The New York Times has published this month’s newsgame, which we created over at the studio.
In Points of Entry, you can compete to award Green Cards under the Merit-Based Evaluation System included in legislation recently debated in Congress.
The system, proposed in legislation sponsored by Senator Ted Kennedy, outlined a Federal standard for worker visa awards, based not on individual achievement, but on a single, standardized system for all immigrants. Some criticized the bill for rejecting family ties, others for putting business interests in the hands of the government. In either case, the promise of one single method to judge the absolute merit of immigrant workers demonstrates the real value of contemporary domestic policy: bureaucracy itself.
During debate about the 380-page bill, neither legislators nor the popular press brought its details to the public. One official congressional brief offered two examples. If the Internet fails to cash out the promise of increased citizen participation in policy making, games might allow citizens to experience the implications of legislation more directly. Points of Entry offers one example of such a practice.
You can play the game online at nytimes.com. A TimesSelect subscription is required.