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The Redistricting Game
Developer: USC Game Innovation Lab
Non-Profit: USC Annenberg Center for Communications - project benefactor
Release Date: June 1, 2007
Project Lead: Chris Swain
Funding Sources: USC Annenberg Center for Communications
Sponsors/In-kind donations: n/a
Budget:
Overall: 200,000
Secured:
Brief Description
The Redistricting Game strives for three things: 1) Educate voters about redistricting, how it is abused, why it is important 2) Engage players so they join the dialog about reform. Connect players with existing like-minded organizations 3) Empower players to affect their own governance via community and social action.
Full Description
The U.S. redistricting process is sort of a dark corner of our democracy - Democrats and Republicans both abuse it to achieve "safe" seats in Congress; "safe" seats tend to yield increasingly partisan representatives over time; both parties see flaws in the process yet since it helps keep incumbents in power politicians do not have incentive to reform it. The current process creates a vicious circle that is not good for the American people. Many Americans would like to see redistricting reform enacted - including many politicians - however the process is not likely to change without real outcry from the people. We hope our game can shine a bit of light in this dark corner. We want to do this by exposing the redistricting process to lots of citizens and making it easy for them to communicate directly to congress. As researchers we chose to pursue redistricting as a game - as opposed to a book or a film - because a good game provides an experiential understanding of complex phenomena. Studies show that people learn more by doing than by reading or listening. There are lots of nuances and trade-offs in redistricting that are easy to grasp and fun to play with in an interactive environment yet are hard to grasp and generally boring given only a linear description. We want people to gain a hands-on understanding of not only how redistricting works but also why sound redistricting laws are important for our democracy.
Target Audience: 1. General US voters 2. High School Students
Social Issues Addressed: political,
Purpose:
We want people to understand the power of redistricting, how current process creates a vicious circle, and options for reform. Our goal is to increase the number of people in the dialog about redistricting and reform in a dramatic and measurable way. We especially want to generate personal letters to congress and have built functionality for this directly into the game. To accomplish those goals we built five missions. The first mission illustrates fundamentals about how redistricting works. The second and third show how redistricting is abused. The fourth exposes players to the "Voting Rights Act". And the fifth lets you play with reform rules. We model the "Fairness and Independence in Redistricting Act of 2007" in the game which is currently seeking support in the U.S. House of Representatives. However we talk about lots of different ideas for reform on the website.
Metrics:
How? In order of importance we are measuring: 1) number of letters sent to congress 2) number of meetup.com meetings conducted 3) number of articles in the press 4) number of page views 5) number of "Tell A Friend" messages sent
What outcomes have been measured? n/a until game launches
Press Coverage:
We were mentioned in two articles in 2006 (pre-launch). 1) NY Times, "Saving the World One Video Game at at Time" by Clive Thompson 2) USA Today, "New Video Games Play to Serious Objectives", by Mike Snider http://www.usatoday.com/life/2006-10-30-serious-games_x.htm http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/23/arts/23thom.html?pagewanted=1&ex=1311307200%20en=5537158f97171966ei=5088partner USA Today article and a NY Times article. URLs are
Press Release URL: n/a
Public Contact Information
Name: Chris Swain
Email: cswain@cinema.usc.edu
Press Contact Name: John Zollinger
Press Contact Email: jzollinger@cinema.usc.edu
Game Tags: redistricting, politics, reform, government, democracy
Where you can play this game: I can share the dev URL with you as long as it stays internal to your judges. Email me if this is of interest - cswain@cinema.usc.edu
The Redistricting Game
Game URL: http://www.redistrictinggame.org
Developer: USC Game Innovation Lab
Non-Profit:
Release Date: June 12, 2007
Project Lead: Chris Swain
Funding Sources: USC Annenberg Center for Communications
Sponsors/In-kind donations:
Budget:
Overall: 250,000
Secured: 250,000
Brief Description
The Redistricting Game is designed to educate, engage, and empower citizens around the issue of political redistricting. Currently, the political system in most states allows the state legislators themselves to draw the lines. This system is subject to a wide range of abuses and manipulations that encourage incumbents to draw districts which protect their seats rather than risk an open contest.
Full Description
The Redistricting Game is designed to educate, engage, and empower citizens around the issue of political redistricting. Currently, the political system in most states allows the state legislators themselves to draw the lines. This system is subject to a wide range of abuses and manipulations that encourage incumbents to draw districts which protect their seats rather than risk an open contest. By exploring how the system works, as well as how open it is to abuse, The Redistricting Game allows players to experience the realities of one of the most important (yet least understood) aspects of our political system. The game provides a basic introduction to the redistricting system, allows players to explore the ways in which abuses can undermine the system, and provides info about reform initiatives - including a playable version of the Tanner Reform bill to demonstrate the ways that the system might be made more consistent with tenets of good governance. Beyond playing the game, the web site for The Redistricting Game provides a wealth of information about redistricting in every state as well as providing hands-on opportunities for civic engagement and political action.
Target Audience: U.S. voters
Social Issues Addressed: public policy, political,
Purpose:
Game is designed to allow individuals to learn the nuances of of this social problem by playing with objective information. The theory is that this media will have enhanced credibility because users come to their own conclusions via play.
Metrics:
How? we the number of games played, the amount of press generated, and the number of letters written to congress.
What outcomes have been measured? 10 million+ games played, 100+ articles generated in national press (print and broadcast)
Press Coverage:
http://redistrictinggame.blogspot.com
Press Release URL: http://media.www.dailytrojan.com/media/storage/paper679/news/2007/06/20/News/Usc-Designs.Online.Game.With.Politicians.Voters.In.Mind-2916656.shtml
Public Contact Information
Name: Chris Swain
Email: cswain@cinema.usc.edu
Press Contact Name: John Zollinger
Press Contact Email: jzollinger@cinema.usc.edu
Game Tags: redistricting, gerrymandering, reform, congress, politics
Where you can play this game: http://www.redistrictinggame.org The game plays directly in the browser via Flash.
