EXTRA: All the News That's Fit To Mock
Well, isn't this a pleasant surprise. Molleindustria has come out with yet another browser game with "simulator" in the title that has something important to say about our society.
New York Times Simulator was released onto itch.io in late March 2024. It's also based on some game called The Republia Times, which was created by the guy benhind Papers, Please.
The premise is as follows: you are the newest editor-in-chief, which you don't see many people actually read these days. Your job is to build up the newspaper's readerbase to 10 million readers--you start at 5 million--by using stories with provocative, engaging headlines to draw their attention. Simple enough, right? But that's not all; you also have to keep your sponsors, specifically the rich, the police, and the Zionist lobby, happy.
Yes, you read that right. In a first for this developer, this game is now taking a hardline anti-Zionist stance, though this shouldn't be surprising if you've been anywhere near leftist social media circles since October 2023.
But anyways, you're given stories on a variety of topics, like lifestyle, the climate, or, of course, the situation in Gaza. With most of them, you have the opportunity to change their headlines to something that's phrased in a way such that it either grabs more readers or appeases your corporate masters. Don't forget to ditch certain stories when they start to get old. Did I mention that you have a time limit?
That's pretty much it. The game is less than 10 minutes long, and its gameplay mechanics are pretty simple compared to most of the dev's fare.
What I was most reminded of was We Become What We Behold, another minutes-long browser-based game revolving around an exaggerated aspect of the media cycle. It's obvious that Pedercini, like Nicky Case, felt he really had to make his thoughts on how the news covers certain issues with global consequences known--in a tongue-in-cheek interactive format, that is.
As for my final verdict on its quality? Well, it's in-your-face with its messaging, but that's to be expected at this point. It's not quite as demanding of the player as, say, Oiligarchy or Green New Deal Simulator. You have a time limit, of course, but it's really generous, and you should have little trouble reaching ten million readers as long as you pick the right headlines and don't piss off your sponsors too much. Really, all I can say about this is that it doesn't overstay its welcome.