What are some
examples of gaming used in news narratives? What potential does this and other
emergent genres have for the future of news and public engagement?
Emma Spencer
Key
Points
1.
Video
games like Sweatshop allow players to understand a situation in which they
wouldn’t have had the same emotional connection to otherwise.
2.
Video
games offer an exciting new platform for news because of the way they engage
their audience and appeal to the younger generations.
Sweatshop
(and other examples of social impact games)
-In this game you play a floor manager of
a sweat shop, and have to fulfill orders by selecting workers to make the goods
etc. You have the choice of adult and child workers, as the game continues you
are forced to choose the child workers for profitability. Workers also die from
dehydration and lose their limbs. As you play child workers pop up on the
bottom of the screen begging for descent treatment.
-Betsey Morais from the New Yorker played
this game and described the elements above. She also said “The longer I played, the more each moving
part—workers, children, hats—became abstracted into the image of one big
machine.”
-Betsey
reflected that the ability to both identify with the character you are playing
as well as being aware of yourself as a player has a profound impact on players
of the game.
-Other
examples of games;
Budget Hero, a game in which the player has to build a federal budget that must
stay balanced for 30 years, the game includes up to date financial data.
Gauging your Distraction, in which players must perform tasks driving as well
as send messages to a friend.
Why are Newsgames Important?
- Newsgames create a meaningful, memorable
experience in which you engage in complex stories with strong emotional ties,
says Sisi Wei of ProPublica
- Allows the viewer to generate strong
understanding through emotional involvement.
-Sisi also argues that these games can be
almost as easy to make as a news infographic, “Technologically speaking, HeartSaver was just a few files of
HTML, CSS, Javascript, some custom icons made in Illustrator, and free sound
files off the Internet. Coming up with the concept and designing the game was
the harder part.”
Discussion
Questions
1.
Do
you think the younger generation is really more likely to play these games than
other games they have access to? And are they targeted towards people too young
for the content being delivered?
2.
How
do you think these games can be more easily accessible and known about?
References
Morais, B. “Anthropological Video Games”. The New Yorker. December 7, 2012.
Wei, S. “Creating Games for Journalism”. ProPublica. July 11, 2013.
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