| Popis: |
The Candidate is an attempt to marry elements of journalism and gaming into a format that both entertains and educates the player. The Google-AP Scholarship, a new scholarship award that is given to several journalists a year to work on projects at the threshold of technology and journalism, funded the project. The objective in this prototype version of the game is to put the player in the shoes of a congressional candidate during an off-year election, specifically 2014. The goal is to navigate the demands of interest groups, voters, and campaign money to successfully win the election. The election takes place in a fictional congressional district equally split between all voter groups. The game uses a choose-your-own-adventure-style to allow the player to pick various “challenges” that advance them in the game, such as confrontations with different voter groups or fundraising initiatives. For the player who wants to just play, they can bolt through the game no problem and not read any of the in-depth material. But for the player who does want more context into the challenges and overall game, it is available. The game in this prototype version relied heavily from the Pew Research Center and Gallup in order to get polling data on various issues and voter groups. American National Election Studies was referenced for particular questions, like impact of media on voters, but a more comprehensive and recent study covering 2012 will be made available this summer. At that point, the game’s backend will be updated to represented the most accurate depiction of congressional races as possible. I think that is where the real test will occur once this is published: do players actually retain knowledge they learn from a game? It would be interesting to learn how effective the game is at both entertaining and teaching a player about congressional races through just playing the game. Time will tell. RESEARCH Pew Research Center for the People and Press Political Typology 2011 http://www.people-press.org/typology/ Pew Forum on Religion and Life http://features.pewforum.org/abortion-slideshow/ http://features.pewforum.org/same-sex-marriage-attitudes/ Pew Research Center http://www.pewresearch.org/2013/04/30/immigration-tip-sheet-on-u-s-public-opinion/ http://www.pewresearch.org/2013/03/13/gun-control-key-data-points-from-pew-research/ On The Issues http://www.ontheissues.org/default.htm New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/08/26/sunday-review/a-new-guide-to-the-republican-herd.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/09/02/sunday-review/a-new-guide-to-the-democratic-herd.html?ref=sunday-review http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2006/10/01/opinion/a-guide-to-the-2006-democratic-herd.html?ref=sunday-review http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2005/04/02/sunday-review/a-guide-to-the-republican-herd.html?ref=sunday-review http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/how-opinion-on-same-sex-marriage-is-changing-and-what-it-means/ Center for Responsive Politics: OpenSecrets http://www.opensecrets.org/ American National Election Survey http://www.electionstudies.org/ Center for Voting and Democracy http://www.fairvote.org/voter-turnout#.UZGYdCvF10c Democratic Party Platform http://www.democrats.org/democratic-national-platform Republican Party Platform http://www.gop.com/2012-republican-platform_home/ Gallup http://www.gallup.com/poll/1675/most-important-problem.aspx http://www.gallup.com/poll/117328/marriage.aspx http://www.gallup.com/poll/9904/Public-Opinion-About-Abortion-InDepth-Review.aspx Congressional Appointments: US Census http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-08.pdf MetroWest Daily News http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/x1272751770/Election-2012-Robo-call-in-Holliston-tries-to-mislead-voters NPR http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/04/01/175928963/opposition-research-boot-camp-learning-to-dig-for-political-dirt Treehugger http://www.treehugger.com/environmental-policy/57-americans-think-government-should-do-great-deal-combat-global-warming.html Political Mailers Report http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~marcmere/workingpapers/PersuasiveMail.pdf American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees http://www.afscme.org/ American Gas Association http://www.aga.org/Pages/default.aspx Wellpoint http://www.wellpoint.com/ Americans for Tax Reform http://www.atr.org/ National Rifle Association http://home.nra.org/ ART Democratic Party Logo http://www.democrats.org/ Republican Party Logo http://www.gop.com/?source=logo Noun Project (all the following) http://www.nounproject.com Postmodern Icon http://thenounproject.com/noun/iphone/#icon-No1506 Blue Collar Bloc Icon http://thenounproject.com/noun/hard-hat/#icon-No7065 Tea Party Icon http://thenounproject.com/noun/tea/#icon-No1817 New Coalition Icon http://thenounproject.com/noun/people/#icon-No2300 Main St Conservatives Icon http://thenounproject.com/noun/family/#icon-No8199 Media Challenge Icon http://thenounproject.com/noun/camera/#icon-No7104 Issue Challenge Icon http://thenounproject.com/noun/talking/#icon-No12625 Operative Challenge Icon http://thenounproject.com/noun/hide/#icon-No8013 Candidate Challenge Icon http://thenounproject.com/noun/user/#icon-No10231 Money Icon http://thenounproject.com/noun/dollar/#icon-No7453 Gun Issue Icon http://thenounproject.com/noun/gun/#icon-No2459 Energy Issue Icon http://thenounproject.com/noun/energy/#icon-No478 Same-Sex Marriage Icon http://thenounproject.com/noun/marriage/#icon-No8226 Foreign Policy Icon http://thenounproject.com/noun/world/#icon-No6502 |
