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Help the Library of Congress create games to improve public knowledge of civics
- vunderba 3y agoAs a pioneer banker hell bent on decimating the entire population of bison on the Oregon Trail, and yet only being allowed to take 100 pounds of meat and leave the rest as a warning to the other animals, I and my Apple II approve this message.
- Natsu 3y agoIt could be worse, you could've been playing that weird, racist Atari game named "Custer's Revenge."
- jmspring 3y agoThat is one I had not heard of. The whole idea of those sorts of games on those systems (there were other “adult games”) was just odd…
- brianleb 3y agoWe have more adult games now than ever... the demand has always been there, we just toned down the racism (one would hope)
- Natsu 3y agoIt's going to be hard to top the utter cringe of a game where you control a naked guy with a single pixel dick on his way to rape an indigenous woman.
- nemo44x 3y ago[flagged]
- Tao3300 3y agoAccording to the box... art... she's supposedly tied to the pole.
- nemo44x 3y ago[flagged]
- I_am_uncreative 3y agoWhat a weird hill to die on.
- maxbond 3y agoThey're trolling, they're trying to create a logical knot by pitting different values they perceive people to hold against each other to try and create contradiction and confusion. But it's easily untied by recognizing they don't have any interesting point to make and we can just ignore them.
- Tao3300 3y agoThree pixels at double-wide horizontal resolution, to be fair.
- mrguyorama 3y agoThere is at least one game on steam that is a Nazi based graphic novel dating(fucking) game.
- Tao3300 3y agolargely criticized for its depiction of Hitler having zwei Hoden
- Cthulhu_ 3y agoWell, they're still there, they just don't get a platform and the creators get doxxed and hounded off the internet. A fairly recent example was a(nother) school shooter game.
- konfusinomicon 3y agowhere is leisure suit larry VR already?
- coldpie 3y agoYeah. On the positive(?) side, it was intended to stir up controversy by being outrageous, not to be a good product in and of itself. Here's a really good article about the history of the company that made it and other similar products: https://kotaku.com/porno-hustlers-of-the-atari-age-1847622176 https://kotaku.com/porno-hustlers-of-the-atari-age-184762217... Or, if you prefer podcast form: https://gamehistory.org/ep-53-x-rated-atari-games/ https://gamehistory.org/ep-53-x-rated-atari-games/
- RGamma 3y agoAVGN has an episode on it: https://cinemassacre.com/atari-porn-angry-video-game-nerd-avgn-episode-32/ https://cinemassacre.com/atari-porn-angry-video-game-nerd-av...
- zitterbewegung 3y agoBanking simulator throughout the years might be a good idea to educate people about the evolution of banking and why the Fed even exists.
- tmpz22 3y agoOops your bank is insolvent. Press "Bail out" to absolve yourself of all consequences.
- nine_k 3y agoYou can't reach the button? Oh, you are not too big to fail, liquidation imminent!
- based-nerd 3y ago[flagged]
- jeron 3y agoSo, a money printing sim right?
- airza 3y agoReplies to this post really drive home the need for it
- matheusmoreira 3y agoIs there a point you disagree with in one of the replies?
- Dalewyn 3y agoThe whole "Fuck big gov bailing out big bank! We are the 99%!" sentiment, if I had to take a guess. The virtue of bailing out banks is certainly worthy of debate, but that is all irrelevant here because the parent comment implies the need (and there definitely is a need) to teach the masses what banking is, first of all. Remember, these are people who can't tell apart bank bail outs from loan forgiveness from government handouts. The level of civic understanding among the masses is atrocious, and it isn't helped by the media and the powers that be doing their fucking damnedest to keep the masses ignorant and misguided.
- voicedYoda 3y agoYou have died of dysentery. Not sure how that part works into the game
- syngrog66 3y agoI am doing that, essentially, via the game I've been making: Slartboz
- bengl3rt 3y agoPapers, Please is on Steam :)
- voakbasda 3y agoThe contest rules specify that the entries must be accessible web pages. Games that must be downloaded from an app store are disqualified.
