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| Syrian Journey: why the BBC is right to make a game about the refugee crisis | Syrian Journey: why the BBC is right to make a game about the refugee crisis |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| After four years of bloody armed conflict in Syria, hundreds of thousands of civilians have lost their lives and millions have been forced to flee their homes for uncertain futures in neighbouring countries or much further afield. It is a vast, incalculable human tragedy. | |
| But how much do you really know about it? | But how much do you really know about it? |
| Recently, BBC reporter Mamdouh Akbiek and researcher Eloise Dicker, put their knowledge and experience of the conflict into an interactive text adventure, Syrian Journey, which is available for free on the BBC site. Based on dozens of first-hand stories accrued during a BBC Arabic digital project on the region, it starts with the player selling their home in Damascus for a vastly reduced price, before making a series of gruelling decisions about what to do next. Do you flee to Egypt or Turkey? Do you trust the traffickers profiting from the misery of refugees? Do you reach Europe by sea (cheaper) or air (less risky)? Sadly, according to the game, many of those choices will end in tragedy. | |
| Both the Daily Mail and The Sun have reacted with bluster and fury to the project. In its story on Monday, the Mail claimed that BBC bosses have been “slammed” for depicting the humanitarian tragedy in a game. The article quotes a Middle East expert who states “the decision of the BBC to transform the human suffering of literally millions into a children’s game beggars belief.” | Both the Daily Mail and The Sun have reacted with bluster and fury to the project. In its story on Monday, the Mail claimed that BBC bosses have been “slammed” for depicting the humanitarian tragedy in a game. The article quotes a Middle East expert who states “the decision of the BBC to transform the human suffering of literally millions into a children’s game beggars belief.” |
| Mostly, of course, this is down to a misunderstanding about what games are – or can be. It’s telling that the Mail’s expert refers to Syrian Journey as a “children’s game” despite the fact that no such claim is made on the game’s home page. Indeed, it is placed in the site’s news section, and is clearly labeled as a news-based interactive experience. | Mostly, of course, this is down to a misunderstanding about what games are – or can be. It’s telling that the Mail’s expert refers to Syrian Journey as a “children’s game” despite the fact that no such claim is made on the game’s home page. Indeed, it is placed in the site’s news section, and is clearly labeled as a news-based interactive experience. |
| The inference is that all games are for children, and that this is not a medium that can support or explore serious subject matter. It is, in short, an old-fashioned moral panic, a dated reaction to a medium that has been maturing for over 40 years. Indeed, interactive news games have been around for over a decade, ever since web-based platforms like Flash have allowed developers to quickly develop and distribute topical interactive experiences. A glimpse at the work of studios like Molleindustria and Persuasive Games shows how subjects like fast food production and airport security can be effectively analysed and expressed in game form. | The inference is that all games are for children, and that this is not a medium that can support or explore serious subject matter. It is, in short, an old-fashioned moral panic, a dated reaction to a medium that has been maturing for over 40 years. Indeed, interactive news games have been around for over a decade, ever since web-based platforms like Flash have allowed developers to quickly develop and distribute topical interactive experiences. A glimpse at the work of studios like Molleindustria and Persuasive Games shows how subjects like fast food production and airport security can be effectively analysed and expressed in game form. |
| Ex-BBC journalist Janet Jones is now a professor in journalism and dean of arts and creative industries at London South Bank university. For the last 15 years she has been studying the evolution of journalism, from print, through broadcast and into the digital era. She’s not surprised that tabloid news sources would take such a stance. | Ex-BBC journalist Janet Jones is now a professor in journalism and dean of arts and creative industries at London South Bank university. For the last 15 years she has been studying the evolution of journalism, from print, through broadcast and into the digital era. She’s not surprised that tabloid news sources would take such a stance. |
| “The idea that in the future, news will be played rather than read is quite hard for some people to think about,” she says. “If you look at the history of journalism, whenever a new platform comes online, whether that’s been radio, television or the internet, you’ve had people saying that news could never migrate. The idea of television news caused a huge moral panic. The BBC was worried about influencing viewers in a way that would undermine the serious discuss of news culture. The idea of an anchor person was problematic – what if they made a particular expression while saying a phrase? How would that translate into the way the public received that news? They were worried about how a visual medium could communicate the discourse of news.” | “The idea that in the future, news will be played rather than read is quite hard for some people to think about,” she says. “If you look at the history of journalism, whenever a new platform comes online, whether that’s been radio, television or the internet, you’ve had people saying that news could never migrate. The idea of television news caused a huge moral panic. The BBC was worried about influencing viewers in a way that would undermine the serious discuss of news culture. The idea of an anchor person was problematic – what if they made a particular expression while saying a phrase? How would that translate into the way the public received that news? They were worried about how a visual medium could communicate the discourse of news.” |
| Now, however, most key news organisations are exploring the possibilities of interactive storytelling. Several major European news corporations have taken part in news hackdays in Cologne and Amsterdam, where experimental news games were produced over weekend sessions; meanwhile Buzzfeed already has a game development studio working on topical projects. | Now, however, most key news organisations are exploring the possibilities of interactive storytelling. Several major European news corporations have taken part in news hackdays in Cologne and Amsterdam, where experimental news games were produced over weekend sessions; meanwhile Buzzfeed already has a game development studio working on topical projects. |
| Related: Gaming the news: why today's hack events are tomorrow's headlines | Related: Gaming the news: why today's hack events are tomorrow's headlines |
