problem related to equity and distribution, not just a technical one, but our ignorance of this crucial difference comes from our ability to take energy for granted.

The next part of the story could get interesting. Imagine a global network of Sunblock servers sharing a single game world powered across time zones, creating a solar-powered metaverse.

Imagine integrating client computers into our multiplayer server prompting players to compete with one another to create the lowest powered game system. Imagine a worldwide community of players turning carbon-neutral gaming into a cultural phenomenon, like carbon-intensive gaming is now, but with something urgent and real to gain.

SunBlock One matters because it allows players' experience of alternative energy infrastructure to be visible to them, while still being entertaining and playful. By making the systems that power the game part of the game itself, we point out the direct relationship between power usage and game play at the same time that we are opening up a whole new genre of gaming.