The Attention Game (3/3)

Title: Theme: Target Audience Format
The Attention Game (pt 3) Managing My DI 10yrs + Game

 

Learning outcomes
  • How headlines grab attention
  • Whether matching content to role is important
  • Mixed mode (synchronous/asynchronous) communications (including turn taking)
  • Whether you can ‘build’ a DI reflecting an aspect of your personality
  • How other people may view your choices
  • The effect of persistance of information on your DI
Outline
Based on “Attention Economy: The Game”, this simple card game focusses on obtaining the attention of readers. This version adds a twist at the end.
Duration:
With 5 players and 5 turns, this game takes about 30 minutes in its basic form.
Resource links:
Sample cards Sample cards
Description:
This version works well combined with the Role play option in pt 2.Play proceeds exactly as “The Attention Game pt 1”. Once the total scores have been tallied, and prizes given the tables are turned by asking “Now look at your headlines from the perspective of an employer, potential partner or family member looking back at the things you have written to see what you are like – what sort of impression will your ‘blog’ make on them?”

You can even give a bit of a hint that things may be going to change by choosing to give a ‘tacky’ prize after the first part of the game – If you give one cheap prize to first place and two of the same to second place, there is a slight hint that maybe ‘winning’ the Attention Game is not the be-all and end-all of the experience.

Questions to ask about the experience:

  • What was most succesful in grabbing your attention?
  • If you didn’t get much attention, how did that make you feel?
  • If someone else was getting attention, were you more likely to choose more extreme headlines?
  • What do you feel your choice of headlines says about you?
  • Describe your impression of the other players, based on their headlines
  • Does your choice of headlines reflect the role you chose?
  • How do you interpret what the other players ‘blogs’ say about them?
  • Looking back at the way the game went, would you change your attention grabbing strategy?
Observations
The twist can run the risk with some types of people of leaving them feeling ‘cheated’ – the only defence against this really is knowing your players and knowing whether it will be a problem. There seems little point in advertising the twist beforehand, although this strategy may work and it is certainly conceivable that people will still get caught up in the ‘Attention grabbing’ phase despite knowing that they will be judged on the overall picture later.