| “Games have really matured as a form in the last few years,” says Tomas Rawlings of Auroch Digital, a Bristol-based developer that specialises in news games, and has produced its own exploration of the Syrian conflict, Endgame Syria (and has also made games for the BBC). “We’re seeing them being used in health, education, training and in simulation. So the idea that games must equal fun and so trivialise a topic is really out of touch. Games offer a range of ways of taking on a topic that linear forms can’t – putting you in the shoes of another person being one advantage; which this game does.” | “Games have really matured as a form in the last few years,” says Tomas Rawlings of Auroch Digital, a Bristol-based developer that specialises in news games, and has produced its own exploration of the Syrian conflict, Endgame Syria (and has also made games for the BBC). “We’re seeing them being used in health, education, training and in simulation. So the idea that games must equal fun and so trivialise a topic is really out of touch. Games offer a range of ways of taking on a topic that linear forms can’t – putting you in the shoes of another person being one advantage; which this game does.” |
| Over 33 million people in the UK now regularly play games, according to research by the Internet Advertising Bureau: the figures are similarly high in most developed countries. Games have become pervasive – and more importantly to a generation of teenagers, they represent our digital era. Through tablets, smartphones and social media, children now expect to be able to interactive with what they see on screen. They understand that games are a medium of communication, not just of entertainment. There is a vast difference in tone and nuance between, say, a blockbusting mega-release like Grand Theft Auto, and a title like Papers, Please, a game that beautifully and engagingly explores the idea of immigration politics. Like every other artform, from poetry to film, games are capable of nuance and subtlty. | Over 33 million people in the UK now regularly play games, according to research by the Internet Advertising Bureau: the figures are similarly high in most developed countries. Games have become pervasive – and more importantly to a generation of teenagers, they represent our digital era. Through tablets, smartphones and social media, children now expect to be able to interactive with what they see on screen. They understand that games are a medium of communication, not just of entertainment. There is a vast difference in tone and nuance between, say, a blockbusting mega-release like Grand Theft Auto, and a title like Papers, Please, a game that beautifully and engagingly explores the idea of immigration politics. Like every other artform, from poetry to film, games are capable of nuance and subtlty. |
| Syrian Journey is a very simple but very direct exploration of the country’s refugee crisis, but it houses the issues in a compelling and involving format. It is a digestible introduction to the concept of trafficking, and the desperate uncertainty of migration. | Syrian Journey is a very simple but very direct exploration of the country’s refugee crisis, but it houses the issues in a compelling and involving format. It is a digestible introduction to the concept of trafficking, and the desperate uncertainty of migration. |
| According to Jones, this is not something that can be shut down. It is something that’s inevitable as we move from linear to interactive media. | According to Jones, this is not something that can be shut down. It is something that’s inevitable as we move from linear to interactive media. |
| “You can’t stop a medium that now fundamentally underpins all communication in our society today,” she says. “You can’t cut off interactive media from the news discourse. It’s a misunderstanding that all games are frivolous and that’s all they can be. For years, interactive simulation experiences have been used in the training of pilots and in the military, they’re the way scientists explore how something may work. It’s an engrossing and intellectually challenging experience when you game an experiment – there are many scenarios underpinning every decision. | “You can’t stop a medium that now fundamentally underpins all communication in our society today,” she says. “You can’t cut off interactive media from the news discourse. It’s a misunderstanding that all games are frivolous and that’s all they can be. For years, interactive simulation experiences have been used in the training of pilots and in the military, they’re the way scientists explore how something may work. It’s an engrossing and intellectually challenging experience when you game an experiment – there are many scenarios underpinning every decision. |
| “My children expect media to be interactive. I watch what they get from Buzzfeed, which is now investing in deeper investigative journalism, and I understand that interactivity is who they are, it’s how they engage with the world. My ten-year-old has probably never watched television – I expect a lot of children are the same. We can’t put this genie back in the bottle, we can’t make them interact with media in the way that I did.” | “My children expect media to be interactive. I watch what they get from Buzzfeed, which is now investing in deeper investigative journalism, and I understand that interactivity is who they are, it’s how they engage with the world. My ten-year-old has probably never watched television – I expect a lot of children are the same. We can’t put this genie back in the bottle, we can’t make them interact with media in the way that I did.” |
| Jones is now working on establishing the sorts of codes of conduct that will be needed as games emerge as a stable and conventional news medium. There will be outrages and mistakes on the way, as there have always been when new media channels have sought to tell us about the world, but there will also be new possibilities. | Jones is now working on establishing the sorts of codes of conduct that will be needed as games emerge as a stable and conventional news medium. There will be outrages and mistakes on the way, as there have always been when new media channels have sought to tell us about the world, but there will also be new possibilities. |
| This is only going to become more pressing, and more fascinating, when virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive make it into people’s homes. Projects like the University of Southern California’s Immersive Journalism experiment, in which researchers created a virtual depiction of a Syrian street scene during a missile attack, hint at the power and potential of placing us directly within news stories. Immersion, participation and direct visceral experience are all becoming part of the news agenda. Now, the response has to be one of preparation rather than knee-jerk terror. | This is only going to become more pressing, and more fascinating, when virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive make it into people’s homes. Projects like the University of Southern California’s Immersive Journalism experiment, in which researchers created a virtual depiction of a Syrian street scene during a missile attack, hint at the power and potential of placing us directly within news stories. Immersion, participation and direct visceral experience are all becoming part of the news agenda. Now, the response has to be one of preparation rather than knee-jerk terror. |
| “Of course there are pitfalls, there always are with new media,” says Jones. “So lets have a look at those issues and work through them. To respond with moral panic, well, that is what beggars belief.” | “Of course there are pitfalls, there always are with new media,” says Jones. “So lets have a look at those issues and work through them. To respond with moral panic, well, that is what beggars belief.” |