Not for Broadcast —Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells This Story
After the last several years specifically, the concepts and execution of news, journalism, and reporting have taken all sorts of forms and mutated in ways the old anchors may have never predicted. But at the end of the day, despite any best intentions and impartial objectives, reporting is opinion-shaping. In a world with billions of perspectives, the news, reporting, and journalism all have the power to shape and sway the opinions of any number of those perspectives at a time. How to feel in light of an event, or how an event is painted to begin with, all begin and end in a newsroom, be it print, audio, or visual.
Not for Broadcast, by developer NotGames, is…truly something else. In an exhausting time of fake news, political upheaval, and fear in the real world, Not for Broadcast puts the power of the news, of the story, in your hands, and tells you to shape the opinions out there. And the story is simultaneously gripping, fun, impactful, devastating, and hilarious in a way I cannot recall a game being before.
First, it is a story in three acts. From this point forward (with the full campaign released at time of writing), no one else will have to wait for the full experience like I did, but between early 2020 and now, it was riveting waiting for the next entry. By leaning so hard into the three-act structure, Not for Broadcast excelled at its pacing, gradually ramping up through each act to a sweeping (if not cliffhanging) conclusion, leaving its players excited to see how the world would change in the next update. Like Telltale, Dontnod, and other episodic juggernauts, NotGames found the perfect way to structure their story, already perfected by the storytelling masters. Outside that given structure, props to NotGames for finding a way to keep interest up with social-isolation releases and one-shot episodes! It made the wait until February 2022 more palatable and was genuinely appreciated.
Next, it is a story both in- and out-of-gameplay. In-game, the story is told (as it often is in video games) through the mechanics: bleep the swears, keep the camera on the action, keep the transmission in-focus, time the ad breaks, don’t let the equipment overheat, don’t electrocute yourself, the usual newsroom stuff. As players expertly weave the finest broadcast (or stumble through it like I did), the world comes to life in the broadcast they are creating: scandals, information, updates, elections, all pan out as players attempt to achieve the highest (or passing-est) score they can muster. Players use those same mechanics to guide the story and the world: censor more than just swears? Play an ad for the company you have stock in? Paint a celebrity in a bad light, or good? Activate the canned boo instead of the laugh track? The decisions are in the mechanics, more than simply choosing what to say from three options (four, if you count silence).
But watching that story evolve and change out-of-gameplay is where Not for Broadcast ties it all together. After all, as I’m wont to rant about, we’re not just the work that we do. We have lives outside! But still, the work has an impact on that life, and little text-based vignettes show how that life is progressing with the world changing around you. The choices you have may feel morally just, but are financially risky (or vice-versa). They may feel good right now, but how will they stand up to employee review? Not for Broadcast forces you to consider the long-term consequences of your actions from the get-go with great aplomb.
Lastly, Not for Broadcast is simply a story of stories: how we tell them, why we tell them, and what we (individually or collectively) hope to gain from sharing them. Through its gameplay and its truly myriad decision throughout, it opens the dam to tell thousands of unique stories, regardless of its developed paths. It barely scratches the surface of the nuance of reporting, but it still hits a lot of salient points.
It is an exploration of what we choose to show, what we censor, and how we justify both. What we prioritize, what we downplay, and our reasonings for doing so. Playing the short game, playing the long game, and weighing the impact of every single play. Asking who we support. Why. For how long. Asking how far is too far. Wondering if we’ll recognize it before the story is written.
It asks about growth and potential. About power and corruption. About optics and sincerity. About ends and means. Of objectivity, of subjectivity, and of how malleable both can be in the wrong hands, yours included.
Not for Broadcast is a fun, skill-based game where I occasionally have to fight off malevolent Furby-looking things from wrecking my station. But in its next breath, it forces me to look inward and ask what I value, what I prioritize, and what I might sacrifice to realize it. And then it breathes again, and I’m covering Sportsboard in all of its unintelligible beauty. Another breath, and the game asks me what I want to believe in, who I want to believe in, and how far I’d go to convince others of it. And then an ad for Crazy Neil’s Deals plays, and it’s back to work. Not for Broadcast a multi-monitored mirror forcing us to look inward as we watch in horror, and then laugh in the next breath. Stay tuned for more emotional dissonance.
All images are courtesy of Not for Broadcast’s Steam page and official website.
