Stephen Berrigan didn’t expect to be conscripted this semester.
That’s how the George Mason University junior describes his semester-long experience designing and producing a video game intended to prevent local teens from joining gangs — all at the request of the state attorney general.
“They used us as a work force to make games for them — that’s basically how it started,” laughed Berrigan, a computer game design major from Fairfax. He and his classmates, working in 10 teams, spent most of the semester creating anti-gang video games. His team’s game, “New Kid on the Block,” was honored as one of three finalists at a ceremony with Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli on Thursday.
This summer, Virginia schoolchildren will be able to download and play all three games on their cellphones. They can also download the games from the websites of the attorney general and GMU.
The initiative is part of Cuccinelli’s efforts to halt gang violence — and it’s particularly resonant for the Washington area, which is home to more than 100 violent street gangs. Anti-gang initiatives in Northern Virginia have had marked success in decreasing gang violence over the past several years, but Cuccinelli’s office wants to reach teens on their own level — on smartphones and computers.
“Gangs are increasingly using more advanced recruitment techniques to recruit younger and younger kids. They are using social media and even multiplayer online games to lure kids in,” said Cuccinelli spokesman Brian Gottstein, citing a gang-run prostitution ring in Fairfax County whose members used Facebook and other social networking sites to attract underage girls.
The George Mason students were asked to design a game that showed kids the consequences of joining a gang. The students consulted with state prosecutors “so they could program real-life scenarios into each of these new games,” Gottstein said.
Berrigan said his group wanted to demonstrate how even the smallest decisions have far-reaching consequences, designing a game in which a student must decide how to make friends and avoid gang influence at a new school.
“Our game is all about choice,” Berrigan said. “We don’t immediately make it seem like you’re making bad choices, but if you make a smattering of bad decisions, someone’s probably going to die.”
Scott Martin, the head of George Mason’s game design program, said he was pleased with his students’ work.
“We’re the first in the nation to try to address [gang violence] this way,” he said. “No other AG’s office is doing anything like this.”
