Abstract
Drawing from the theoretical underpinnings of prior work in interactive narratives to explain complexity, playable explanations, and newsgames this work aims to expand the impact and accessibility of comprehensive investigate journalism to a wide audience of North, Central and South Americans. The goal was to apply the benefits of ludic interactive narratives to explain the complexities and systemic biases in the United States immigration system for differing immigration scenarios between 2017–2021. The game combines elements of documentary games, persuasive play, and the fundamentals of interactive narrative to provide a playful explanation of explicit and implicit policy. It is, in short, an interactive system about a system. This interpretation of the system was derived not from a top-down view of the system, but by the reverse engineered understanding informed by two years of investigative journalism research informed by the data in both the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers. This paper articulates the development process, release, and subsequent observations from an experienced engaged by more than 45,000 players. This case study is understood as the first ever playful interactive based on the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers investigations.
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Acknowledgements
This work was created with support from the University of Miami’s School of Communication and University of Florida’s Brechner Center for Freedom of Information. The Gaming the System series was produced by the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald in partnership with the Fund for Investigative Journalism and the National Association for Hispanic Journalists. Romina Ruiz-Goiriena initiated the project, lead the project concept and reporting and was essential to the project’s success. The content of the game and this publication are solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the supporters.
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Grace, L.D. (2023). Gaming the System: Case Study in Investigative Journalism and Playful Interactive Narrative Design to Explain Systemic Bias in Immigration Policy. In: Holloway-Attaway, L., Murray, J.T. (eds) Interactive Storytelling. ICIDS 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14384. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47658-7_4
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