The election fever hots up in Malaysia as all eyes are on the more than 1.3 million youths, aged between 18 and 20, who will be voting for the first time on Nov 19.
While some of the first-time voters have made up their minds, others remain undecided, as the 15th General Election in Malaysia features a record 945 candidates contesting the 222 Parliamentary seats nationwide.
Malaysia Information Literacy Education (MILE) has created an online game to help young, first-time voters navigate the spread of misleading information, extensive politicking, and propaganda.
The game ‘Are You Yang Bijak?’ (Are You the Smart One?) was funded by the Google News Initiative and illustrated by Studio Behind 90.
“The game addresses electoral dis- and misinformation, as well as political and divisive propaganda,” said MILE co-founder, Darshini Kandasamy.
“In addition, we aim to teach game users to identify related personal biases that could affect their ability to discern false or misleading information, and educate them on the consequences of believing, and spreading them.”
‘Are You Yang Bijak?‘ is an expansion of MILE’s 2021 game “Choices I Make”, created to help Malaysians navigate the Covid-19 infodemic.
Darshini said the group was motivated to expand on its original game based on the feedback received after the release of the first game at the height of the pandemic late last year, so as to help first-time voters become informed electorates.
The game is available in three languages – English, Bahasa Melayu and Mandarin – and can be played both on desktop and mobile devices.
It allows players to assume the role of a college student taken in by a social media-savvy politician running in an election.
“Although aimed at young, and first-time voters, the game can be beneficial to everyone, of various age groups, and voting experience,” she said.
“MILE hopes to be able to instil wider critical thinking and information literacy skills in the country.”
“The MILE team is already working on expanding the game beyond GE15 to address other groups of voters, other forms of political misinformation, and other by-elections,” she added.
Here are the links to play the game:
English: http://choicesimake.com/yangbijak/en
Bahasa Melayu: http://choicesimake.com/yangbijak/my
Mandarin: http://choicesimake.com/yangbijak/zh