The reception of the newsgame
Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2025 9:01 am
The newsgame has often been seen as a way to catch up with this audience, considering that it corresponds to the practices of the younger generations. However, since its appearance in the media ten years ago, it remains difficult to measure its reception . Even today, the newsgame is generally developed and published under the label of " innovation ".
In 2020, on the occasion of the municipal elections, the gambling data belarus La Nouvelle République website published a series of three newsgames – the work of students from Sciences Po Rennes, Insa Rennes, Lisaa and a collaboration with Ouest Médialab. For Matthieu Le Gall, a journalist from the editorial team who co-piloted this project, it was above all “ an opportunity to show that a small regional daily press editorial team is capable of welcoming this kind of innovation . ”
The audience monitoring set up by the editorial team was not very precise at that time, confides Matthieu Le Gall, it is not possible to know which audience played these newsgames the most.
On the Casus Ludi side, a studio specializing in mediation through games and creator of newsgames ( NDDL Newsgame , Ortolandes , SMS Leaks ), it is the same observation. Bastien Kerspern, the co-founder of the studio, explains that the audiences were not measured , in particular for reasons of confidentiality. As is often the case in "innovative" projects, the precise measurement of audience reception was forgotten in the objectives.
The importance of targeting
Defining a target audience is essential for the media and newsgames should not be exempt from this. “ We don’t make the same game if we’re targeting teenagers or 40 or 50 year olds , ” explains Bastien Kerspern. Newsgames are all the more complicated to set up because they must also take into account the audience’s gaming habits. “You have to know how to identify the player’s profile in order to adapt the game,” says the interaction designer.
Indeed, while a large majority of young people play video games, they do not all have the same practice. The SELL/Médiamétrie report, for example, classifies players into four categories: “ casuals ”, convivial , active and committed technophiles . Each is characterized by a different conception of the game, a preferred genre and medium, a more or less regular frequency of play, etc. It would therefore be a mistake to conceive of this audience as a single entity . According to Bastien Kerspern, users who go towards newsgames would first be so-called “casual” players, while conversely “big players” are very little interested in this format.
A hierarchy of groups according to their game intensity (SELL/Médiamétrie)
In addition to audience targeting, many other parameters must be taken into account when designing a newsgame to ensure its relevance. Bastien Kerspern recommends, for example, studying the target's current cultural codes , "it is interesting to see the games, series, and uses that our players are accustomed to in order to divert this medium and base our game on it" , he explains. In the same way, using a pre-existing – and fashionable – game technique allows on the one hand to reduce the time it takes for users to appropriate the newsgame, and on the other hand to avoid making a mistake by betting on a mechanic that works.
But even if the form seems appropriate, the content should not be neglected. Indeed, not all subjects lend themselves to treatment through games and to attract the younger generations, it is above all necessary to respond to their interests .
In 2020, on the occasion of the municipal elections, the gambling data belarus La Nouvelle République website published a series of three newsgames – the work of students from Sciences Po Rennes, Insa Rennes, Lisaa and a collaboration with Ouest Médialab. For Matthieu Le Gall, a journalist from the editorial team who co-piloted this project, it was above all “ an opportunity to show that a small regional daily press editorial team is capable of welcoming this kind of innovation . ”
The audience monitoring set up by the editorial team was not very precise at that time, confides Matthieu Le Gall, it is not possible to know which audience played these newsgames the most.
On the Casus Ludi side, a studio specializing in mediation through games and creator of newsgames ( NDDL Newsgame , Ortolandes , SMS Leaks ), it is the same observation. Bastien Kerspern, the co-founder of the studio, explains that the audiences were not measured , in particular for reasons of confidentiality. As is often the case in "innovative" projects, the precise measurement of audience reception was forgotten in the objectives.
The importance of targeting
Defining a target audience is essential for the media and newsgames should not be exempt from this. “ We don’t make the same game if we’re targeting teenagers or 40 or 50 year olds , ” explains Bastien Kerspern. Newsgames are all the more complicated to set up because they must also take into account the audience’s gaming habits. “You have to know how to identify the player’s profile in order to adapt the game,” says the interaction designer.
Indeed, while a large majority of young people play video games, they do not all have the same practice. The SELL/Médiamétrie report, for example, classifies players into four categories: “ casuals ”, convivial , active and committed technophiles . Each is characterized by a different conception of the game, a preferred genre and medium, a more or less regular frequency of play, etc. It would therefore be a mistake to conceive of this audience as a single entity . According to Bastien Kerspern, users who go towards newsgames would first be so-called “casual” players, while conversely “big players” are very little interested in this format.
A hierarchy of groups according to their game intensity (SELL/Médiamétrie)
In addition to audience targeting, many other parameters must be taken into account when designing a newsgame to ensure its relevance. Bastien Kerspern recommends, for example, studying the target's current cultural codes , "it is interesting to see the games, series, and uses that our players are accustomed to in order to divert this medium and base our game on it" , he explains. In the same way, using a pre-existing – and fashionable – game technique allows on the one hand to reduce the time it takes for users to appropriate the newsgame, and on the other hand to avoid making a mistake by betting on a mechanic that works.
But even if the form seems appropriate, the content should not be neglected. Indeed, not all subjects lend themselves to treatment through games and to attract the younger generations, it is above all necessary to respond to their interests .