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GDC 08: Journalistic integrity via Neverwinter Nights
by Reverend Anthony on 02.18.2008 30 comments

wwewe

Consider the following question: can a videogame teach journalistic integrity? What about a mod to a six-year-old RPG? These are the questions that Nora Paul and Matt Taylor set out to answer, and their efforts were the subject of "Being Brian Crecente: Using an Off-the-Shelf Role-Playing Game to Teach Journalism."

Essentially, Paul and Taylor used Neverwinter Nights' considerable modding tools to create a journalism game set in contemporary times. When a chemical spill endangers the lives of an entire town, how do you get to the truth? How do you approach the story? Can you learn from your virtual experience and apply it to real life?

Hit the jump for more on the seminar.

 

Nora Paul's "Playing the News" is the first in a series of educational/artistic projects designed to teach journalism through unorthodox methods (the other projects in the series are called "Painting the News" and "Sensing the News"). Basically, Paul wanted to promote a more interesting, intuitive, and interactive method of teaching the principles of journalistic integrity and efficiency; games seemed perfectly suited to the task.

After industry vet Matt Taylor told Paul about the Neverwinter mod tools, Paul went about getting funding for her project. It wasn't easy, of course: there were, as she puts it, no academic incentives to be had for universities to invest in the creation of a videogame. Videogames are generally viewed by academia as counteproductive...but that didn't stop Paul from eventually (in this case, "eventually" means "a few years after she got the initial idea") netting a $10,000 grant to create the mod. After completion, Paul tested it in a Information for Mass Communication class -- a required course for journalism majors.

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The purpose of the game is to simulate the decision-making process inherent in journalism, as well as showing the implications of those decisions. Through the nonlinear dialogue system NWN offers, Paul's team attempted to reinforce good reporting practices amongst journalism majors. 

The game, based on true events, concerns a chemical spill in the city of Harperville. First, the player has to come up with an angle for the story: do you look at it as a health,  public or transport safety, or environmental piece? From there, the player has to identify key questions to ask his or her sources, along with which sources should be interviewed and how. The game also requires players to do previous research before interviewing the NPCs: if you ask the mayor what the dangers the spilled chemical presents when you should have figured that out on your own, he'll get angry and become less responsive to your questioning.

Similarly, the player has numerous methods of interviewing via dialogue choices: students could be cocky, or confident, or passive, and each type of question yields a different response, as any veteran BioWare fan can attest to. After interviewing sources and taking notes using the ingame note system, the player has to return to the news room and piece together their story, at which point they are ultimately rated on their performance.

WEW

Specifically, the game sought to teach what Paul described as Brian Crecente's three major moral imperatives: treat interviewees as you'd want to be treated, don't rely on the officials, and source every single piece of information you use. If players did not adhere to these three rules, they didn't succeed in the game.

Paul then went on to cite some upsides and downsides to the Neverwinter project. Students obviously enjoyed their classes more and considered it a more practical application of classroom concepts; on the other hand, the game was very difficult to run simultaneously on 20 different computers, and it was essentially impossible to deploy the game beyond the confines of the lab. Paul also pointed out an entertaining bug which involuntarily referenced Neverwinter's original combat-based nature: sometimes, if players wanted to leave the news building, they would have to fight another reporter to the death in order to actually get out the front door. 

Moving on from Neverwinter Nights, Paul is in the process of transcribing the game's basic mechanics and dialogue into a more attractive engine called MULE, run by Pine Tech's Johnson Simulation Center. The game certainly looks a lot better, and the entire exchange hasn't cost Paul a dime (Pine Tech needed something to test MULE out, Paul needed a new engine).

 wewe

Ultimately, Paul says she'd like to dramatically improve upon the current game (the conversation system could use work, and she'd like to have in-game Internet browsers which link to other class exercises), in addition to doing more scientific testing concerning the efficiency of the game in teaching ideas. She hasn't yet been able to definitively state how well her mod communicates these concepts of journalism but, if nothing else, she certainly seems to be taking a step in the right direction.  

OR HIT OUR GDC SECTION



Latest comment by kardelen1334 |view all 30 comments
......





Neonie's Avatar
Neonie at 02/18/2008 21:22

"if players wanted to leave the news building, they would have to fight another reporter to the death in order to actually get out the front door."

LOL!
Robert Janelle's Avatar
Robert Janelle at 02/18/2008 21:23

I read about this a while ago and damnit, I wanna play it!
Aertyr's Avatar
Aertyr at 02/18/2008 21:25

HOW DO I CAST FIREBALL
HarassmentPanda's Avatar
HarassmentPanda at 02/18/2008 21:28

That is a really interesting idea. I love "Brian Crecente's three major moral imperatives," brings a nice Asimovian touch. The fight a fellow reporter glitch sounds absolutely incredible as well.
Wedge's Avatar
Wedge at 02/18/2008 21:29

Gaming in education is a great concept. Not only does it engage students more actively than just reading material, it's a genuine thing that could work to break the stigma of games being counter-productive to learning.

