Moderator Mayhem: A Mobile Game To See How Well YOU Can Handle Content Moderation
Play Moderator Mayhem in your browser »
Today, we’re excited to announce the launch of our newest game in partnership with Engine. Moderator Mayhem is a mobile, browser-based game that lets you see how good a job you would do as a front line content moderator for a growing technology company that hosts user-generated content (in the game, it’s a “review” website that lets you review anything, not just businesses).
So much of the discussion lately around content moderation and trust & safety doesn’t come from a place of any kind of actual experience with moderating content and understanding the competing pressures, both internal and external, towards allowing free speech, protecting user safety, and complying with various laws and other factors.
A friend of mine in the trust & safety world once suggested that these conversations would be a lot more useful if everyone had to spend a few days moderating an actual community, and could learn how content moderation is not about “suppressing viewpoints,” but almost always about understanding really complex scenarios in which you have to make decisions in a very limited period of time, with limited information, and where there may not be any “right” answer.
Enter: Moderator Mayhem. It’s a browser-based mobile game, and you will learn that you have to make your moderation decisions by swiping left (take down) or right (keep up), and try to align content with the policies of the company (a fictional review site called TrustHive). Of course, users of your site may not like your decisions. They might appeal the decisions, and you might realize you missed some important context (or not!). Your manager might disagree with your decisions, and might not think you’re suited for the job. Your CEO might have his own views on how your moderation is going. So might the media.
And, of course, you don’t have much time to make your decisions, as the stack of flagged content you’re expected to review will keep growing and growing. Often, it would be helpful for you to investigate the more detailed context, and you can do that within the game, but it takes precious time. Sometimes you’ll learn something useful… but sometimes you won’t.
Also, there’s often no “correct” answer, so the game won’t tell you if you got something “right” or “wrong” because often there is no right or wrong. Your manager might tell you they disagree with your decision, or might not. But at the end of each session you’ll get a general update on how your manager thinks you’re doing in accurately applying company policy, and you’ll get a sense of your job security. Mess up too often and you may be looking for a new job. Apply the policy well enough, and maybe you can get promoted.
Of course, your manager is not the only stakeholder. You’ll also find out what the public thinks of your platform. Are you supportive of free speech, or too oppressive in your moderation? Are you allowing too much harassment and therefore not considered safe? One thing about the public is that they’re not shy about letting you know how they feel.
This is the second game we (Copia Gaming and our partner Randy Lubin of Leveraged Play) have created with Engine, following last year’s Startup Trail, which allowed players to explore some of the policy dilemmas and tradeoffs startups have to face. Moderator Mayhem is quite a bit different: there’s no time for policy considerations when you’re on the front lines and your queue keeps growing… so can you manage the mayhem?
(Note: while this game is designed for mobile browsers, it will also work in desktop browsers, though it will obviously have the form factor of a more mobile device).
Play Moderator Mayhem in your browser »
