Sometimes an article or a post stands out of the crowd. I was very pleased to read “Newsrewired: Why news needs game mechanics and journalists should stop telling stories“. Why? Because there are actually people out there doing what i am mostly just talking about. The British are way ahead – again. I am pretty sure that most german journalists do not have a clue what a job description like lead interactive technologist could mean at all. Whatever.
Apart from that i was very pleased to hear Philip Trippenbach differentiate between Story and System. Many journalists still seem to cling to the concept of stories even when there is no story to tell. Maybe it is a similar problem like the still not very much perceived difference between product- and process-journalism.
Core point + game mechanics
I am more and more convinced right now that games are not so very much suited to tell stories most of the time because people prefer their stories to be linear. But the idea of games generating a social experience with an understanding of systems makes more and more sense to me. The only problem: You need to identify the core contentual point and then you need to add useful game mechanics – why not try these.
That does not sound like a simple job to me. Maybe someone comes up with a proper solution for the definite Wikileaks-Game pretty soon. Everything i have seen so far does not really deserve the tag Newsgame. Okay, just one last quote by Mr. Trippenbach: The best way to learn how a system works is by interacting with it, by playing with it. Agreed.