J.T. Burns, Jessica Holdman, Farrah Pappa

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Burns, Holdman, Pappa

RJI noozYou Project

J.T. Burns, Jessica Holdman, Farrah Pappa

“Newsgames” by Ian Bogost is the main published work on the topic of game-type news. According to Bogost newsgames are games that simulate how things work by constructing models that people can interact with. They are mostly based on current events and use text images, sounds and video to engage players.

Within “Newsgames” Bogost outlines eight basic types of newsgames: editorial games, tabloid games, reportage games, infographic games, documentary games, puzzle games and literacy games.

Bogost describes editorial games as the videogame equivalent of columns and editorial cartoons, conveying an opinion with the goal of persuading players to agree with embedded biases.

Tabloid gamesoffer a cruder form of opinion and are often a playable version of soft news such as celebrity news, sports or political gossip.

Reportage games fall in between tabloid and editorial. They don’t want to persuade; they want to educate. They are usually released while an issue is still current and therefore are less in depth than documentary games.

Infographic games visually represent data just like a regular infographic, but they have some kind of interactive feature that makes them game-like.

Documentary games engage players in broader historical and current events in a manner similar to documentary photography, films and investigative reporting. They tell a story but often have some kind of interactive element to go along with it.

Puzzle games can be classified as digital adaptations of traditional news puzzles and quizzes.

Literacy games are made to offer a direct or indirect education in how to become

a good journalist or understanding why journalism is important to citizens and their communities.

Finally, community games are meant to create and nurture local populations. They create games wholly or partly in the real world rather than just in front of the screen.

After reading “Newsgames” we created our own database containing all news based games we could find. We used some of Bogost’s categories as well as creating our own. No news value judgments were made on these games except for the games under Bogost’s tabloid classification. These games were excluded because often they were purely for entertainment purposes and did not add to a player’s understanding of news stories.

We categorized games by publishing date to show how relevant a game was, taking into account how opinions and available information has changed over time.

The player number category was important because we had found interaction with other players within a game affects the understanding of a topic.

We categorized by medium/platform to see if newsgames/storygames were trying to cater to a specific operating system’s users, if they cost money to play, or if they’re free and available to everyone. Many of the games were created in Flash and therefore were not available for iOS. The majority of the games were free of cost, housed online and supported by numerous browsers.

The topic category showed similarities in types of game topics and also aided us in determining what types of topics work best as newsgames/storygames.

We also categorized by game type, combining our own game types with some of the Bogost game types: role-playing, strategy, interactive infographic, quiz, puzzle, documentary, arcade, simulation and FPS (first person shooter). Categorizing be game type gave us an idea of what types of games worked best and what was already out there.

We described role-playinggames as taking on the identity of a specific character, such as President Barack Obama, during game play. This differs from our simulation category in that simulation games allow you to play as yourself acting in a specific role such as reporter or doctor.

In strategy games players have to use strategy to meet a goal. They are often given multiple choices and must make the right series of choices to meet their goal. The FPS differsfrom the strategy category in the sense that the player is in charge of defeating something, whether it is a “bad guy,” poverty or a disease.

The quiz category encompassed all games in which players answered questions presented in quiz format.

Arcade type games were classic arcade type games with a news element attached.

The puzzle, documentary, interactive infographic and reportage categories were from “Newsgames.”

Producer type was divided into three categories: advocacy group, news outlet and other. This category was meant to give database users an idea of who created the games and alert them to potential biases.

Story type was divided by overarching issue and single event.This category was meant to give us an idea of what kind of situations could be covered in newsgames/storygames.

We also attended Game Salons hosted by our client, Anne Derryberry. These salons were a helpful source of feedback from students who attended. Examples of what was discussed in game salons included: intro to noozYou, movement games, quiz games, role-playing games, South by Southwest and noozYou focus group.

In the movement games game salon we played Wii and then discussed what movement adds to games. We also discussed possibilities for movement in newsgames, like a game that would allow you to be a prisoner physically walking through Guantanamo Bay and interacting with other characters.