- boomboomsubban 3y ago>Think Oregon Trail, Flappy Bird, or Candy Crush, but with educational content that teaches lessons about civics and incorporates Library of Congress resources. That's a fairly interesting list. The author hasn't looked at games in a decade, I bet a themed version of 2048 would blow their mind.
- routerl 3y agoI'm envisioning 2048, but themed around voting drives, with cookie-clicker-like graphics progression, culminating in a "you won all 50 states!" celebration.
- probably_wrong 3y ago> A cheat code must be built into the game to allow the judges to quickly play through the game in its entirety Man, the NSA really can't control themselves... But on a more serious note, the challenge doesn't require the participants to be US citizens nor US residents. I can imagine lots of interesting entries resulting from this policy: a game about privacy sponsored by the CCC, third-world developers for whom 10k is a big amount, games like Monopoly containing a hidden message about the failings of capitalism...
- voakbasda 3y agoThe rules specify that the games must be non-partisan. Are there any major contemporary issues being debated where opposing sides of the issue do not end up falling on partisan lines? It seems to me like anything as controversial as "privacy" could be labeled as partisan and disqualified.
- isaacremuant 3y agoFree speech is now considered "partisan" and "conservative ideology" in a bizarre turn of events. Nowadays, the only dichotomy I face that seems to hold true is authoritarians vs not. No matter how they label themselves as in terms of regional party politics or political compass terms.
- ncallaway 3y agoI think in this case, given the structure around the rules, I could imagine the mean “partisan” in a more explicit sense: A game where you play as the Democrats to defeat Republicans would be explicitly partisan. A game where you learn about the consequences of defunding social security, in a way that nudges you away from cutting social security probably wouldn’t be considered partisan, even though it’s an issue ghat largely follows party lines. That’s just my speculation, though
- myself248 3y agoHah, we need a new version of "how a bill becomes a law".
- sokoloff 3y agoOr "How an Executive Order can skip all that pesky legislative BS..."
- vulcan01 3y agoI remember using iCivics in middle school (yes, I'm young); I found them to be decently fun and educational at the time. https://www.icivics.org/ https://www.icivics.org/ I think "Win the White House" was the game I enjoyed the most.
- Spellman 3y agoDemocracy is a particularly interesting game about how political decisions can have a web of effects on different competing interests.
- ospdfhnnioniop 3y ago[flagged]
- Apocryphon 3y agoI've always wanted to remake Hidden Agenda, which might not be the sort of civics knowledge that the Library of Congress is looking for. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_Agenda_(1988_video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_Agenda_(1988_video_game...
- isaacremuant 3y agoSuperb game. Wonder what the logic was to get that feeling of "no matter what you do you're doomed" but still made it incredibly fun and, to a degree, relatable looking at different parts of history (it's not one country but has aspects that are very familiar to many).
- esafak 3y agoWow what a concept! They don't make 'em like they used to.
- larsiusprime 3y agoShameless plug: I wrote my Master's thesis on this topic waaay back in the day: https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/bitstream/handle/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2010-05-7707/DOUCET-THESIS.pdf?sequence=3 https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/bitstream/handle/1969.1/ET... Was pretty proud of how the related game turned out, though sadly it won't run anymore on modern machines as it was done in Flash: https://www.kongregate.com/games/larsiusprime/super-energy-apocalypse-recycled https://www.kongregate.com/games/larsiusprime/super-energy-a...
- MilnerRoute 3y agoHave you looked into Ruffle? A lot of ild Flash games have been adapted in Ruffle... https://ruffle.rs/ https://ruffle.rs/
- fnord77 3y agoSimGov - The Fiscal Cliff
- neatze 3y agonot really civics game, but in my limited opinion, game of trust[1] is best educational game by far. [1]https://ncase.me/trust/ https://ncase.me/trust/
- lolinder 3y agoI hadn't seen this before and just played through it. I totally agree! And I think this is exactly appropriate for a civics game, except for that it doesn't incorporate LoC content.
