Lucia Shen

Creation of a Transformational, Educational Role-Playing Web Game to Highlight the Unequal Cost of Voting for Different People Across the U.S.

Advisor: Geoffrey McGovern
Major: International Relations and Political Science; Literature and Culture
Minor: Human-Computer Interaction; Media Design

Abstract

Voter access issues have been especially pertinent for national elections, especially during the 2016 and 2020 presidential election cycles. The voting system in the U.S. is particularly complicated given differences in voting laws from state to state, and recent studies have been bringing to light how the cost of voting in different states proves to be a barrier to voter turnout. As such, a variety of voter rights organizations and news outlets have been creating projects surrounding clearing up how to vote in each state, often in creative and engaging ways. However, there remains a gap in creating a creative experience that highlights the structural policy differences in different states for a more general audience, including people who already have easy access to voting in their state, in order to mobilize those more privileged voters to see the need for change. This project aims to create a transformational, educational role-playing web game, somewhat inspired by The Oregon Trail, to highlight the unequal cost of voting for different people across the U.S.

Bio

My name is Lucia Shen, and I am currently a junior majoring in International Relations and Political Science, English Literature and Culture, and minoring in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). I’ve been interested in writing and storytelling since I was in elementary school, when I originally wanted to become a published author and illustrator. That interest morphed into an interest in journalism after hearing a reporter speak at my middle school graduation, and throughout high school I was hopping between wanting to pursue journalism or doing something in the publishing industry.

At that time, like many of my peers, I started also caring about American politics as well as international politics, and I saw a way in which I could make a difference with writing: namely through things like watchdog journalism or communicating important news, concepts and events to a broader audience. In college, I pursued this more thoroughly through internships, like working with Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington that aimed to keep politicians in Washington accountable. Around the same time, I went to a talk by someone who currently works for The New York Times Visual Investigations department, and I was inspired by new and innovative ways people were beginning to try and convey important information. It’s more effective and transformational for people to see reconstructions of events through pictures, videos or graphical representations sometimes than trying to describe something with just words on a screen. Through this, I sometimes came across multimedia or interactive media like those done by The New York Times Visual Graphics department that helped people understand things like gerrymandering through playing a game.

This interest in different modes of storytelling or communication is why I started pursuing a Human-Computer Interaction minor, and after taking an Information Design class, I started getting really interested in design and wanted to pursue the fifth year scholar program to explore it even further. That’s getting ahead of myself a little bit though in terms of the here and now, but I had so much fun reconnecting with a more artistic and creative side of myself in an academic context that I haven’t really been able to cultivate since my art classes in high school.

This is all to say, many of my passions are encapsulated in my academic work. However outside of school, I’m also president of Scotch’n’Soda, Carnegie Mellon’s student-run theatre organization. My love for theatre started in high school when I joined our high school set crew to help build sets, later on took on stage managing shows, and played violin/viola in the pit for 1776 and Fiddler on the Roof. I think these varied perspectives of theatre gave me a sense of awe for theatre as an art form that is so reliant on the collaboration of different artists and individuals, all with their own unique things they bring to the table. This is also a reason I was so passionate about Scotch’n’Soda when I came to CMU, because I saw this here as well: people with all kinds of skillsets and backgrounds committing an extraordinary amount of the free time to help put together a show, which, I have found first-hand, is a massive undertaking. I just loved that a lot, and I also foresee theatre as a large part of my life in the future as well.

To sum up, I’m passionate about storytelling in new and innovative ways, and I’m always looking for new ways to explore art and communication, both in school and outside of it.