Games and Sex Ed

Here's a conundrum: Sex Education is easily transmitted via television. It just works: it's really easy to find people willing to tell a story, and through their stories you learn whatever it is you need to learn about sex. I suppose for the more graphic how-tos, there's always pr0n, or - heh - Lovers Guide (NSFW), but generally we all know TV works. Assuming anyone's watching.

Online, though, sex education is a bit trickier. If you don't want to build Yet Another Informational Site about sex, STDs and the rest, what else can you do? Video blogs, but that's telly, online (there was one NSFW clip there at time of posting, btw, so watch out).

Could you do a game?

I can actually see it in my head: The Sims-esque ("The Secks!"), featuring various .. er.. Secksers who go off and get into all sorts of trouble: pregnancy, STDs, odd positions, not-so-odd positions, sex addiction, not-getting-any depression, penis size / breast size trauma, alternative sexual practices.. I mean, you can see how much FUN this would be, right? And you might actually learn something, like.. collecting all the STDs is a REALLY BAD IDEA.

But then again, how on earth do you teach the target audience (say, 14 year olds) about sexual positions and the like, without getting into graphic/porn trouble? Quite tricky. But also .. quite tempting. I know there's plenty of avatar nookie in Second Life, but I'm really thinking of something targeted and standalone and a little bit humourous but also actually useful.

Good idea or total disaster? Your thoughts, g'wan.

Comments

[Ravven]

Hmmmn...very interesting. I have no idea how it might work, but I think I'll give it some thought. I work on a social networking site with strong educational links (presently in beta), and we're doing some fun work with both browser-based 3D multiplayer areas and also game mechanics (xp, levelling, etc.) tied to incentives/rewards. Many of the games, ARGs, etc. that we plan to run will have educational or social relevance, so this would be perfect.

For our site purposes, I think a game where you get points awarded and taken away based on decisions? Sleeping with the guy that you have a major crush on would give you happiness or street cred points, but neither of you have condoms. Do you wait, and miss your chance, or do you do it anyway and risk loss of major points by getting an STD, etc? Being drunk might add a greater chance for bad decisions to be made. A sense of playing sexual health roulette - there's a small chance that you'll get away with it, but a larger chance that you'll lose. And making it multiplayer would make that concept very complicated. I think introducing sexual positions would piss off the schools, so we'll probably pass on that, lol...

Very interesting idea. :)

[Space Toast]

Why? Because you can't show anything, only talk about it. And if you're only going to talk about it, telly has videogames whupped.

Fundamentally, teenagers want the unvarnished truth about sex. That's hard to come by. Everyone seems to be either trying to trick them into/out of something, or trying to sell them something.

Telly can work here because you can literally sit someone who's been there down in front of the camera and get them to answer questions. Its problem is that they still (in the US) can't say f*ck, p*ss, c*ck, shit, etc. -- words that people actually use.

Online video has no such limitation. Maybe telly online really is the answer.

[Alice]

Space Toast just pointed out to me that Typepad automagically comment-spams words like f*ck if you type them out whole, so unfortunately I've had to add stars in there.

Sorry people. You have been warned ;)

[David Hayward]

Done well, I think the effects it would have in terms of knowledge and safety would be brilliant.

As Ravven points out, the potential trade-off between pleasure and safety is a very interesting idea, and possibly one of the most useful and didactic things about such a game.

However, the instant a game aimed at teenagers went beyond clinical knowledge it would become a cultural disaster by, ahem, "virtue" of vocal prudes.

For the social and carnal sides of sex to be made clear and contextualised without it also being explicit...? Hmm.

Suggest giving prudes the finger with a strategy game that teaches this:

"Abstinence-only sex ed leads to STIs, plus bonus psychopathology when people get really scared and ignorant.

If you put a bunch of people together, they will f*ck, no matter what anyone says to them or threatens them with.

Knowledge FTW" :)

[Rhi]

fantastic!