Pimppeter2 said:
I... don't know what to say.
Does anyone honestly believe that these things work, or do they just like to keep themselves busy and be able to make Yale look better?
I believe that they could work. The problem is that all of these "message" games are unwilling to show anything unpleasant or shocking to children. So they caution against behaviors while keeping a blinder on.
It's like this, it's fairly easy to find plenty of material today glorifying the drug trade, like Grand Theft Auto games and the like, as well as stuff with people partying and doing lines of cokes from between a woman's breasts, etc...
On the other hand it's very difficult to find much material (though it does exist) with some desperate brain-fried coke whore, covered with marks, dying in her own puke in an alleyway. Sure, there are entire sections of cities full of degenerate, wasted junkies who have been used up and spit out by the drug trade, but we protect our darling children from that, we don't show them what those of us who support the anti-drug movement see.
Not to mention issues like some dude getting stoned and killing someone with his car. Or someone totally frying their brain on acid.
With sex of course, there are of course the moral issues of abortion which a kid shouldn't have to worry about (and isn't equipped for). Not to mention the life altering effects of having a child you can't support.
In the case of sex in paticular, sex between 13-14 is a problem, but I am a big supporter of sex education and distributing birth control/condoms in school. I've gone into that before.
At any rate, I think you COULD make a game that would work, but chances are it would involve material that would get it an "M" rating by most people's standards, which is exactly the problem. If I was going to educate kids about drugs, my product would probably be a lot like the "Condemned" games in atmosphere, minus the supernatural and combat.
Once while working security at Foxwoods we had a concert, I think it might have been Ginuwine, it's been a while. At any rate one of the things that sticks in my mind was a girl who ODed during the concert, was brought out into the hallway over by the food court through a side door to await EMTs and died in her own vomit. I was there holding up a sheet for privacy from the passing crowd (due to the need to get her out ASAP) as she died.
I was against drugs before that, but that's the kind of cr@p I think people need to see or be a part of to REALLY get the right idea.