In the quiz games game salon we played several quiz games and came up with

group favorites. The favorites included interactive elements, were a timed race against

clock, they were multiplayer with the option play against your friends and they had news value with regular updates.

In the South by Southwest game salon attendees discussed what they took away from the conference. Anne Derryberry took the opportunity to drive home the topic of games being a future component of journalism, something that she said was a dominant theme at the conference.

From our research we drew the following conclusions:

• There is an interest in news-type games and there are many groups already experimenting with the concept of news told through games.
• We only found one group (Play the News) that tried to function as a game-based newsroom. Most of the games produced were one-time projects by a group.
• Most of the newsgames/storygames we found fit into our role-playing category followed by quiz games.
• Most of the newsgames/storygames we found were used as deep dives into a complex, overarching issue.
• Some of the newsgames/storygames blurred the lines between games and news.

Using the data accumulated from the game salons allowed the group to decide on which games would be appropriate, engaging, and interesting for our audience. Prior to the game salons, the group read Newsgames by Ian Bogost to grasp the concept of what creating a newsgame entails. After reading the book, we created our own categories of newsgames, which included: world, U.S., business/technology, health/science, education, and life. As a group we narrowed down which type of stories we were going to focus on and promote for our site. We derived a list of characteristics that each newsgame should include; an open ended story that has not concluded with a resolution that is not known, a lifespan that will allow the story to stay open for at least one week, a reach that appeals to a broad audience, and characteristics suitable to the story telling format of playing the news. After figuring out the necessary components needed for our newsgames, we were trained on how to use the content management system. Eric Brown of Impact Games trained the group and Anne via Adobe Connect on how to navigate through the system and the terminology used throughout it. We later received a large manual from Impact Games that went into more depth on the process of creating a game.

The content management system is broken up into seven sections that our script revolves around. The seven sections are: intro video, inciting incident, background, roles, actions, advisors, and feedback. The intro video is taken from a video database provided to us by Newsy.com. This is the Intro Video.

The Inciting Incident page provides a brief background of the inciting incident. This gives the players a basic understanding of the situation. The inciting incident forms a question(s) that the players will have to answer. This question(s) allows the whole game to take form. For example, when states started to propose ideas of a fat tax because of the obesity epidemic it sparked several questions. Will these states pass legislation taxing fatty foods and if so what does that tax entail?

This is the Incident page that provides an enticing headline and summary to prepare players for the game.

The Background page has an interactive graphic that contains many green question marks that the player can roll over to learn more background information. In the case of the fat tax story, the player can roll over the question marks placed on each state to learn about that particular state’s proposed legislation.

When a green question mark is clicked a small window pops up providing additional information. In this case, the state of California was clicked and their proposed fat tax popped up.

Also on the background page are Factors that are placed on the bottom panel of the screen. The factors provide explanations for why this problem or situation could be occurring.

A window pops up when the player rolls the mouse of over a factors thumbnail.

For example, in the fat tax game a player should be able to understand the factors that play a role in why the United States is undergoing an obesity crisis. Some of the factors include lifestyle choices, socioeconomic class/race, accessibility/transportation, and many more.

Once a player has read the factors they can click the move on button to proceed to the roles page. The roles page provides the player will the different protagonists they can play in the game. Some games have only one protagonist and others have multiple protagonists. In the case of the fat tax game, there are three protagonists because there are three states with pending legislation that will be voted on.

The player will choose a role by clicking on one of the following thumbnails and proceed to the Actions page.

Before entering the Actions page the player will be prompted with a question. In the case of the fat tax story, if the player clicks on the role of California they will be asked, “What should California government do?” They will need to click on “What should happen” to make their own prediction on the actions page.

The Actions page provides the player with the potential decisions the protagonist can make.

These are the actions the player can chose from.

If a player is unsure of which action to they can roll over the Advisors located at the bottom panel of the page. The advisors provide advice from different public figures, organizations, professionals, experts, and experiments.

Once a player has decided on an action to take they will be taken to the Feedback page. The feedback page provides the player with probability of that action actually occurring. It also provides the player with a small graph that shows the top popular opinions of other players.

