Trust and Safety Tycoon
Quick Info
- Platform: browser and mobile
- Players: single player
- Duration: 45-90 minutes
- Client: Hewlett Foundation
- Collaborators: Copia Gaming
- Released: October, 2023
Game Overview
Trust and Safety Tycoon is a browser and mobile game that puts the player in charge of managing the trust and safety team at a rapidly growing social network. Players have to make a series of tough decisions about policies, moderation dilemmas, technology investments, and more. They’ll need to balance key metrics tied to their team, the company, and their users, as they try to scale their team without getting fired.
Goal
Our goal was to help players understand that trust and safety work is complex and challenging. The audience was specifically government policymakers, journalists, and tech workers who might have a simplified understanding of the space, to help them have more nuanced conversations on the topic. Our client was specifically interested in helping people have better conversations about regulation in this space.
Outcome
Over 30,000 players have played Trust and Safety Tycoon, many of whom were in our target audience. Of players who filled out our post-game survey, over 65% said that they thought trust and safety was more difficult than they thought it was before playing. The vast majority of players said that they thought it would be very challenging to write effective laws around content moderation.
We also received favorable press in TechCrunch, Washington Post, and other news sites, as well as positive buzz on social media. The game has been run in classroom settings and livestreamed on Twitch.
You can listen to the collaborators discussing the game on this Techdirt podcast episode.