On college campuses across the country, alcohol is often times an extracurricular activity, from Thursday – Saturday. Campus faculty members work hard to deter alcohol consumption by promoting abstinence and mandating that students attend programs that teach safe drinking practices. Unfortunately, while such measures do reach some students, others students disregard the disclaimers; and every year bad decisions are made which can lead to life changing outcomes, notably sexual assaults, DUIs, and alcohol poisonings.
In recent years, binge drinking and campus sexual assault has made national news reports, due to the alarming rates that they occur – even at some of the nation’s most prestigious schools. In the digital age that young people find themselves in, perhaps the best way to reach young adults is a media platform they understand. Two interactive games have been developed designed to make students think critically about excessive drinking and sexual assault, according to U.S. News & World Report.
“What Kind of Drinker Are You?” was created by a east coast center to help students think about their drinking. In the game, students go through the night partying and are asked to guess their blood alcohol level whilst being given safe drinking information and at the end they are given a drinking profile score, the article reports.
“We wanted to give these students a realistic view of what college drinking culture encompasses and show them how their drinking decisions can affect their night but even in the long term, their college experience and their drinking habits,” says Savannah Flynn, product manager at the center.
“Decisions That Matter” deals with sexual assault and how bystanders can intervene. The game was a class project at Carnegie Mellon University. The game is designed like a graphic novel, using life-like scenarios that don’t always present an obvious answer. Kirsten Rispin, one of the creators, hopes the game elicits students to think “honestly and critically” about how they’d handle situations involving sexual assault, according to the article.
“With the story, we wanted characters that were believable, dialogue that was believable, scenarios that were believable,” she says.
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If you or a loved one has a drinking problem, please contact Pace Recovery Center.
