The history and present of Newsgames

            Within the spectrum of modern technology, news-games are relatively new. A major part of the media industry has to do with finding new ways to present the news in a way that is refreshing, entertaining and still informative. Around 2007, in Brazil, a media outlet created one of the first newsgames to become popular. The game they created was made to spread awareness of disease in spinach. The game was called Bacteria Salad and it was meant to inform people about the spreading of E.colli in raw spinach. The years between 2008 and 2012 were very important in the development of newsgames. The magazine Superinteressante played a large roll in these years. Them, along with their developers, Fred Di Giacomo and Rafael Kemski created 12 games during the four-year span. The game that caught on most was Filosofighters, a game which was intended to inform players of the teachings of different philosophers through a wrestling metaphor. As well as being one of the most successful newsgames, it also received positive reviews from, and made the lists for PC Gamer. 

The news games take on many different forms. Some, are roll playing games where you play as a character and move through the game-world as that character. Other games, you simply put in information and the return information is interesting or funny while also being informative. An example of this kind of newsgame is The World at 7Billion. This is a game made by the BBC that tells you how many people of the 7 billion on earth were born before and after you, as well as exactly what number you are. While this is not necessarily a fast paced interesting game you could play for a while, it had a major social media presence and made its way all around the world. Another style of news games are lists and quizzes. The best example of these are made by, Buzzfeed. While a lot of their lists are trivial like, “How well do you know High School Musical?” they also make ones that are informative. An example of this would be quizzes like “Can you pick that one annoying drunk friend”, which teaches players the early signs of alcohol poisoning and how to tell when to stop drinking.

Overall, although it is a relatively new way to deliver media, newsgames are a positive way of sharing information and are being used by major companies around the world.

Questions: 

1. How do news games fit into the world of modern media?

2. Do you see news games becoming a main source of news in the future?