The beta version of the Tsantsar educational online game is already available on Media.am. The purpose of the game created by the Media Initiatives Center (MIC) [also responsible for this site] is to inform computer and online users about cyber domain threats and teach them how to respond correctly.

Alongside creating the game, MIC developed the handbook Internet Freedom and Protection of Human Rights Online in Armenia. “Many media professional and civil society representatives don’t give much importance to cyber risks and have very little knowledge of internet security,” reads the handbook. It’s this gap in knowledge that Tsantar helps to fill. 

The game has six environments, or “worlds” as they’re called in the game: Social media, Mobile devices, Computers, Data, Accounts, Networks. By answering questions in each of these topics, the player acquires knowledge through text as well as video.

“We specifically chose the name of the game, Tsantar. Tsantsars are residents of the internet, those who are interested in communications, information technologies, social networks, and so on. If you want to be an honorary tsantsar, you have to beat all the worlds of the game,” says project coordinator Anna Barseghyan.

The game is for human rights defenders, state officials, and particularly journalists. For those who in their busy daily lives don’t have time to keep abreast of changing security tools.

“In the fast-changing world, there’s a problem of information protection. The available resources for information security are presented in a very complicated way. This is an attempt to provide the information through a game in a more interactive, concentrated dose,” says game expert and IT consultant Artur Papyan.

Tsantsar’s final version will be ready in January.

Gayane Asryan