Sadly it's mostly been relegated to niche markets and situations, as it's probably not a profitable enterprise to develop, and the education system is generally ill equipped to be able to utilize this kind of stuff.
Wedge's Avatar
Wedge at 02/18/2008 21:32

Also I propose beating Professor Layton be a requirement to graduate high school.
Sam Spectre's Avatar
Sam Spectre at 02/18/2008 21:34

That's really interesting. It's cool to see video games being used in an educational setting, especially outside the elementary level.
mikeyed's Avatar
mikeyed at 02/18/2008 21:51

I've taken JRN 101 and half of a 200 class and I have to say, I would still be a Journalism major if that were in use here at MSU. However, I find the glitch to be very funny, mainly due to the fact that that's exactly how serious some people get around here.

As much as I am a gamer, I think the books they give Journalism students (which look like newspapers themselves) and a real journalist can never be replaced by a sim. They're just something that seems essential. You need to talk, to converse with real people, and become an interviewer, since that's what most journalists are good at, interviewing.

Teaching journalistic principles however, I can understand that. A book and a teacher can both be biased, as much as a video game, but as long as at least one can get the message of objectivity out there it doesn't matter where you get that from.

I just hope Bill O'Reily is the End Boss.
Scape's Avatar
Scape at 02/18/2008 21:55

Hot game game developers--the booth-babes of GDC?
Wedge's Avatar
Wedge at 02/18/2008 21:57

Also Dynasty Warriors should be used in Chinese History classes.
Pedro Blandino's Avatar
Pedro Blandino at 02/18/2008 22:00

so in the game i can only be in the pirate class?
Niero's Avatar
Niero at 02/18/2008 22:00

I don't see anything in that flowchart about calling people idiots when they deserve it. Pfft.

I'm holding out for the Jim Sterling edition.
Cheeburga's Avatar
Cheeburga at 02/18/2008 22:05

Being Brian Crecente: How's my hair?
VTSvsAlucard's Avatar
VTSvsAlucard at 02/18/2008 22:06

I also agree that its a pretty good idea. For some project in high school my friend and I designed an Empire Earth Scenario that played out itself a la cutscene style. I mean, it wasn't anything special, but its good seeing games get used alternatively like this.
taumpytears's Avatar
taumpytears at 02/18/2008 22:29

Being Brian Crecente means never being bald.
Jorvik's Avatar
Jorvik at 02/18/2008 22:38

Education and games are a great fit. Completion of Typing of the Dead should mandatory for all high school students.
Trowble's Avatar
Trowble at 02/18/2008 23:38

Anything in the game about how he keeps his hair so damn fucking sexy?
BluFire's Avatar
BluFire at 02/19/2008 00:31

I don't think the Jim edition would use "idiots." More like "fucking cunts" and "clit bastards."
deiga-the-semivaliant's Avatar
deiga-the-semivaliant at 02/19/2008 01:23

I recently re-installed Neverwinter Nights after being permanently frustrated with the buggy-as-hell nightmare sequel.

I gotta say, Bioware knows how to make a hell of a game.
Necros's Avatar
Necros at 02/19/2008 02:16

I know I would love to be Brian Crecente, but only if I can do it a la Being John Malkovich.
Kurtz's Avatar
Kurtz at 02/19/2008 02:37

Neverwinter Nights mod tools were out of this world for the time, I don't think I ever saw such powerful and easy to use tools... they still release very professional modules by this day, six years ago.
Kurtz's Avatar
Kurtz at 02/19/2008 02:37

I meant after six years :)
Samit Sarkar's Avatar
Samit Sarkar at 02/19/2008 03:00

I tried to think of a time where I “played a game” for educational purposes in school — aside from Oregon Trail II, of course — and I could only come up with “Paws”, which was this software that helped kids learn typing (I remember using it in fourth grade). But this sounds like a much more complicated, and possibly more effective, example.
wardrox's Avatar
wardrox at 02/19/2008 03:22

Does it come with DLC, or is that just the gamespot edition? OH DANG!!!!
Azereki's Avatar
Azereki at 02/19/2008 04:37

Well, my comment isn't really directly related to journalistic integrity. Rather, I want to know WHY a career in the game industry and working with games in general are not considered by academia to be legitimate educational pursuits?! It's no secret games are meant to be entertainment, but so are film and music. Last I checked there are some pretty elite film and music schools and serious degrees at most universities and colleges. Why can't there be a multitude of decent game related classes/degrees? It leaves so many people stuck trying to fit into the industry somewhere with a generic art or computer science degree and very little working knowledge of the game development process. WRRRRRYYYYY!!!???
DynamicSheep's Avatar
DynamicSheep at 02/19/2008 10:27

I thought the first one was a photoshop...
Fading_Star's Avatar
Fading_Star at 02/19/2008 18:33

Neat.

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