Westport Independent

Gr 9 Up—The year is 1949. A flickering black-and-white newsreel announces that the "Public Culture" bill has just passed, requiring all independent newspapers—including the Westport Independent—to toe the Loyalist government's line and diminish rebel sympathies. In this lo-fi, dot matrix—inspired postwar universe, the gamer's role is that of a news editor in an economically stratified industrial city, who oversees a handful of journalists. Players operate from an aerial view of the editor's desk: there is mail from both rebels and government, and a file of articles to choose from to assign to writers. Decisions include what articles to give to which journalists to copyedit (depending on their sympathies), where to place an article in the paper, and what headlines to print to create different readership outcomes. Gamers can play by the rules and bolster the Loyalists' regime, or support the rebels' causes, or avoid politics altogether by focusing on movie star gossip, trying to please the various regions and populations in Westport (profiles available).Consequences are dire. In deviation of the task, journalists are dismissed. The effects of the layout and popularity of the paper as consequences of a player's decisions are not entirely clear, though seemingly important, which does detract somewhat from the work at hand. While the app is a compelling hook for discussing past and prevailing assaults on access to accurate information, it is not for the politically squeamish: the most charged content is the image of a lynched policeman with the sign "Censor this!" at one of the conclusions of the game. Though limited in scope to 12 weeks, it could be used in the classroom or library as a memorable one-day lesson in a unit on totalitarianism and propaganda and could be followed by the award-winning Papers, Please (Lucas Pope, 2013), a similarly toned game in which players become immigration inspectors.—Sara Lissa Paulson, City-As-School, New York City