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Could a Video Game Stop the Spread of HIV/AIDS?

February 12, 2007

On January 25, 2007, the Kaiser Family Foundation and mtvU joined forces to launch a competition, called the “Change the Course of HIV Challenge”. The challenge “aims to inspire video game enthusiasts, activists, and students to propose ideas for a web-based video game to help raise awareness about HIV/AIDS among 15-24 year olds in the U.S. and to promote personal action in response to the epidemic”.

“No undergrad in school today has known a world without HIV/AIDS and a new young person someplace in the world is infected every 15 seconds,” commented Stephen Friedman, mtvU's general manager. “Through this challenge, we hope to inspire college students to use the power of online gaming to engage their peers, re-awaken them to the magnitude of this deadly virus and effect prevention.”

Tina Hoff, the vice president and director of Entertainment Media Partnerships at the Kaiser Family Foundation added: “The competition is designed to help us reach young people in a different and engaging way to help inform them about HIV/AIDS and spur action. As HIV remains the great public health challenge of this generation, it’s essential to find new and creative ways to engage and inform young people about the epidemic.”

mtvU and the Kaiser Family Foundation are looking for innovative, interactive concepts for video games that will spread rapidly online. Proposed projects should raise awareness about HIV/AIDS among young people in the US, identify ways to stop its spread, and address the silence, stigma and discrimination surrounding the disease. The challenge is open to college students nationwide and the deadline for submissions is March 16th, 2007. The winning individual or team will work with mtvU and the Kaiser Family Foundation – which are committing $75,000 to the development and marketing of the game – to see the winning idea realized.

The “Change the Course of HIV Challenge” follows on the success of “Darfur is Dying” (www.DarfurisDying.com), a student-developed, viral video game – now played more than 2 million times by over 1 million people – and a key element of mtvU’s Emmy Award-winning Sudan campaign. “Darfur is Dying” is a narrative-based simulation where the user, from the perspective of a displaced Darfurian, negotiates forces that threaten the survival of his or her refugee camp.

Source: Kaiser Family Foundation News Release January 25, 2007 retrieved from
http://www.kff.org/hivaids/phip012507nr.cfm

Posted at 02:15 PM by Shantrie in the News & Media category/ies.

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