New Facebook game helps save gorillas

Following on from our previous blog about how 'The Rise of the Planet of the Apes' could be a huge benefit to the conservation of endangered primates, here is a bit of a follow up, which looks to promote how a game on Facebook is looking to protect gorillas. It will be really interesting to see how conservation groups develop social media to help with their work in the future.
The trend for social networking games with positive real world environmental impacts continues with the recently released gorilla saving game My Conservation Park.

Despite being released by developer Good World Games in early June, the new Facebook game only began attracting media buzz in early August after blog post by the developers.

The real world benefits of the game come in game purchases, 15 percent of which the developers pledge to donate to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, WildAid and three more undisclosed conservation organizations to help preserve a variety of wildlife - principally gorillas.

The game revolves around players trying to protect an endangered animal from environmental and human threats while at the same time adding native flora and fauna to the area in an effort to create a sustainable habitat.

The development of social networking games with positive real world environmental benefits is a growing trend, other examples of which include eMission, in which players have to maintain a costal habitat, gaining in-game rewards for real world environmental actions, and Ecotopia, the developers of which recently pledged to plant 25,000 trees in Brazil if players did the same in the game.

Conservation Park - http://www.facebook.com/myconservationparkfans

eMission - http://apps.facebook.com/emissiongame/

ecotopia - http://www.facebook.com/ecotopia.beta