Game is a life-saver

9:48am Tuesday 1st July 2008

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A PUBLISHER of educational computer games in York is pioneering a lifesaving attempt nationally to stop children from getting involved in gangs, knifings and gun crime.

A new computer game has been launched by York Multimedia which has the blessing of the Home Office and will target primary school kids throughout the UK, particularly in areas such as London, Manchester, Glasgow and Birmingham where urban violence is a problem.

The hard-hitting game, formulated over three months at York Multimedia’s studio in Front Street, Acomb, will be used to show young people when they are being ‘groomed’ to join a gang, and what the consequences can be – whether it’s getting shot, arrested, or beaten up.

In one scene the young brother of the main character ends up in intensive care, following a revenge attack after an accidental shooting.

York Multimedia is the publisher of the Crucial Crew series of interactive games, working with police-led groups associated with gangs and urban violence and funded by the Home Office. This is its 13th game in the series.

The initiative was launched in 2003 as a joint venture by the Safer York Partnership and York Multimedia. Since then the partners have expanded nationally to include city and county councils, police forces and other emergency services, James Houston, who heads up York Multimedia, said: “This is the best one we have done. It is a great game and one which can really make a difference.

“All of the current research about gang problems suggests that the key solution is to stop young people getting into gangs in the first place.

“Once they are in, it is very hard to get out and this game shows children the signs of when they are being groomed and when to say no, before it’s too late.”

The game already has the blessing of the police in tough crime areas.

PC Joe Warburton, who worked on the game on behalf of the Manchester Multi-Agency Gangs Strategy group, predicted the game would make “a massive difference”.

He said: “My remit is to target children before they get involved.

Many of them will have been to a park and seen older children with guns or knives and think it’s OK to hang around with them. This game shows them what that can lead to, and enables us and teachers to deal directly with the issues which arise.”

The games are used throughout the UK in classrooms and by children at home to teach life-saving safety messages through the medium of fun-to-play computer games.

Other topics addressed to date include cycle safety, electricity safety, seaside safety, and railways.

The general format is of a cartoonanimation which sets the scene, and the invites the player to make a choice – such as whether to accept a gun being offered for protection, or not.

Depending on the choice made, the animation plays out the consequences. Sometimes funny, sometimes shocking, no punches are pulled in showing what can really happen if you make the wrong decision.

As well as guns, the game deals with issues surrounding alcohol, drugs (both taking and dealing) running errands, knives, territory, peer pressure, and police response.