The Alphaville Herald

The Train Wreck of Virtual Journalism

by walkerspaight on 25/02/06 at 9:21 am

Tony Walsh over at Clickable Culture reports that two journalism professors at the University of Minnesota have built a version of Neverwinter Nights, the designed-to-be-moddable role-playing game, in which players take on the roles of journalists in modern-day America, assigned to cover a train derailment and hazardous materials spill. The game is being used in their journalism class, to teach students the rudiments of covering local stories of the sort. Next thing you know, someone will be sending college students into a virtual world and asking them to bring back stories of their own. Hm, that sounds familiar…