Newsgames Hackathon wants to make journalism an interactive experience
"Gamification" is a dirty word. Most don't mind seeing RPG elements worm their way into every genre of game, but mention doing it with fitness, learning, or your diet and those same people will likely roll their eyes.Europe's first-ever Newsgames Hackathon stands a chance of changing that.A "newsgame" is a gamified method of presenting journalism - be it a feature, opinion piece or a standard new story. The concept was successfully employed by the New York Times' "How Y'all, Youse, and You Guys Talk," an interactive quiz that became the site's most visited "story" of 2013. A hackathon (aka game jam) is when a group of artists, writers and designers gather in one place and build games in a very limited amount of time. It's a popular concept in independent development, and now The Good Evil and the Cologne Game Lab are teaming up to bring the concept to journalism.