Today, with the sheer volume of information and false stories, it’s hard to know what to believe. Conventional training courses are no longer enough to help people deal with fake news. So how do you avoid polarising the debate ? At Arcane Experience, we use smart games to help your audiences get to grips with these challenges, through immersive activities and bespoke formatsthat go far beyond basic fake news awareness-raising.
Why fake news matters in a connected society
Today, fake news is no longer confined to social media: it seeps into classrooms, community projects and public debate. Many schools and institutions already report rumours spread by pupils or members, leading to conflict, loss of trust or decisions based on false information.
Traditional methods (talks, leaflets) struggle to hold young people’s attention or engage the members of a community organisation. Yet fake news awareness-raising calls for collective vigilance.
Without the right tools, communities risk weakened cohesion, a discredited social mission or work derailed by misleading information. Only an immersive, participative approach can meet this challenge.
Why games are the ideal tool for fake news awareness
In schools, community organisations and public bodies, game-based workshops put pupils, volunteers and staff at the heart of the action, turning an ordinary lesson into a hands-on experience. That immersion encouragesactive ownership of fact-checking methods and strengthens everyone’s critical thinking skills.
Experience makes it stick
Games place participants in situations calling for real decision-making : they handle information, spot the tell-tale signs of disinformation themselves and build lasting fact-checking habits. Several educational studies show that active learning through play is retained up to three times longer than traditional training.
Emotion as a driver of learning
By sparking curiosity, surprise or a sense of challenge, immersive scenarios trigger strong emotional responses: the learner realises they’ve been fooled, has a moment of revelation and locks good practice into memory. That emotional charge makes the workshop memorable and keeps people alert long after the session ends.
Simulating the traps set by false information
Our formats use role-play scenarios that recreate the confirmation, authority and urgency biases exploited by fake news. By experiencing these traps in a safe setting, learners discover their own vulnerabilities and learn to break down each stage of manipulation, building lasting vigilance against disinformation.
Arcane’s bespoke game formats for decoding information
At Arcane Experience, we’ve built unique expertise in designing bespoke games dedicated to fake news awareness. Our approach adapts proven formats to your specific learning objectives and your culture.
The immersive escape room
Our bespokeescape room format drops your audiences into the factory floor of fake news. In a carefully crafted setting – a compromised newsroom, a disinformation lab or the office of a fact-checker – participants come face to face with the machinery of information manipulation.
Every puzzle is designed to illustrate a specific aspect of disinformation : doctored images, manipulated quotes, exploitation of sensationalism or the invention of fake sources.
The investigation game
Our investigation game turns your teams into genuine information detectives. Faced with a real-world fake news case with tangible consequences within the scenario (a reputation crisis, a flawed strategic decision, internal conflict), participants must trace it back to source, identify who’s involved and understand how it spread.
Adaptable indoors or outdoors, this format can involve large numbers of participants at once.
The tailored board game
Our tabletop game format gives a systemic view of how information circulates. Participants take on different roles (media, social networks, influencers, fact-checkers) and see for themselves how a story mutates, amplifies or gets verified across themedia ecosystem.
The game mechanics faithfully reproduce the virality, echo chamber and polarisation effects that define today’s information environment.
What measurable benefits does a game-based approach deliver?
The bespoke games we design at Arcane Experience aren’t just fun, they deliver concrete, lasting results in fake news awareness. Here are the four main benefits our clients report after rolling out our game-based programmes.
Higher engagement than conventional training
L’A game-based approach generates a level of attention and involvement rarely reached in traditional training. Where a lecture or an e-learning module on fake news can breed boredom or distraction, our game-based formats capture participants’ full attention.
This total immersion in the experience guarantees maximum receptiveness to the awareness-raisingmessages. Participants become active players in their own learning rather than passive recipients of information, fundamentally transforming the quality of the training experience.
Good practice that sticks for the long term
The emotionally powerful experiences created by our games embed themselves deep in participants’ long-term memory . The verification methods learnt during play become natural reflexes when they meet information in everyday life.
This stronger retention comes from the unique combination ofemotional engagement, hands-on experimentation and contextualised learning that only games make possible. Far from fading, the skills developed last well beyond the session itself.
Building a shared culture against disinformation
Our games create a shared vocabulary and common references that make it far easier to discuss information issues across the organisation. This shared culture strengthens team cohesion in the face of information challenges.
The scenarios experienced together become landmark examples people refer back to, and the strategies discovered as a group turn into everyday organisational practice. The game acts as a powerful catalyst for cultural change across the whole organisation. There’s no better way to make a real contribution to fake news awareness.
How to bring a game-based awareness programme into your organisation
Rolling out a game-based fake news awareness workshop in an educational, community or public-sector organisation calls for a bespoke,‑scalable approach. Our programme can be tailored to your educational project, your values and your constraints.
Analysing your needs and context
We start with a full audit of your environment: communication channels (website, social media, intranet), existing educational resources and the types of fake news already detected. This phase includes assessing how alert your pupils, volunteers or staff currently are, through questionnaires and interviews. The data gathered helps us set precise objectives (media literacy, critical thinking, verification procedures) and identify the key skills to develop.
Co-designing an immersive experience
Working closely with your teachers, facilitators and community leaders, our game designers build an educational scenario suited to your audience. Themes, characters and challenges are developed‑together so they resonate with your local reality. We then run pilot sessions with a small group of participants to gather feedback and fine-tune gameplay, duration and mission difficulty before the full roll-out.
Flexible roll-out and full support
Our formats fit easily around your constraints: classroom sessions, workshops in a community venue, activities at institutional events or remote sessions via a digital platform. We supply all the teaching materials you need (props, game booklets, digital tools) and train your facilitators in facilitation, group management and running debriefs.
Evaluation and long-term follow-up
The effectiveness of an awareness programme is measured over time. That’s why every one of our game experiences includes a debrief phase, where participants put their learning into words and connect it to their day-to-day work.
We also provide follow-up tools, such as self-assessment questionnaires, to measure how behaviour towards information evolves.
