A nifty Flash game called The Republica Times lets you be a would-be editor-in-chief for a state-owned newspaper where you must balance editorial control with keeping the government happy by selecting headlines that make your country look like a utopia instead of the mess that it probably is. With a little imagination, you can pretend you're in Russia, Cuba or North Korea keeping the populace safe and happy with news that is likely one-hundred percent fabricated.
The gameplay is simple enough to understand: you drag and drop headlines from a newsfeed into various sections of your publication - from celebrity news (always a sure bet to lull the populace) to propaganda pieces about how grand life is or how great of a job your fearless leaders are doing.
The game isn't particularly high tech, but it does illustrate why having a free press is a pretty important thing.
Check it out here. Requirements to play it are on the launch page.
Source and image: Polygon
