Inspiration

Fake it to Make it is an online game where players create a fake news company and copy and write articles with the purpose of angering/engaging a group of people who bring traffic onto your site and translates into revenue for yourself.

What we thought this game could guide us in incorporating is how we are able to tie in the negative effects of influencing fake news. The game puts in samples of how people might react to the news, for example, when your article gains enough traction a message will appear to show that “Hate crimes against the group of people you targeted in your article has increased by 8%”. Although the game is set to make you harm society, how money is tied into the game makes it more engaging and brings another level of understanding to the dangers of fake news.

From this game, we incorporated the reactionary aspect into our own game in the form of action cards. In Fake it to Make it, these have no negative implications, but in our game, Likes and Lies, depending on what they post, they can lose or gain more steps towards winning the game.

Not for Broadcast is a video game where players assume the rule of a newscast editor who has the power to lead on misinformation and disrupt what is happening in the outside world.

What I think the game could guide us in accomplishing is creating interesting gameplay and backstory. Not for Broadcast’s dystopian world plays a large part in making the game immersive for their players. The game builds tension in the outside world, while still being able to create humour for the manipulator (the player) themselves. This type of player emotion will be important to push the boundaries between the different types of fun.

From this game, we incorporated the aspect of seeing how the world outside of the game would change based on the actions of the player. This allows players to have another perspective on how misinformation causes real-life problems.

The third inspiration is a social media platform, Instagram. Instagram allows users to share photos and videos with their followers. People can also interact with other users through likes, comments, and direct messages. Other than being a platform for people to share about their lives, Instagram is also popular for businesses and influencers to promote their products and services to a large audience. Since we want to create a realistic magic circle and experience for players, we took inspiration from the mechanics of a real-life social media platform, such as giving likes, being an influencer, promotions, and reporting content. We hope to relate the spread of misinformation with social media to address the negative impacts of social media. This can raise people’s awareness of misinformation and their thoughts about social media, so they can think carefully before trusting promotions or advertisements. We used the simple concepts and experiences from using social media like Instagram to simulate back into our game.