MISINFO MADNESS

Naeema Mohammed Sageer, Aditi Gunna, Guinevere Mesh, César Loayza, & Charlotte Rogers

Misinformation is a problem and people engage with it

A card game to think twice about what you read

Misinfo Madness is a multiplayer game where you and your team separate the misinformation from the truth about current events.

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• Expose that misinformation and disinformation is global
• Help players to reflect about what is true in the information they consume

CATEGORIES OF MISINFORMATION

Climate Change (causes and effects of climate change, timeline of change, new policy measures and the repercussions on society)

Elections/Government (what regulations mean, election procedures, targeted campaigning, etc)

Business/Economies (stock market, global currency exchanges, inflation, etc)

Pop Culture (movies, celebrities, musicians, ‘gossip’)

Religion (religious figureheads, interpretation of religious texts, challenging of religious texts)

COVID-19/Diseases/Health & Wellness (mainstream misconceptions regarding prevalent diseases, ‘research-backed’ healthy habits, etc)

War/Military Presence (the current war in Ukraine, previous wars, military presence and its effects, how it is perceived, etc)

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Note: Throughout the prototyping stage, our own bias is included along with the use of factcheckers; as this game evolves, we would like to partner directly with factchecking organizations.

GAME RULES

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• Required: At least 4 players (2 teams), Information Cards, Timer
• Objective: Be the first team to reach 10 points

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How To Play

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1. A team picks a category.
2. A member of the team then takes a turn pulling a card from that category’s deck and reading it. They then decide, alongside their team and within the allotted time, whether the card should go in the “true” or “false” pile depending on the veracity of the information it presents.
3. The other team then takes a turn, and the teams keep switching turns until someone from an opposing team says that they disagree with the way a card has been sorted, at which point the veracity of all the cards is checked by flipping them.
4. The team that is correct (either in their sorting or in challenging the sorting) gets the card that was challenged, which equates to one point.

True

False

Team 1

Team 2

True

False

Team 1

Team 1

Team 2

True

False

Team 1

Team 2

Team 1

Team 2

True

False

Team 1

Team 1

Team 2

Team 1

Team 2

True

False

Team 1

Team 1

Team 2

Team 1

Team 2

Challenge! No way that one is false.

True

False

Team 2 scores a point. Runs back

Team 1

Team 1

Team 2

Team 1

Team 2

Told ya’. It was true!

PROTOTYPING

LO-FI

MED-FI

HI-FI

PROTOTYPING & PRINTOUTS

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Card detail.

MisInfo Madness card printouts.

PLAY TESTING

The Players: Graduate Students at Parsons (20-35 years old)

Key Takeaways

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• Limited Hint Cards
• Sources greatly influence responses (but these correlations could be misleading)!
• Add more “sensational” content to generate more discussion.
• Playtest with a more ideologically diverse group.
• Larger cards to prompt a more complete reading of the explanations.
• Don’t need a timer.

NEXT STEPS

Graduate Students: 25 - 35 years old

Coffee gamers: 20 - 30 years old

NEXT STEPS: FUTURE ITERATION

MisInfo

Madness

Card Game

MisInfo

Madness

Digital Game on

1st iteration

MisInfo

Madness

Web-based Game

2nd iteration

3rd iteration

2022: 10MM players daily

THANK YOU.

QUESTIONS?

MisInfo

Madness

REFERENCES

Bazzaz, D. (2016, December 28). 10 questions to detect fake news. The Seattle Times. https://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/infographic-walks-students-through-10-questions-to-help-them-spot-fake-news/‌

Frazin, R., & Budryk, Z. (2023, April 20). Biden announces $1B toward Green Climate Fund. The Hill. Retrieved April 19, 2023, from

https://thehill.com/newsletters/energy-environment/3961737-biden-announces-1b-toward-green-climate-fund/

Kottasová, I. (2023, January 10). 'a world rapidly warming': The past eight years were the eight warmest on record for Planet. CNN. Retrieved April

20, 2023, from https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/10/world/eight-warmest-years-climate-copernicus-intl/index.html

Media Bias. (2021, July 12). AllSides. https://www.allsides.com/media-bias

Pierre, J., & Neuman, S. (2021, October 27). How decades of disinformation about fossil fuels halted U.S. climate policy. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2021/10/27/1047583610/once-again-the-u-s-has-failed-to-take-sweeping-climate-action-heres-why

Silverman, C. (2016, November 16). This Analysis Shows How Viral Fake Election News Stories Outperformed Real News On Facebook. BuzzFeed

News. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/viral-fake-election-news-outperformed-real-news-on-facebook

Supran, G., & Oreskes, N. (2017, August 23). Opinion | What Exxon Mobil Didn’t Say About Climate Change. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/22/opinion/exxon-climate-change-.html

What Is Affordable Housing? (n.d.). CUP. Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://welcometocup.org/projects/what-is-affordable-housing

What Is ULURP? (n.d.). CUP. Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://welcometocup.org/projects/what-is-ulurp

What Is Zoning? (n.d.). CUP. Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://welcometocup.org/projects/what-is-zoning

REFERENCES

Banerjee, S. (2023, April 17). 11 die of heat stroke during government function in Navi Mumbai. The Hindu. Retrieved April 21, 2023, fromhttps://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/at-least-eight-die-due-to-heat-stroke-during-maharashtra-bhushan-award-ceremony/article66745255.ece

Davis, S. (2021, October 29). CNN claims that climate change is causing the influx of illegal immigrants coming to America. TPUSA LIVE. Retrieved April 20, 2023, from https://www.tpusa.com/live/cnn-claims-that-climate-change-is-causing-the-influx-of-illegal-immigrants-coming-to-america

Yang, M. (2022, December 17). 'face it head on': Connecticut makes climate change studies compulsory. The Guardian. Retrieved April 21, 2023, from https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/dec/17/climate-change-studies-connecticut

Suhartono, M., & Goldman, R. (2020, January 2). Flash floods in Indonesia leave hundreds of thousands homeless. The New York Times. Retrieved April 21, 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/02/world/asia/indonesia-jakarta-rain-floods.html

NASA. (2023, March 16). Carbon dioxide concentration. NASA. Retrieved April 21, 2023, from https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-dioxide/

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