“Case By Case”: Investigating the Use of a VR-Based Allegorical Serious Game for Consent Education

Abstract

The topic of consent within interpersonal relationships is sensitive and complex. A serious game can provide a safe medium for the exploration of the topic of consent. In this paper, we aim to alleviate the challenges of designing a serious game artefact with the implicit goal of exploring the topic of consent. The resulting artefact, “Case By Case”, is a VR-based serious game targeting university students, which uses an allegory-based approach to achieve its goal. The participants play the role of a detective who is tasked with determining if individuals have committed theft, which serves as an allegory for breach of consent. “Case By Case” provides the users an opportunity to reflect on their decisions within the game and apply them to the complex situations of consent such as victim-blaming and bystander awareness. To evaluate the effectiveness of the game in achieving its implicit goal, we ran a user study (n = 24). The results show that “Case By Case” provided a safe environment for the users to reflect on the concept of consent and increase their understanding about the topic further.