Journalistic Integrity via Neverwinter Nights

Destructoid has conjured up a short article detailing a presentation at GDC about a Neverwinter Nights mod that was created to teach journalistic integrity at the University of Minnesota.

The purpose of the game is to simulate the decision-making process inherent in journalism, as well as showing the implications of those decisions. Through the nonlinear dialogue system NWN offers, Paul’s team attempted to reinforce good reporting practices amongst journalism majors.

The game, based on true events, concerns a chemical spill in the city of Harperville. First, the player has to come up with an angle for the story: do you look at it as a health, public or transport safety, or environmental piece? From there, the player has to identify key questions to ask his or her sources, along with which sources should be interviewed and how. The game also requires players to do previous research before interviewing the NPCs: if you ask the mayor what the dangers the spilled chemical presents when you should have figured that out on your own, he’ll get angry and become less responsive to your questioning.

Similarly, the player has numerous methods of interviewing via dialogue choices: students could be cocky, or confident, or passive, and each type of question yields a different response, as any veteran BioWare fan can attest to. After interviewing sources and taking notes using the ingame note system, the player has to return to the news room and piece together their story, at which point they are ultimately rated on their performance.

Interesting.