Pinocchio Tower
Pinocchio’s nose is a personal lie detector, but Pinocchio Tower is a collective lie detector
In Pinocchio Tower, a real estate market game, players can invest virtual money to build a tower collectively through a online chatting system. The virtual transactions between players are processed based on the recognition of the keywords (such as build, buy, sell, loan, rent, mortgage etc.) they type in the conversations.However, the game is designed to trigger the players’ desires of possess- ing more virtual properties which
exceeds their “purchasing power”. Then players can lie to each other to spend less money but build more rooms on the tower. And the tower will grow faster with the “bubbles” made by player’s untrue transactions. But the tower will collapse once the “bubbles” are too big too bear. Literally and visually, the tower is like Pinocchio’s nose detecting the truths and lies are told by the players in real time.
