Game Classification

The two part game: MACBETH I and MACBETH II, is being developed for the International Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), the research head of the intelligence community for the CIA.

The project evolved after 9/11, when intelligence analysts came together to try to figure out what happened, to see if anyone had caught any warning signs. They came to the conclusion that intelligence analysts may have trouble removing implicit cognitive biases from their work. Even though they need to make quick decisions, sometimes unconscious mental short cuts lead to errors. There are many well documented forms of cognitive bias. For example, “confirmation bias” is the tendency to pay more attention to evidence that supports or confirms your expectations. “Anchoring bias” is the tendency to place too much weight on initial clues. To address the problem, IARPA contracted experts in the field of psychology and games. And so, MACBETH—or Mitigating Analyst Cognitive Bias by Eliminating Task Heuristics—was born.

MACBETH I has a similar feel to Clue, but revolves around terrorist attacks instead of a murder. The player’s goal is to collect evidence to figure out the suspect, weapon of choice, and location. Each plot in MACBETH is based on real terrorist attacks. The focus is to understand the cause of the bias, how to mitigate it, and how to build mitigation mechanics into the game.

Distribution : Retail
Platform(s) : PC (Windows)

Links

• http://seriousgames.msu.edu/a-serious-game-for-the-cia-msu-alum-d [...]