Video Games!

 We just discovered a site that has been around a while. JenniferAnn.org was created because a high school student, Jennifer Ann, was murdered by her ex-boyfriend. 

They host a video game creating contest every year with a different theme to try to teach about dating violence and healthy relationships. We spent one meeting playing the 2017 games created to teach about consent. 

"Stuck in a dark place" is a game that is more serious than most games. You can opt out of the more serious dialog, but you will miss reality. Because life doesn't give you an opt out button.
This game places you as a perpetrator of ignoring consent, or not fully understanding what it means. But you are also a victim of others who have disregarded your right to consent. It also helps give ways to deal with anger and what to do in different situations. There are also little games within the game.

​"How to Blorrble Blobble" is a more lighthearted game to teach consent. The Blorrble Blobble is a dance and you learn the dance as well as how to ask a partner to dance with you. There are different steps to the dance and before you do each step, you have to ask consent. Sometimes your partner wants to do one step, but not the other and you have to respect that.  Other times, your partner might be drinking and they cannot consent if they are drinking. This game is about dancing, but this concept can apply to many situations.

"Crossing Boundaries" you travel around the world with some   friends and  find yourself in different situations and you can be a great bystander or upstander in my opinion. There is a game called 'Snog-a-Frog' where you learn about different ways that people are unable to give consent. 

"Drift" is in space which we thought was cool, but this wasn't our favorite. You have different tasks to perform and have to follow directions very specifically and ask before you move on. So that does explain consent and that computer is very assertive when speaking, but almost crosses the line in how harsh it can be. 

We are going to try all the games on this site and check back for more when they are posted. We definitely recommend checking out jenniferann.org