The InterDependent

A new computer race-car game from Unesco that focuses on HIV-AIDS lets users travel on circuits across continents without ever receiving a speeding ticket. Geared to people 16 to 24 years old, players can race the car – a variety of models – through Unesco’s World Heritage sites without damaging an artifact let alone a shrub. As the AIDS pandemic continues to grow among youths worldwide, the game is meant to be a cost-effective way to reach and educate that audience, which may have limited access to information on the disease or prefer to seek material on it through such unconventional forums.

In true Unesco form, the 20-minute game is available in English, Russian and French; players drive on a preliminary or a championship track and go through checkpoints, virtually touring such sites as the Great Wall in China or the Central Amazon Conservation Complex in Brazil. The game can be played on the Unesco Web site or downloaded at no cost (www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/crosscutting-priorit...).

“Travelling Safely Around the World” is full of information about HIV-AIDS prevention and treatment that is written to encourage dialogue about the disease as well as to share the scientific aspect.

Unesco's fast-car online game is meant to be both educational and fun and to attract youths who want information about HIV-AIDS, which remains a pandemic around the world.

To play, you need to create an in-game account and choose a model – from a roadster to a sleek vroom-vroom style – and customize the color: green, yellow, red or blue. First-runs are confined to the preliminary track in the Kakadu National Park in northern Australia. Each track has an optimum time, but the goal, of course, is to beat the clock. Your time is then compared with the optimum schedule, which determines your position for a new racetrack.

At the checkpoints, racers test their knowledge by taking a quiz and possibly earning a time bonus. One sample of multiple-choice questions centered around diagnosis/testing: How can an HIV-infected mother protect her baby from infection? The game offers four answers: 1) by avoiding breast-feeding; 2) by taking antiretroviral drugs; 3) by giving birth through Caesarean section; 4) by all these measures.

The correct answer, (4), offers more information: a baby can be infected by HIV through mother-to-child transmission; an HIV-positive woman who is pregnant can pass the virus to her baby during pregnancy, labor and delivery or breast-feeding; antiretroviral treatment is available to treat women during pregnancy; lowering the concentration of HIV in the blood of the mother by antiretroviral therapy will reduce the risk of transmitting the virus to the baby during birth; a Caesarean section can also reduce the risk of transmission; and using prepared formula instead of breast milk to feed the baby can further cut the chance of HIV transmission.

“The idea was to create a game to fill in the gap in the computer games arena,” Janis Karklins, the assistant director-general for communications and information at Unesco, said in a telephone interview from Paris, where the agency is based. “We built a game that is packed with scientifically accurate information. We realized that many young people around the world are fascinated by computer games, yet there are very few games which are informational and education characteristics.”

Lakshya Digital, a studio based in Gurgaon, India, helped Unesco with the design and technical work. Barbara Mueller and Hans-Georg Kraeusslich, professors in the virology department at the Heidelberg University Hospital in Germany, provided medical expertise. Other partners included Path Ukraine, a nonprofit group focused on health, and the Institute of Social Development, a nonprofit educational group in Vietnam.

The UN says that Eastern Europe and Central Asia have one of the fastest-growing HIV epidemics in the world, reflecting a 66 percent rise in infections from 2001 to 2008. Ukraine is among those seriously affected, with the increase driven by, among other things, injected drug use, which has soared in the 20 years since Communism collapsed. The country is also said to have one of the highest HIV rates in Europe, with an estimated 360,000 people over age 15 infected, and an HIV prevalence rate of 1.1 percent in the adult population as of 2009. In comparison, the figure in Britain is 0.2 percent of the adult population.

In Vietnam, HIV infection among people 15 to 49 years old was estimated to be 0.44 percent as of 2009, but for people who inject drugs, the rate is about 30 percent, with some regions estimated to be closer to 50 percent, according to the UN.

Two narratives of the game were tested in Kiev, Ukraine, involving community groups of 15- to 21-year olds. Katya Gamazina, a Path program director, said that the multimedia tools “can help both teachers and parents discuss with children sensitive issues, such as safe behavior for HIV and AIDS prevention.”

Indeed, “Teenagers often want to talk to their parents about HIV-related issues, but may find it difficult to even start the topic,” Karklins of Unesco said. “Children may get inaccurate information from friends and sources and worry about parents' disapproval and have fears about the risk of becoming infected with HIV.”

The fast car, he noted, was designed to attract young Internet surfers and social-media users, who in turn could help spread information about the game virally; the game is also geared for teachers and parents to discuss the material with young users more openly. Since it made its debut in December, 2,000 users have registered to play it on the Unesco site from 148 countries.

One education professional suggested that the game could be integrated into classrooms as part of a health curriculum. “The main point would be how to distribute this video game and how you get students involved with it,” said Andrew Roush, who helps run Model UN-style programs for the United Nations Association of the USA, which publishes The InterDependent.

Unesco said it was promoting the game through such resources as online journals, local magazines (such as in Zimbabwe), television programs, Unesco’s Twitter and Facebook accounts and special meetings with UN member countries.

The agency also said that it was planning to send a letter to the permanent delegations of Unesco inviting them to inform their national educational institutions about the game. In adddition, some discussions are being held with UN colleagues in field offices on how the game can be promoted through formal educational settings.