The Westport Independent
| Full name | The Westport Independent |
| Description | The Westport Independent is a censorship simulator taking place in a post-war country, governed by the recently elected Loyalist Party. As the editor of one of the last independent newspapers in the country, your job is to remove and edit the content of your paper, affecting the people’s opinion of both the rebels and the Loyalist government. With an increase of rebel activity and an ever watching government breathing down your neck, whose truth will you print? |
| Producer | Double Zero One Zero. Designer Pontus Lundén, Programmer Kristian Brodal |
| Genre | Simulation |
| Available platforms | Android iOS Linux Microsoft Windows OS X https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Westport_Independent?fbclid=IwAR3AeytWvKX-WSVxIKjJ6hgiRWbiajNgmanz9LQrd_o09IfiAzgp3ykkcec |
| Year of production | 21 January 2016 |
| Purpose of the game | The player will have to choose what the newspaper will publish and what it will not. All decisions will have a major impact throughout the course of the game. The player will also need to confront the writers working for the newspaper, who will want different content to be published. Articles will include subjects such as riots, healthcare and rebellions. Originally, the game was developed over a period of 72 hours. This version was featured on several websites. Eventually, the developers decided to expand it into a full length game with many more features added. While it is essentially a more fully featured (though otherwise unrelated) version of Lucas Pope’s The Republia Times (the Ludum Dare precursor to Papers, Please), the developers have stated they were unaware of Pope’s game until after they had finished the game-jam version of this one. |
| Player(s) (single/multiplayer) | single player |
| Language | EN |
| License | open free |
| Resource type | Video | |
| URL | Link | |
| General objectives | ||
| Learning | Learning to be a censor in the newspaper in a dystopian society. | |
| Entertainment | The game is intriguing. | |
| Ethical | Ethical aspects of the freedom of speech. | |
| Others | ||
| Related topics/Glossary – Keywords | None | |
| Expected learning outcomes | ||
| Knowledge | How to manage media information. Learning by mistake. | |
| Skills | Media literacy | |
| Abilities | How to provide public information balancing between public opinion, government and rebels. | |
| Teaching methodologies/Activity outline | ||
| 1. Starting a challenge: (brainstorming problem situation. By asking the students questions, the teacher stimulates their thinking) | The game is planned as a discussion and it is appropriate for brainstorming. | |
| 2. Activation (In Class) / Explanation: (ask the students to watch the videos, read articles, etc. related to the learning outcomes) | The game can be played in the class as an analog game. | |
| 3. Processing: (ask your students to do this experience at home or in the classroom) | It is OK to play the game at home and discuss the results in the classroom. | |
| 4. Conclusion and evaluation reflections | ||
| Information and transliteracy competencies | ||
| Scores: 0 (none) to 5 (strong) | ||
| Critical Thinking | 5 | |
| Creativity | 3 | |
| ICT/Digital Skills | 1 | |
| Collaboration | 3 | |
| Information Skills | 5 | |
| STEAM competencies | ||
| Creative Thinking | 3 | |
| Critical Thinking | 5 | |
| Mathematical Thinking | 1 | |
| Scientific Thinking | 1 | |
| Activity development | ||
| Description of the game use to achieve the learning goals | Game is presenting antiotopian sociaty ruled by totalitarian party. You hav to edited a newspaper balansing betwen the interest of diferent groops withouth to be punishd. The font of the game is very interesting but unredabel which is the bigest desatvantage of the game. | |
| Required tool(s) | Available for Android, macOS, Windows | |
| Instructions for students | Not very user-frendly. | |
| Final Comments | Very good educational approach. | |
| Required settings | None | |
| Class management | ||
| Individual work | 5 | |
| Team work | 5 | |
| Whole group | 5 | |
| Time management | ||
| Short activity (< 1h) | Yes | |
| Medium activity (>1h;<1 day) | ||
| Long activity (> 1 day) | ||
| Sources/extra readings | None |
| Scores 1 (very poor) to 10 (excellent) | |
| Assessment | A graph is reporting the “progresses” of the player, although, in the distopian world the game is set, such achievements can hardly be considered positive. |
| Playability | 9/10 |
| Lastability | 9/10 The story is set right after the Second WW, and the game has a very modern UX and design. |
| Engagement level | 5/10 Looks a bit too complex to be fully engaging. |
| User interface | 8/10 It’s well designed, although it needs some istructions (provided wihin the game) to be fully understood. |
| Storytelling | 9/10 |
| Digital competence for avoiding fake content | 7/10 The game is focused on the concet of censorship, not fake news. But being able to decide if some news (maybe fake or propaganda-driven) may teach the gamer on how some sort of journalism can produce fake content or limitate the true one. |
| Plan how to find a specific information | 7/10 |
| Identify and scope the necessary information | 8/10 |
| Evaluate the found information | 8/10 |
| Manage the information | 8/10 |
| Media literacy | 7/10 |
| Visual literacy | 5/10 |