P1 Game Writeup

Concept Statement: 

We plan to design a game to teach how misinformation and disinformation spread for 6-10 players.

We believe it will include these kinds of fun: fellowship, challenge, narrative

Our learning outcomes are: players will be able to describe how misinformation and disinformation are spread.

We will measure them by gauging qualitative player reactions and quantitative responses.

We want to do this kind of game because we want to raise awareness of how easily misinformation can spread and improve people’s critical info assessment ability.

Games like this are Secret Hitler, Mafia, Codenames, Operator. 

Our biggest concern is can the game be mathematically gamified? 

Pitch:

We live in the era where misinformation and disinformation plagues our information sphere.We all think we can discern information and be critical of its origin, but is that true? We present to you a game where your information pipeline gets distorted and you need to find who is responsible for the disinformation. (recite game rules here?)

Game Rules:

6-10 Players

1 or 2 Disinformants

1. One person who starts off comes up with a narrative (2-3 sentences long)
2. Each person whispers the narrative they hear into the next person’s ear.
3. If you are a disinformant, you have the option to change a detail in the narrative.
4. At the end of the round, the last person recites out loud for the group what they were told. 
5. The first person then recites out loud what the original narrative was.
6. Steps 1-5 are repeated for 3 rounds, switching player positions randomly between rounds
7. Players will debate at the end to uncover who the disinformats are
8. The players win if the majority of players can successfully identify all disinformats, or the disinformats fail to alter the message 2 out of 3 times. otherwise the disinformats win.

In-Class Observations:

Proposed modifications:

• Instead of randomly distributing order for rounds, people get to choose who they talk to next 
• Prompt cards or a deck for who/what/where/when/why/how etc for prompt generation and objectives for disinformant
• Keep time limit for passing info each round
• Have a speaking limit for voting/discussion period, either no discussion at all or only allowed to say one sentence
• Include words that are hard to say or rhyme, etc