An analysis of the Washington Post’s ‘7 ways to defy death’ newsgame
What worked, what elements didn’t work and how could I use some elements in the WaPo’s newsgame in my portfolio.
7 ways to defy death is a newsgame that was created by The Washington Post in April 2015.
The newsgame forms one part in the WaPo’s “The Human Upgrade” series where technology companies were exploring ways for human being to defy death using technology and data to do this.
Unlike the Financial Times’ newsgames The Trade-Off and The Uber Game, the WaPo’s 7 ways to defy death uses mini-games to show how new treatments can prolong the life of an average American.
While my newsgame will not be focused on health, there are some elements that I can apply into creating a game around digital poverty.
With the time constraints I have, ensuring that I can realistically produce a newsgame within a set timeframe using Twine will be critical towards the first of three pieces of media I plan to create in my portfolio.
Genre
It is no surprise that the WaPo’s 7 ways to defy death piece would be classified under the newsgame genre.
However, looking at it from a broader context outside of newsgames, then the story would be classified in the health, science and technology journalism beats.
When creating my own newsgame for my portfolio, I need to be careful that I stick to one or two beats for the story.
If the beats I plan to use in my game go above two, then it creates the risk of the game going on tangents, which would create an unplayable newsgame with no clear narrative structure.
Abstract
When you first play this newsgame, it takes you straight into the main homepage where is some information about the average age an American is expected to live and the potential technologies used to prolong aging.
The main character in this newsgame (who is unnamed) gives you a sense of space about the seven scenarios that you will have to encounter in the mini-games embedded within the game itself.
Once you click the ‘Start Aging’ button to play the game, a counter is displayed, showing the age counting up along with a man walking in the animation shows how he’s aging before going onto the first mini-game.
Orientation
Throughout the game, the use of an invisible, effaced narrator who takes you through each scenario on how those seven therapies that scientists will hope to use in the future. The narrator guides you through how each form of therapy can help prolong a human being’s life.
The use of an invisible narrator, combined with the moving animation of the man create the focus and movement within the game.
By using both transmissional and registrational interactivity, the user navigates through each scenario by participating in seven mini-games. If a user wins a mini-game within a set amount of time, you add an additional 10 years to the man’s life.
However, if they don’t win a mini-game, then the age counter moves up, but they lose a life and move on to the next mini-game.
What works
The newsgame was very well-structured and utilised elements of gamification to illustrate how each treatment could prolong a human’s life.
Deterding (2011) defines gamification as “the use of game elements in non-gaming contexts”.
Both mimesis and diegesis are used after each mini-game, showing and telling how each treatment could affect the human’s life as the man ages.
In particular, the use of a health bar, which recorded how many hearts the player had earned throughout the game. For each mini-game that was unsuccessfully completed, a cross would be added, indicating that the player did not complete this mini-game.
Full-motion video animations were used to illustrate each scenario the player had to go through. Even though the videos were short, it gave you a snapshot into how that form of treatment could affect the man in the game.
There is a clear call-to-action at the end of the game. The player is encouraged to either replay the game again or to scroll down and look at the technologies that were used in the newsgame itself.
What could be improved
Ideally, the WaPo’s 7 ways to defy death newsgame would have benefitted from not having an abstract setting.
For the player playing this game, having a named character would allow players to relate to the newsgame much better than having an unnamed character.
I was finding myself getting weary of playing the final few mini-games because the lack of a named character was preventing me from building that relationship with the man in the game itself.
While playing the newsgame, I had some questions about whether the game was at its core, a game of progression or a game of emergence.
Maybe, there was an editorial decision being made to combine different structures of interactivity in the game itself.
It would have been better if the interactivity within 7 ways to defy death focused on being a game of progression.
Bogost et al (2010) argues that games create “systems of feedback” which can “reinforce or negate” the actions of the players playing that game.
By using a linear approach, it will take the player through each of the seven scenarios with a fixed structure with some clear barriers that the player has to encounter in the game.
How I could some of the elements in the WaPo newsgame in my portfolio?
Having a counter to count the cost of a household in digital poverty would be a great way of showing the scale of this issue within my game. The way that the WaPo used a counter as the unnamed character’s age went up showed the man age as the game went on.
This led into each of the seven mini-games within the newsgame that the player needed to complete. Creating simple, effective mini-games with real-life scenarios with an invisible narrator will be crucial towards maintaining player interest in the game.
The use of an invisible narrator was incredibly effective in the game for adding context to how each treatment could prolong aging. It would enable to immerse the player into an environment that they can actively engage in.
With that said, there are some elements within the WaPo’s 7 ways to defy death newsgame I could apply into the game element of my portfolio.
As I do not have the budget of the Washington Post to create a similar-style newsgame, I will need to try and replicate the elements in a different way to ensure there is consistent replayability and consistency with my newsgame.
