Game teaches journalism students skills

To teach fact-finding skills, professors at the University of Minnesota have turned a fantasy computer game into a tool for journalism students. Instead of slaying monsters and gathering gold, the players tackle sources and gather information. The game graphics have been modified to look like a modern town, the fictional Harperville. A train has derailed, spilling toxic ammonia, and the players, who are sent out to cover the story, dig up information by going to the library, government offices or talking to a retired train engineer at the bar. For each step of a conversation, the players have four choices of what to tell to the interview subjects, ranging in attitude from assertive to tentative. If players are too brash, the interview subjects will say ‘Excuse me, I don’t like your attitude,’ and end the conversation. The goals of the game are not only to reinforce the thinking process behind information gathering and distinguishing between different types of sources, but also to teach etiquette, said Nora Paul, director of the university’s Institute for New Media Studies. (AP, ABC News,March 10, 2006)