Participation Nation is a game for teaching American constitutional history and civics to high school students. Players can play the “Forces of Change” or the “Status Quo” in a debate over the constitutional issues that shaped the country.

This prototype focuses on the constitutional crisis surrounding school integration in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957.  The player uses people, laws and values from the era to support two out of three points of the argument for or against school integration, addressing questions like “Should the federal government intervene?”, “Is media coverage swaying public opinion?”, and “Are civil rights woth risking a constitutional crisis?” Players can also access an array of primary source materials including historic documents, newspaper articles, and archival footage to give their argument extra power. As in history, there is no right or wrong answer, but rather a play is evaluated on it’s relevancy to each argument.

This debate game is part of a larger multi-platform system which includes webisodes, a graphic novel, and a website with social networking features. Participation Nation is a collaboration between KCET, Activision and the USC School of Cinematic Arts’ Interactive Media Division Game Innovation Lab. The team is a multi-disciplinary cohort including educators, historians, artists, designers, programmers.