Luigi Bevilacqua is a web programmer and a graphic designer from Lucca, Italy.  He said about himself that he always liked to create useful software but he missed the ability to craft a proper interface for it. Therefore, together with his business partner, Arnaldo Filippini, a graphic designer, he established the QZR company.  Joined with other colleagues they combine two fields (graphic design and software development) to provide unique solutions to communication problems.
With QZR we are working at a two-year long project called FIDO (from the English acronym: "Fighting Fake News and Disinformation"), funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus Plus programme. The role of QZR in FI.DO project is to coordinate and develop the IO3 in the form of a serious computer. “It was supposed to guide senior people through the jungle of fake news and disinformation,” says Luigi ahead of the interview.

• Luigi, together with partners, you started with the FIDO project last year in March 2021, how do you find it so far?

First of all, it is our very first Erasmus+ project and our first opportunity to collaborate with several countries. We were thrilled about this new partnership and so far our experience has been wonderful. The partners are eager to collaborate and to put themselves into play - literally, in the case of the development of the videogame - with the shared goal of building something useful for the community.

• Your organisation was responsible for developing the computer game for the target group that is not used of gaming. How did you find the idea at the beginning?

In adulthood, we often lack the time to play; it is considered childish or a waste of time. But in our opinion, games are the best way to tackle new challenges and to put things in another perspective. Given the seriousness of the topic and our target, we chose to avoid designing a traditional game - one that could be considered a "funny" game - to focus on a simulation of real-life experiences: something relatable, not too distant from everyday activities, but hopefully distant enough from the player to let them evaluate the results from the right distance.

• Have you had any experience before in developing the computer games for adults?

Actually, we already developed a video game for wannabe entrepreneurs: it is an 8-bit simulator of the life of a business based in deep space. As for FI.DO, dynamics and rules are the same as in the real world, while settings and narrative development bring the player to another state of mind, to give them useful information avoiding the form of a boring lesson.

• Please, tell us more about the process of developing the computer games for adults: how did you design it? Who helped you? What was the role of the partners?

Our team started analysing what was already present in the same field and what was missing. We found out that several previous projects focused on the creation of fake news, while others seem to punish the player in case of error: both seem unfit for our target group. What was also missing was the replica of an actual context of fake news dissemination, something more relatable to the players. Once shared the results of our investigation with all partners, we agreed on the design of the current game: a life-like instant messaging system, with functionalities similar to Whatsapp, Telegram, or Viber, where you are already part of chat groups and your goal is to evaluate shared articles. As QZR our role was to organise discussions with the project partners and to summarise solutions, but it was really team work.

• Can computer game be played also by the children and other adults?

In terms of game dynamics, it is adapt to people of any age, with a basic school l literacy. Topics are targeted towards elder people, so they could sound a bit silly for younger players, but even our 24-years old designer that helped develop the game found the theme interesting and full of useful information.

• Now the content was very precise: fake news and disinformation. Was it difficult to integrate such topic into the development of the computer game?

Well, what was difficult was to highlight common techniques and patterns without stating that they were always blatantly fake news. As found out during the development of IO1 and IO2 of FI.DO, articles are not split into two well-defined areas of real vs fake articles: sometimes an article can quote correctly a source, but hiding an important piece of information that brings a different light on the whole matter; an author could sound rightful, but refer to the wrong data; an image could be perfectly real but is taken out of context. We tried our best to integrate several steps of analysis on each phase and to let the players understand the degrees of truthness.

• While developing IO1 and IO2 you had an option to learn more about the fake news and disinformation. Was it useful that your tool was not developed at the beginning?

We are not experts of fake news by any means, it was our first time tackling this issue, so the literature that we read and shared for the IO1 and IO2 was eye-opening for us. The game would have been way less deep and definitely less useful without this.

• Partners helped you with the ideas to develop the tool, but was it enough for you? Did you have to dig yourself into the field of fake news often to properly include it in the game?

Studying topic is vital for QZR in every project we take: we think and act starting from the idea that there is not a given solution for any problem, the design solution stems from the problem itself. It is easier - and cheaper also - to just reuse existing solutions on different areas: in the case of the perfect formula, we can just fill some empty cells with new data, and take back a correct output. But we are not talking about numbers: we need to focus on the target of elders, on the concerned topic, on the output desired, and combine these variables in a way that is easy to play and, we hope, to understand.

• What do you consider the biggest success at the end of the FIDO project? What do you hope the teachers, trainers, and participants can take away?

I hope to spark questions and doubts. We are currently in a society saturated by fake news, where new technologies and methods bring a different level of threat compared with the past. I do not believe that FI.DO is the solution to all this, but if one of the participants hesitates before sharing a shady article, I will be happy.

• Will it be translated into other languages?

The game is already available in English, Greek, Italian, Slovenian and Polish.

• How will the public be able to reach the game?

This output, as the others made by the FI.DO project, is publicly available at fidoproject.eu.

• Would you like to add something?

Before starting this project, one day I received a piece of fake news on a Whatsapp group shared by my mother. I tried to gently explain to her that the article was a hoax; she said: "Well, it was shared by your uncle, my brother: if I can't trust my brother, who can I trust?". I would love to see my mother, and also my uncle, share our tools instead of more fake news.

Luigi Bevilacqua was interviewed by Katja Lihtenvalner, PhD candidate in adult education, media analyst, journalist and producer.