Newsgame: Can the game of immersion convince Gen Z?

[shishir.seoexpert1]

By Chrystal Delfosse, MediaLab of Information

Ten years ago, on June 24, 2011, the editorial team gambling data america of le monde.fr published Primaries on the Left . A game with caricatured graphics that invited its user to embody “François Hollov”, “Martine Aubraïe”, or “Ségolène Royic” to try to win the socialist primary and thus become a candidate for the 2012 presidential election. By making strategic choices, the player discovered the functioning and the stakes of an electoral campaign.

Primaries on the Left quickly became a media success. This UFO of journalism attracted the interest of Internet users who played more than 250,000 games. This is how the "newsgame" made its place in the French media landscape, this genre, which was innovative to say the least, was easily associated with a major ambition: to (re)conquer the new generations.

But can it really achieve this goal? Ten years later, the newsgame has been poorly integrated into newsrooms. In a world that increasingly mixes the real and the virtual, with the metaverse as the ultimate space for communication, what is the place of information transmission through immersive formats?

Why would newsgaming be attractive?
The newsgame is based on a simple principle: the use of video game mechanics to talk about current events. The choice of the game to evoke a serious issue is not recent, it is the whole phenomenon of "serious games" which has been growing exponentially for about twenty years, so much so that its market could reach 24 billion dollars in 2024 .



Video games, as a learning format – and for transmitting information – have many advantages. In particular, they help to encourage user involvement and motivation thanks to their immersive and interactive aspect . For example, “players” can find themselves immersed in a virtual universe, dedicated to a narrated event, and be given objectives to achieve.

This is the example of Fort McMoney , David Dufresne's “documentary game”. In 2013, the journalist invited Internet users to immerse themselves for several weeks in the oil town of Fort McMurray, in Canada. The goal: “ to make their vision of the world triumph ”, by virtually participating in public debates and interviewing local actors. A year after it went online, the experience had 417,000 “real players”, i.e. people who had explored the game at least a little.

This type of format facilitates the user's engagement, who becomes an actor in the information . Without his action - clicking, reading, scrolling, making choices - the game does not advance and he cannot achieve the desired objective. Thus, launching a game engages the Internet user , if however the goal of the game arouses his interest and seems achievable without being too simple.

Finally, due to its originality, the format arouses curiosity. The video game as such is an asset, because the younger generations already have the codes . According to the SELL/Médiamétrie 2020 video game market report , 92% of 15-18 year-olds and 87% of 19-24 year-olds regularly play video games. The news video game therefore seems to be a perfectly adapted format to reconcile Generation Z with trusted information. Indeed, it is not new to learn that this new generation is the one that is abandoning traditional news formats such as the written press, radio and television in favor of digital media.