- jyunwai 3y agoUsers can also find a text-only transcript of the game published by the developer, which can useful for making study notes or for accessibility (ideally after playing the game at least once if possible, as the concepts are more memorable with the interactivity and animations): https://ncase.me/trust/words.html https://ncase.me/trust/words.html The developer also provides additional written notes about the different strategies featured in the game at: https://ncase.me/trust/notes/ https://ncase.me/trust/notes/
- thisisauserid 3y agoCan I submit Suzerain? That'll civic ya real good.
- Rephrase6043 3y agoCivics as it's designed to function, with checks and balances? Or a congress based on 100 year old apportionment & pointless census, a hyperwealthy hyperminority bribing congressmen left and right, then getting receipts for their bribes via Congress's famous lack of a secret ballot? Because one of those is a fantasy, and the other is the world we live in.
- theoldlove 3y agoApparently a bot, rephrasing Harmonics4714’s comment?
- WarOnPrivacy 3y agoThe worlds smallest AI, trained on a single post.
- RedNifre 3y agoOr two bots, generating the same content.
- Electricniko 3y agoSid Meiers Civics
- ianbicking 3y agoI can't find any detailed information on this outside of this post. What kind of Library Of Congress resources are there? Is there anywhere to discuss things with other people? GPT means there's lots of opportunity to do more qualitative stuff, similar in spirit to Oregon Trail, than there used to be. There's lots of issues with anything that uses GPT interactively (fun as that can be), but pre-calculating a ton of narrative material (including structured material) opens up a lot of possibilities.
- danhon 3y ago"You can find details on the rules and information on how to enter here." leads to this page, which has what I think you're looking for: https://www.challenge.gov/?challenge=library-of-congress-friends-choice-civics-video-game-challenge https://www.challenge.gov/?challenge=library-of-congress-fri...
- ccvannorman 3y agoHi! I'm a game developer and software architect building a platform to enable the quick design, iteration and deployment of web games. I would LOVE to build a game with you for this challenge (and we can split the prize money if we win.) DM me if interested, email in my bio. :-]
- heyzk 3y agoMark Brown of Game Maker's Toolkit fame runs a yearly game jam centered around a specific theme [1], which would line up well with this initiative. The quality of submissions is really, really impressive. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYxZ_LOlFnU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYxZ_LOlFnU
- Harmonics4714 3y agoCivics as it's designed to function, with checks and balances? Or a congress based on 100 year old apportionment & pointless census, a hyperwealthy hyperminority bribing congressmen left and right, then getting receipts for their bribes via Congress's famous lack of a secret ballot? Because one of those is a fantasy, and the other is the world we live in.
- javajosh 3y agoWhat we need is motivation to learn civics. The culture has largely abandoned them, and in many cases has demonized those that know them. Consider the concerted and successful attacks on state-level organizations that administer voting in the US. Those people, from the Sec State on down are probably the top 1% of those who understand civics, and they are under fire. Why? Because cultural norms tell people to not care about civics, and institutions are so weak that even the "elitist cabal" doesn't seem to care about it, either. At least, this is the appearance. Perhaps there is a firm bedrock of dedicated, knowledgeable citizens making American democracy work, and the recent attacks are less hard body blows and more jabs that are easily ignored. I hope so.
- Dalewyn 3y agoIt is ironic and tragic that people who complain about how governments in the US are structured also have no fucking clue about what they're complaining about. We are the United States of America, and yet most people don't understand what a state even is.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 3y agoNot sure why you're being downvoted- that's my experience as well. It's still their right to complain but taking a single US govt course in college dispelled almost all of my frustration just by understanding the structure. Even here I see ridiculous takes daily.
- ospdfhnnioniop 3y ago[flagged]
- pirate787 3y agoThere's a group working to build and protect the bedrock: https://protectdemocracy.org/ https://protectdemocracy.org/
- ctrlp 3y agoWhat exactly would a 'civics' curriculum teach that would be consonant with contemporary political culture? The next generation is being taught a "civics" that is hostile to the American civics tradition. This sort of program is DOA.
- TMWNN 3y agoI know they don't qualify because of the needs-to-run-on-the-web requirement,[1] but I firmly believe that every politician (heck, every citizen, period) ought to play MULE, SimCity, and Civilization. [1] Would in-browser emulator qualify?
