First of all, thanks for your interest on the suspended death penalty! The suspended death penalty exists only in China, and its key characteristic is that the convict will have a two-year reprieve before the execution, and if the convict behaves well in prison, doesn’t commit any crime in prison and pass the evaluation, the execution will be cancelled and the penalty will be reduced to imprisonment. The reality is that most convicts who are sentenced to the suspended death penalty can avoid execution. Although this penalty sounds humane and well-designed, many scholars are opposing it and they all have their concrete reasons. I support the suspended death penalty with my own reasons, and I also think that it can play a bigger role in today’s abolition movement of death penalty. After playing this game, Judge Simulator, you can know more about my claim and this topic.
Before playing the game, you can first read my “author note” as it is also a part of the assignment. Of course, you are sincerely welcome to go straight to the game below.
Author Note
I make a simple game written in HTML called Judge Simulator. It is a simple interactable game including some pictures, audio, texts and options. It has six law cases which are adapted from real cases, and in each case, you need to act as the judge and choose the penalty you want to apply. Your choices will influence the ending of this game. Those cases are typical cases, and they are carefully chosen to convey my thought about the suspended death penalty.
The reason why I make a game instead of a static photo or article is that I believe the best way to convey my idea to others is to engage across difference. Everyone will probably have a different opinion from me, and it can be hard for him to accept or even try to understand my opinion without a two-way communication. This game can act as a communication bridge. I present my opinion and thought by using the ending of this game. You can make your own choices during the game, and I can also convey my idea based on your choices. I don’t simply tell you “Oh, I think…”. Instead, you can get my opinion by yourself, by the choices you make. You can have your own logical thought after playing this game, and my game simply acts as a guide.
Also, I believe that playing game is a more interesting way to attract my targeted audience, ordinary people, to come to know my idea. They are busy and their time is fragmented. A long 5-page passage or twenty-page ppt is boring for them and hard for them to concentrate on, but a story-like game will never be boring, at least for the first time.
My game is written in English so probably it can’t reach those who know little about English. Additionally, although my game has been through careful design to convey a specific thought, it is still possible that some people can get an idea different from mine after playing this game. It may be not an effective persuasion tool, but I believe it can make people think deeper into this topic and think about my claim.
My game can be embedded in any website, so it is very easy to distribute it. I can also submit the page including my game and other introduction to the search engine like Baidu or Google so that more people can have the chance to come to see it. Also, some scholars which is not my targeted audience may get to play my game through the search engine and find more cases for their researches.
If you want to know more about my original essay, here is a wonderful audio (from the most lovely @Glis):
Also, the whole essay is available below: