Weekend Backtrack #1: September 12

While the number of newsgames out there is still rather manageable, I want to start using the weekends to catalog past creations.

To kick things off, I’m gonna cover September 12 by newsgaming.com. It’s the first newsgame that I stumbled upon and according to the developer’s FAQ, it’s the first newsgame ever, as they coined the term. I haven’t found this fact disputed anywhere and the games lead designer is Ludology’s Gonzalo Frasca.

September 12, opens by saying, “This is not a game.” It probably is more of an interactive toy than a game as there is no challenge to overcome and the piece operates as more of a sandbox to explore.

The game’s setting is an illustrated Middle Eastern city. Small citizens wander through the city’s streets and markets. Some of these citizens are terrorists. The game leaves the choice of how to interact with the terrorists up to the player. The player’s choices are severely limited and out of this arises the editorial point of the game. It’s a quick and clever way to deliver the creator’s point and it works very well. I don’t really want to give that point away as it’s best delivered through the game itself. Open it in another window now and play it before finishing the article.

Spoilers follow, so you’ve been warned:

It’s fitting that the first newsgame plays on a traditional gaming flaw: the only way to interact with something is to shoot it. While this simplicity can make for more fun in a classic like Asteroids, it becomes a frustration in September 12. No doubt, part of the idea is to create a desire to look/wish for other options.

One thing in the game stuck out to me and I’m really not sure if it’s a weakness or not. If the player doesn’t ever shoot, the terrorists continually wander, but don’t do anything that makes the player antsy to get rid of them. According to the developer’s FAQ, the game intentionally leaves out terrorist acts and focuses on civilian costs. However, I wonder if the emotional complexity could be greater if the player had some interest in actually eliminating the terrorists. As is, the player can only be motivated by personal notions that terrorists need to be killed and these notions would have to be developed outside of the game. Of course, newsgames grow more interesting if they can accommodate biases that players bring to the table. I’m just not sure that September 12 does that.

When it comes to bias, the development team is open about their view on bias within news. In response to the question “Are your games biased?” they say in their FAQ:

Of course they are. We do not believe in objective journalism. We prefer games that encourage critical thinking, even if the player disagrees with our games’ ideas.

This works well within the concept of newsgames as editorial cartoons. However, I tend to believe that there are also opportunities for games that inform in a more objective way. I feel like Points of Entry takes a step in this direction as it allows the player to interact with technical details in real legislation. Also, games could offer a powerful way for the player to interact with a complex issue from more than one side. We’ll see. I hope to explore the idea more throughout this blog.