Hacktivism Intent – ElizabethD

What is your concept/idea?

I wanted to create a video game where the user builds and plays a personalized character.  The user builds the character’s life by making decisions, but ultimately they end up in jail.  After serving time in jail and becoming close to their character, they have to rebuild their lives as ex-convicts.  However, the game will be very realistic and in tune with the American prison system, in that it almost seems completely unfair to the user.  The user might be faced with dilemmas where one of the only options for them is for them to perform some sort of crime, sending them back to prison.  If the user so chooses, there may be a menu that allows them to see statistics associated with American prisons, especially compared to others, as well as links to petitions or movements for prison reform.

Why this is important and for whom?

I think that this is important because in “The Land of the Free,” we have the highest incarceration rate of any free country.  We also have the highest percentage of repeat offenders.  Leaving prison makes it virtually impossible for someone to try to rebuild their lives, and crime seems like one of the more viable options at that point, thus creating a vicious cycle.

What New Media/hacktivism strategies will you use and why?

The New Media strategies used here are “mobilize people” and “aggregate, automate, and visualize data.”  This is because I would be putting all of these statistics in helpful sections for the users and throughout the game, while hopefully convincing them to get up ad do something about it, only having the links page would be making it incredibly easy for them to do something about it.  They don’t even have to get up!

Who is the audience and how do you hope it will influence them?

The audience is anyone that plays games.  On Steam, plenty of people just dive into games not fully knowing what they are.  Games are really a form of art, and they can convey a sense of empathy in the audience like nothing else.  The player experiences the story head on.  I hope that this will show them even a glimpse of how unjust out prison system is, and after completing the game, they might be so compelled as to visit the links that would be provided for them.

Rough budget for material, time, space needed to build; this can be a bullet list:

• list materials with cost

  • This game could be made for free in a free-to-use game engine, such as Unity.

• list time to actually make/create project

  • If the project were to be done well, I would say 4-6 months, given the time it would need to have modeling and sound design finished as well.

• list tools, software, hardware, space or anything else needed

  • A computer, maybe a more talented programmer, a free-to-use game engine, and somewhere to sit and do these things.