Interview with “election” game creator

Urmas Veersalu from 360.ee used Loquiz platform to run the game for local municipality elections candidates. It was first ever game used in “elections”. It attracted some media interest and participants were able to utilize the results in their social campaigns.

I asked Urmas for his feedback as an organizer. Below are my questions and his answers.

How did the platform suit to that kind of custom “election” game?

“The platform is very suitable for running entertaining and educational game that gets people moving around because this allowed me to guide people to the places I found were most important. I hope players felt it too. I like it that entering questions is easy task, so I can play around with different alternatives.”

What was the most difficult thing when preparing the game?

To create a really good game from scratch you need to reserve some time. For this game I went to the field twice for ideas and once for testing. So while you can make a game without ever leaving your computer for the games where there is public interest you want to put more effort into preparing a game.

What was the most challenging thing when running the game?

When the game is properly prepared there are no problems running it. In the specific game we wanted to know who is going to win the game as early as possible so we could prepare the diplomas for the winners. We could not however predict the winner till the very last moment. For us in this specific gase it was a problem, but generally I would say it is an admirable state to have.

What worked, what didn’t?

I put one really complicated question in the very beginning of the game. This posed difficulties to one of the teams. I recommend putting the tough questions to the middle of the game, so teams have an easy start and good finish. What worked was the overall emotion once again. It was no ordinary “nothing on stake here” type of game. People really wanted to perform and I was happy to see that the enjoyed the game as much as regular groups do.

Other recommendations?

Put some effort into preparation. The first questions should be easy to make the start of the game flow well. This will create a sense of achievement.

I think that in many ways this was better game than some others, because the profile of the group was so clear. When you know the profile you can create questions that people connect to. Looking at the wll known places from an angle of what the group is interested in, gives you a lot of new insight. I learned a lot preparing this game.

By the way the game is available to play for other groups if they want to!

Thanks Urmas!