- gpcz 3y agoDo they want Gerrymandering Simulator 2024, Bribe-A-Senator, or Citizen's United: SuperPAC Simulator?
- lotsoweiners 3y agoMy First Slush Fund
- dragonwriter 3y ago> Do they want Gerrymandering Simulator 2024 A redistricting simulator would seem to be, actually, dead on the kind of thing that would fit this well.
- philipashlock 3y agoThis is awesome, thanks for sharing! For those interested here are some similar recent or upcoming efforts to encourage more participatory and generative civic engagement: Speculative fiction + civics - https://open.usa.gov/national-action-plan/5/pilot-new-forms-of-public-engagement-to-inform-policy-and-program-implementation/ https://open.usa.gov/national-action-plan/5/pilot-new-forms-... Art x Climate - https://www.globalchange.gov/content/art-x-climate-project-fifth-national-climate-assessment https://www.globalchange.gov/content/art-x-climate-project-f... - https://www.forbes.com/sites/evaamsen/2023/07/27/the-art-featured-in-this-years-national-climate-assessment-report/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/evaamsen/2023/07/27/the-art-fea...
- parentheses 3y agoThank you for sharing these.
- markus_zhang 3y agoI want to see what congress knows about David's UAP testimonies, the private ones.
- bsder 3y agoWhy not a modern Schoolhouse Rock for the TikTok generation? "I'm Just a Bill" -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ8psP4S6BQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ8psP4S6BQ
- doctorpangloss 3y agoThese opportunities are great for reaching sophisticated audiences. Anyone who wants to build the game with Unity for this can use my game streaming service gratis (https://appmana.com https://appmana.com). This will let you build an ordinary Unity game and deploy it with instant loading and high fidelity graphics to all web users. It's also unique for networked multiplayer games: you write a local multiplayer game, and each player gets their own camera. (e.g. https://appmana.com/watch/oreo https://appmana.com/watch/oreo) I also support the Mozilla Creative Media Awards. There are lots of opportunities for video game storytelling.
- A4ET8a8uTh0 3y agoI will admit that this is a surprisingly cool project. The limitations put upon it severely limit what it can be and, as a result, a little tough to overcome though. For one, who exactly is the audience here? If it is intended for adults, then restriction on anything deemed offensive, racist, or not in line with unspoken agenda ( it is not listed ) will miss the mark if only, because it will not deal with the reality of the world around them. Even "Papers please" dealt with difficult questions. How on earth can you even begin to have a game about civics that is not grounded in the reality that this country was founded on? If it is intended for younger audience, then the encyclopedic nature of the required sources will almost automatically make the game not cool for anyone, who consider games games. How are going to keep the younger audience's attention? You think you can make a quiz show 'So you wanna be a President?' Good luck. Thing won't even register to kids unless you are jumping on a pogo stick in US senate on senator's heads in an effort to confuse them enough to vote for the bill. Hold on. Let me write it down. I like the idea. I do. I do think we need more civic engagement. We do need engaged and informed citizenry. But I do not think it can be achieved by writing an RTS of trying to 'capture' all lobbyists before they reach certain congress members and change their minds on how the vote should go..
- 1letterunixname 3y agoSounds like something that should be listed on https://codeforamerica.org https://codeforamerica.org
- irrational 3y agoNote: video games I assumed “games” meant board games until I read the rules.
