Analysis

Analyze for hollow, obvious, or uninformed decisions

There are three different circumstances when people need to make decisions: everyone needs to put down one content card and one intent card, and the influencer will decide whether to reveal one card or not. 

Hollow decisions: Every decision made in this game has a consequence, so there is no Hollow decision in this game. Content cards will decide which players will become the influencer, and the intent cards will have the chance to be revealed by the influencer. The decisions that the influencers made also have consequences that both impact the player and the influencer. Because there are so many decisions that have a consequence, players should be allowed to choose not to report someone else to give them the freedom of thinking about other possibilities. 

Obvious decisions: Every decision needs to be considered and put down cards carefully, therefore there are no obvious decisions in this game. 

Uninformed decisions: When players choose to put down either true information or fake information is a uniform and arbitrary decision, because there is little information provided to the players to know which one is better to put down. The influencer might choose to reveal the cards later on cause the player loses points, and the random events will also cause different results based on the type of intent cards.

Analyze for desirable decisions

"Like and lies" has weighted decisions and immediate decisions. Weighted decisions are balanced decisions that have consequences on both sides. During the stage of deciding on the influencer, decisions made by the players will influence everyone else. During the stage of the influencer choosing to reveal information, it influences both the influencer and the player who has been revealed. In order to improve the gameplay, it would be ideal to give players a chance to choose cooperation and make allies. The game has immediate decisions because when people make a decision, the outcome will be known to the players immediately. In order to make the decision also influence the future decision and events, we created a board to visually represent which tiles will generate the random events. 

When players put down content cards, they will think about how confident they are to get the highest likes and become the influencer. The influencer will not get extra points from the intent cards so players will likely put down true information. Because of the random event tiles, true information will get the players a good result. Even though the influencer will not reach a random event tile for the five steps rewards of being the influencer, the optimal choice will still be putting down the true intent card. Otherwise, the fake intent card will be wasted, and each player only has a limited number of fake intent cards. As for the rest of the players who haven't posted any outstanding content cards, they tend to place fake intent cards. If fake intent cards have not been revealed, players will get two points. If two steps lead the players to the random event tile, it will not be optimal to put down a fake intent card. Fake intent cards will result in punishment if negative event cards have been drawn. Even though a positive event card has been drawn by the players, it will need a real intent card to trigger the event. Therefore, for the people who have the confidence to become the influencer, the best solution will always be putting down real intent cards. If the player has posted interesting content and is noticed by the influencer, the player will likely put down a misinformation card and be revealed by the influencers. The player that gets the second high like will likely be revealed by the influencer. When a player has won over other players a lot, other players tend to target that player. When a player has almost reached the winning point and is the influencer at this run, they will likely choose not to report anyone. Because if they have revealed real information, they will lose points instead. 

The game aims to talk about misinformation in social media. The punishment of putting down misinformation is related to our overall goal of thinking about how to make social media a better place for information sharing. The dilemmas that players have faced help reinforce thinking about the outcomes of certain decisions they made. Therefore, we want people to think about the consequences of posting misinformation and how it might hurt other people when they face those dilemmas in real life. 

The rewards in the game are tied to the movement system and the power to reveal other players' information. When the player gets the highest likes for the content, they will get five points that allow the player to move five steps on the map and become the influencer. The influencer will get the power to reveal other players. If the players have been revealed to have posted misinformation, the player will fall back 2 steps; if the information is true, the influencer will fall back 2 steps. Rewards are timed immediately when a decision is made. 

When a player reaches a certain point, there will be a random event generated. The random events have either positive or negative effects that are related to the intent cards players have put, or positive event cards that trigger by real information, or negative event cards will cause punishment if fake information has been drawn. The random events cards have made the game interesting and exciting to play and require more strategies when making decisions. 

The game will end when the first person has reached the end, but other players can continue playing it. The first person who wins the game will feel satisfied. Our game has no narratives. If the game has narratives and each player has played for a character, it would enhance the gameplay experience and be more immersive.