Let’s think this through...

The environment has its fans (6.6 billion and counting) and flash-based games have their fans. Obviously, as a big oil producer hip to the ways of the Internet, one way to tackle that image problem is to make an eco-themed browser game.

Genius!

Susan Kuchinskas over at InternetNews takes a look at Chevron’s SimCity-esque Web game, Energyville. It’s a slick production by any measure, but it’s also got a message.

The Economist Group, publisher of The Economist and CFO magazines, developed Energyville, which is its latest entry in Chevron's "Will You Join Us" public information campaign launched in 2005. The campaign includes the Web site, television and print commercials. "It's part of a coherent communications platform we're using to try to engage people broadly and around the world about energy issues," said Chevron spokesman Alex Yelland.

Players hoping to build a green utopia will be disappointed. Plop down one too many windfarms, solar arrays or nuclear power plants, and you’re admonished for letting gas tanks go dry. What, no plug-in hybrids?

One can't help but walk away from the little pastime feeling that the deck is a bit stacked. Not so, says Chevron.

Yelland said that the Economist Group was given a free hand to develop the game, with no bias for or against the various energy sources. The Economist Group based the game on independent data from around 100 different global organizations, including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the International Energy Agency, the Electric Power Research Institute and the Energy Information Administration.

In any case, the “game” is not exactly fun or terribly enlightening if you’ve been following the scene. Still, be sure to read the rest of the article for other advocacy projects that have taken a similar tack, though for different causes.