$400k Federal Money Develops Virtual Abstinence Trainer

by Dan Crabtree, posted on 27 July 2010 / 1,694 Views

My Fox Orlando reported today that the University of Central Florida has been given $434,000 to develop a game simulating social experiences for pre-teen girls in an effort to teach them abstinence. At UCF's Institute for Simulation and Training, students led by Professor Anne Norris are creating a full body simulation experience that puts players in the shoes of multiple characters who earn points for fending off peer pressure and abstaining from succumbing to the whiles of charming virtual boys.

ucf simulation

Players don a full body motion capture suit to play the game, and once playing, will be approached by a young male "of similar age" and asked to "make out" or approached with some other "sexual innuendo". And all of this should be available for... some girls, somewhere in spring of 2011.

This was one of those news stories that, when I read it, was so torn between being angry and fascinated that I just knew I had to share it. Truly, this is one of the most unpredictable uses for video games. And not only that, but it's being funded by our federal government. WHAT? Just incredible. Just... incredible.

Check out the Fox News report below for the whole shtick and some nifty footage of the motion capture suit.


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10 Comments

Kantor
Kantor (on 28 July 2010)

[john marston voice] God damned federal government! [/john marston voice]

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Silver-Tiger
Silver-Tiger (on 28 July 2010)

@hentai_11: For the first time, I would be happy to loose.

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hentai_11
hentai_11 (on 28 July 2010)

Technically it would be a perfect game for kinect. It sounds like an anti-dating sim. Does this mean you have (virtual) sex if you loose this game? Doesn't sound too bad ...

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DarkisWR
DarkisWR (on 28 July 2010)

Severance 44 minutes ago needs split screen they're focusing too much on the graphics Imagine what multi-player would be like...geez cross chat be freaky!

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Severance
Severance (on 28 July 2010)

needs split screen they're focusing too much on the graphics

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RCTjunkie
RCTjunkie (on 28 July 2010)

I WANT!

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Galaki
Galaki (on 28 July 2010)

Abstinence is a practice that gets girls pregnant and have a babies by 17.

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binary solo
binary solo (on 27 July 2010)

Given the news source I'm guessing the $434K of federal money wasn't specifically for this project, but that the university got a federal grant for researching educational / edutainment software. But it has being presented as a federal grant specifically given for this particular game. I think Faux News has done similar things with other federal money being presented (in this show?) as a waste of taxpayer money when the actual federal grant was pretty reasonable when you got the full story. It's just that most people don't bother trying to get the full story and simply accept what's been presented as the full picture. Aside from that I guess folks should go talk to a certain former VP candidate about how an abstinence only attitude has worked out for them.

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Icyedge
Icyedge (on 27 July 2010)

Curl, I was going to say the exact same thing. It should be about education not abstinence.

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curl-6
curl-6 (on 27 July 2010)

What utter dreck. Abstinence-only sex education is ineffectual nonsense anyway; all it does is encourage STDs and pregnancy; people have sex anyway but don't do it safely because they weren't taught how to protect themselves.

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