On a panel on “Journalism, Games, and Civic Engagement,” Asi Burak of Impact Games (Peacemaker) suggests the following tags for interactive media, which he distinguishes from “games”:<\/p>\n
Other possible terms: “Experiential storytelling,” “Interactive infographic”? One audience member points out that games usually have meaningful choice, a magic circle, a win state that some of these examples do not.<\/p>\n
I’m not sure I would put A Force More Powerful<\/em> in the “Advocacy” camp since its main focus is to teach strategy<\/strong> (not just demonstrate complexity), but as Asi points out, both that title and Peacemaker have a “bias for peace” built into the design. (In AFMP, demonstrations that go violent is a Bad Thing).<\/p>\n Another journalism game: Joellen Easton of American Public Media demonstrated Budget Hero<\/a>, which allows players to set their own goals through selecting a “badge” (e.g. national security, universal health care). It’s particularly interesting to me that these goals (and thus, the underlying values) cannot all be met, which for me is a criterion for a “meaningful choice.”<\/p>\n APM is also finding that players of Budget Hero are significantly younger than consumers of other public media: 53% are 18-35.<\/p>\n Why a game: Player experiences tension between own assumptions and the facts built into the game (assuming vetted facts are correct) — Joellen. Limitations of traditional media that lack context, cause-effect — Asi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On a panel on “Journalism, Games, and Civic Engagement,” Asi Burak of Impact Games (Peacemaker) suggests the following tags for interactive media, which he distinguishes from “games”: Editorial short-form — Ian Bogost’s “Persuasive Games” (I’m curious what Ian thinks of … Continue reading