- coreyp_1 3y agoI thought that this was a great idea, until I read a few of the rules: In short, you work for them, for free. You don't win unless you check all of the beaurocratic checkboxes. If you make something good, you might win $20k, $10k, or $5k, but good luck with any further monitization, as you give them right to use it forever (not for "commercial" use, but the "educational" catch-all is pretty broad). It's non-exclusive rights, of course, but why would I pay you for it when I can get it from the LOC for free? The game is required to be in the browser. It's pretty obvious that they plan to put this on their website, or perhaps even create a portal for these types of games to point teachers to. I also found it interesting that they require a cheat code to allow judges to play all levels. And, they don't like copyleft licenses, either. LOL. "If you win, in consideration of and by accepting the prize, you hereby grant to the Library the worldwide, nonexclusive, transferable, perpetual, irrevocable, fully paid-up/royalty-free right to use the entry that I (or my team, as applicable) has submitted to the Challenge, consisting of the game itself and the description thereof (“Entry”), for noncommercial purposes in connection with the Challenge and otherwise in furtherance of the mission of the Library of Congress, including, without limitation, associated promotional and educational purposes. This right includes the right to reproduce, prepare derivative works from, distribute, perform, display, or otherwise make use of the Entry, in any form, media, or technology, now known or later developed, including television, radio, satellite, cable, and the Internet (including, without limitation, streaming, podcasting, and on websites with user-generated content, such as Facebook and YouTube). You must also allow us to use your name, brief biography, and likeness, or if you are a minor, your first name, last initial, and state, to promote the challenge." "The game must be accessible to disabled individuals. Many people with different abilities use content and apps from the Library of Congress. We have to make sure everyone, including people with disabilities, can use anything we post." "Where there is a choice, use the most permissive license (i.e., the one allowing the broadest unconditioned use; please avoid viral licenses such as GPL)." "i. Be Section 508 compliant.[1] ii. Work with screen readers like Jaws, NVDA, VoiceOver, etc."
- marcellus23 3y ago> In short, you work for them, for free. You don't win unless you check all of the beaurocratic checkboxes > you give them right to use it forever It's a contest. They don't pay you just for entering. And of course they have rights to distribute for free forever... you're making a game _for them_. How else would it possibly work? If you want to make a game that teaches civics and want to make money off it, then just build one and don't enter the contest with it.
- elihu 3y agoYou are on a ship, far from land. It appears to be taking on water. There are a thousand passengers, from whom they select a captain before each eight hour shift. Any one captain may only serve two shifts. The captain has some leeway to decide what to do, but unlike a normal ship, the policy is actually set by the crew, who are elected to represent various portions of the ship. There are also a group of nine passengers who decide whether the captain and crew are correctly following the crew's policy. They can be replaced if they get tired of the job and quit or die in office. Activities on the ship include partying, bailing water, inspecting the hull for leaks, and repairing holes. The passengers are divided into factions who believe the ship is not taking on water, those who believe it is taking on water but it's happening slowly and won't be a problem for a long time, and those who believe that only immediate action from most of the passengers can prevent the ship from sinking. Good luck.
- JoeOfTexas 3y agoYou just spawned a good genre of games, thank you sir.
- Cthulhu_ 3y agoIt reminds me of a big swathe of survival and/or base building games where you have to balance out things just right, or real life games like Werewolves.
- ben_w 3y agoNow I'm imagining a variant of Werewolf where only a handful of the players even know how many werewolves there were at the start, possibly zero, and there are also non-werewolf causes of death. Will the villagers wipe themselves out in a witch-hunt?
- siva7 3y agoMay i ask what genre?
- 3y ago
- jgerrish 3y agoI hope the people doing this love their work.
- WarOnPrivacy 3y agoI learned civics from the Wumpus.
- WarOnPrivacy 3y agoI want a 2 min game that teaches what Section 230 actually is and a 12 hour game to teach what it isn't.
- WarOnPrivacy 3y agoI taught civics to my kids, with the same board game I learned from. https://www.geekyhobbies.com/lie-cheat-steal-board-game-review-and-rules/ https://www.geekyhobbies.com/lie-cheat-steal-board-game-revi... We still play.
- somsak2 3y ago$35k prize pool is a bit of a joke
- kausambi 3y agoI'm looking forward to someone creating a house of cards
- clarionbell 3y agoJust play Frostpunk. It gives you all the lessons you need.
- iamflimflam1 3y agoI remember playing this game at school - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Britain_Ltd https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Britain_Ltd The game provides a simple government simulation, allowing the player to manage the British economy and compete in elections every 5 years. The player takes on the role of leader of one of the major parties, managing variables such as tax rates and welfare payments, which each year results in changes to key economic indicators such as inflation and unemployment. The trick to win was to tax people massively for four years. And then spend like crazy in the election year.