Once the player has reviewed their feedback they can click the next button and play as the other protagonists. Or play as the same protagonist and change their action.

Each newsgame has many different components (as expressed above), which made the experience of producing newsgames a trial and error process. In the beginning stages of our production, Anne decided our goal for the semester should be to create seven newsgames. This seemed appropriate since we were still learning how to use the content management system. Our first game we created was an Oscar’s game, a game that did not necessary meet all our new story criteria but allowed us to familiarize ourselves with the system. As a group, we decided to divide the work up by the different sections in the content management system. This allowed us to get the game done faster and meet our deadline. Since we were able to meet our deadline Anne decided that each of us should create his or her own game. Anne felt that our group was beginning to get a good grip on the mechanics of the system and decided that we should challenge ourselves. Our new goal was to produce three newsgames to be published every Friday morning.

Anne developed a workflow process for the group so that we could efficiently meet our goal. On Monday we were to bring three newsgame ideas to pitch for our 11am pitch meeting. These newsgame ideas had to meet the criteria listed above in ordered to be approved by Anne. Once one our newsgame ideas were approved, we had until 7pm that night to submit a detailed outline of our story. Anne would then provide feedback that same evening on our outlines.

On Tuesday, we were to review the feedback on our outlines, check for any story turns, and modify accordingly. Our next step was to produce the incident and background page by midnight and submit it for Anne’s review. The script had to include researched information for all the different sections in the content management system.

On Wednesday, we were to review the feedback of our script, check for any story turns, and modify accordingly. Our next task was to produce the actions, advisors, and feedback pages. These were to be submitted by midnight for Anne to review and approve.

On Thursday, we were to review our updated script, and gather media assets for the newsgame. Media assets could include graphics from creative commons or other news stations, videos from Newsy’s video database, and photos that we gather/create for each section. The intro video Anne approved was to be converted to an .flv file using Adobe Media Encoder. Our final task was to input all the research information, graphics, and video we collected into the content management system. We were to check for any typos, grammatical errors, and integrity issues. All the information, photos, and videos that were used from other sources were to be cited appropriately. The game had to be submitted by 7pm that evening for Anne’s review. Once submitted, we were to email Kaikang a photo that would serve as a thumbnail for the game on our website, the title of the game, and the tantalizing question.

On Friday, we were to review any feedback that Anne had for our newsgames and check for any story turns before the editorial review meeting at 230pm. Once Anne approved the story during her final review it was published that evening and ready to play. After publication the group was to continue to monitor their games through

Google alerts. If the situation resolved or concluded then we were to notify Anne and compose close out material within twelve hours. Close out material includes a brief summary of how the issue resolved/concluded, a video that corresponds with the summary, and photos. After collecting the close out materials, it is to be submitted for Anne’s review. Anne will provide feedback, corrections will be made, and the game will close out. A closed game is a game that is no longer open because the inciting incident has concluded.

Producing games was not an easy process posed several challenges to the group. Group members were to understand complex issues quickly and be able to develop a script in a short period of time. One person working on a multifaceted story is time consuming. Quite frequently, the games would close out before the end of the week and the heavily researched script was thrown out. The content management system provides a word count for each section so that the content can fix within the windows. This hindered creativity, and restricted the amount of research group members could utilize. Condensing down a dense script posed as a problem every week. Graphics were also an issue because none of the group members had much experience with graphics.

After reflecting on our observations and challenges with this project we composed a list of suggestions that would allow a newsroom to implement newsgames as a new medium. A bigger team size would be necessary in order to improve the quality of the information and graphics in the game. We created four designated roles that focus on specific sections of the workflow process. The roles are researcher, editor, graphics producer, and producer. Multiply staff members in the newsroom could hold these positions in order to make the process more efficient and objective. The researcher would do all the preliminary research on the topic and compose the content for each section. The editor would edit the text for each section and make sure sources were attributed. The graphics producer would produce interactive graphics for the background page and other sections. These graphics would help the player better understand the story. The producer makes a final edit of all the content and inputs it into the content management system to be published.