Interactive Multimedia and AIDS Prevention: A Case Study

Abstract

Using multimedia applications to inform or to train is very different than using them for changing attitudes. The documented and discussed project started with the perspective that a large proportion of young people, despite knowing how AIDS might be contracted, still adopt risk behaviors. A multimedia role play application was designed to include both information and game layers. The game introduces complex situations using video stories, and then lets the users construct different narratives by choosing between behavior alternatives. The result of each narrative is related to contracting the disease or not. A discussion about role playing games follows, on the limits of this approach, as well as the kind of interactivity and the forms of delayed feedback given.