- ogou 3y agoAnybody remember President Elect for the Apple II? As kids, my cousin and I were obsessed with that game during one Christmas break. Turn based campaign finance simulator. I have no idea why we thought it was so fun. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_Elect_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_Elect_(video_game)
- aleph_minus_one 3y agoA really smart guy with who I was at school loved to argue that a video game that teaches you an insane lot about civics is Deus Ex (the original). I can nevertheless see why the Library of Congress is probably not looking for such a kind of game in their contest. :-) EDIT: Or some kind of PC/browser port of the (in)famous Illuminati card game ...
- euroderf 3y agoYou make the laws that regulate the country's entire commercial sector. In your spare time, you buy and sell stocks. Maximize your wealth, but with stealth.
- Eumenes 3y agoSounds kinda fun actually. You can play geriatric doctor supporting the senate, you can money launder using defense funds for far away wars.
- ourmandave 3y agoWhat about a Parks and Recreation simulator? You play a libertarian running the department with the goal to destroy it from the inside.
- HPsquared 3y agoDwarf Fortress has some interesting mechanics that might be of interest.
- BoltMcFast 3y ago[flagged]
- westcort 3y agoTo simulate the experience of browsing a physical library in digital form, I made this from visual resources in the LOC: https://www.locserendipity.com/LOCVIS.html https://www.locserendipity.com/LOCVIS.html Also, for books: https://www.locserendipity.com/ https://www.locserendipity.com/ (click the random selections button) Perhaps these resources could be integrated into a game.
- Kapura 3y agoThis smacks of out of touch bureaucrats saying "what do the kids like? Video games? Lets get some of them together." $20k covers next to no development of a modern video game. If they _actually_ wanted to engage with folks creating popular games in order to create pro-civic content, that'd be neato (imo) but it's going to require actually paying for quality.
- dragonwriter 3y ago> This smacks of out of touch bureaucrats saying “what do the kids like? Video games? Lets get some of them together.” Its actually bureaucrats getting together and saying “what would be simultaneously educational and a way to showcase how to use of LOC resources that other people can build upon”. > $20k covers next to no development of a modern video game. They don’t want what you are thinking of when you say a “modern video game”, nor is the prize intended to be a purchase fee, rather, a bonus along with showcasing it for a labor-of-love. There are government projects that buy things at prices intended to cover the actual costs, they are government contracts, not competitions like this. If this isn’t the kind of thing that just seeing the description of what they are looking for doesn’t make you think “Hey’d, I’d like to do that even if I wasn’t getting paid to”, its probably not for you. > If they _actually_ wanted to engage with folks creating popular games in order to create pro-civic content, that’d be neato (imo) but it’s going to require actually paying for quality. Yes, and if that’s what they wanted, there would be an RFP, the usual set of government contracting requirements and preferences, etc., not a short-timeline competition with a requirement for (a) using LOC resources, and (b) maximally open licensing (which the LOC itself doesn’t need since it is also acquiring broad nonexclusive rights as a condition of the contest, separate from the license under which the code is offered: the open licensing is for third parties.)
- gabereiser 3y agolol, I thought of an idea: You assume the role of your favorite senator and your job is to fillibuster a bill. You have to talk into your mic and move your character for as long as you can. As time goes by, objects are thrown at you, if you get hit, game over. If you stop making wavy hand gestures, game over. If you stop talking, game over. All roads lead to the bill being passed anyway...
- entriesfull 3y agoSorry, I can only make games that are fair to each player. Not a completely rigged game where the ones with most points can stay on top using rhetoric, lies, and financial corruption.
- jamesgill 3y agoYou gain knowledge of civics by participating in civic activities. We don’t need more learning gimmicks, we need more (and easier) opportunities for people to participate. Beyond that, it’s not a knowledge problem, it’s a cultural problem.
- footlose_3815 3y agoLobbyist simulator Filibuster simulator "Pass the bill" - can you pass this bill on hard mode? (Minority in all chambers, president is not your party, you have a scandal debuff) "Spot the liar" - can you spot disingenuousness just by hearing it? See how well you do. "Congress RPG" - start as a congressional staffer, work your way up by compromising and currying favor. "Dictator simulator" - how long can you get away with acting like a dictator in a democracy?