Figure 2- A screen shot of the game Bystanders taken from the article "Can VR teaches us how to deal with Sexual Harassment?"
Also in Figure 2, The text behind the womxn’s back describes what the situation is which in this case is explaining that the man the individual had been flirting got the wrong message of her intentions due to what she was wearing, a dress. In this image you can also see the individual that the gamer is playing which in this case is the girl on the right who is playing a friend or a bystander deciding on what to say to the victim. The game actually allows the player to choose what to say to the victim and allows the gamer to lead the storyline by giving options that can lead the story differently. The game does not penalize the player by choosing the wrong choice instead brings you back to earlier lessons in the game (Holpuch, par.18). This is an efficient way to teach someone to understand the cycle of what they are doing incorrectly because the way they role play they can see the cycle within the game storyline of what they did wrong that keeps them from moving on to the solution. This allows the players to emotionally immerse themselves, as well as retain the information since it is a cycle process that requires their full attention in order to move on. According to research, 97.6% of the students who played the game in a pilot found this game to have valuable information and 60% of them found the game to be relevant (Rowley, 103-106). Given this high number of value that student gave this game demonstrates the need of educating people on sexual harassment and how this can change the culture of the virtual world with a education like Bystanders.
In addition to just regular video games, virtual reality has gained popularity on being used to train people on sexual harassment and many other social problems in workspaces. Research shows that people tend to take in more information when it comes virtual reality training compared to power points and videos (Maddox, par.5). This reclaims the key element to an adjustment in making sexual harassment trainings, retention. Virtual reality games take retention to another level, it doesn’t just allow the players to immerse themselves socially and emotionally through a storyline but also visual allows them to adapt a point of view, visually. Presently, there is a virtual reality game called Vantage Point, which is a program that was made to train people on sexual harassment (Holpuch, par.4). Furthermore, the game’s intentions are “to increase accuracy, empathy, and retention through full immersion” (Vantage Point, par.4). This game brings the players to the position of four different scenarios that the player can visually interact with the environment, such as answering text messages and allowing the player to see what they want in the direction of their head is moving. In Figure 3, the video demonstrates visually and audibly full immersion that virtual reality provides.
Figure 3- Video "Vantage Point" that demonstrates How the Game Works
For an example, in the video it demonstrates how the boss is grabs the womxn’s, seen on the screenshot above, and asks her dress “fitting” for the occasion or in other words to dress in a sexually appealing way for it (Vantage Point, 00:00). Right after the situation you can see in the video the player gets a text message to emphasize that the situation that had happened was wrong, in the text message is a friend who is asking player if they should interfere. Then, the player decides on a variety of choices if they agree or disagree on interfering. If the player chooses not challenge the problem the game then gives you a phone call with Mercer, an ally figure, and she then explains to the player what they did wrong, which develops social-interactivity for the player within the game (Holpuch, par.2). This development also introduces accountability and how players should be held to make the right call and if they don’t their friends will also be in charge of keeping them accountable. This doesn’t just develop a sense that the people around you are watching what you are saying but it also pushes the player to also pay attention to what the people around you are saying and gives them the confidence to intervene; it breaks cycle for the bystanders.
In other words, Vantage Point just like Bystander allows the player to choose the way the story plot develops and allows them to immerse themselves mentally since they have to be thinking about how to answer. Another important aspect is that Vantage point, unlike Bystander, visually it allows the player to develop a point of view, the way that they control what they are looking at and how immerse themselves allows them to be present. This not just an immersive activity but also develops strong retention and knowledge of the problem to be able to advocate for change even if its within the realm of their friend group. This creates the notion that the 60% of people who have seen some type of sexual harassment can now intervene with confidence and lifts the percentage of 47% players who currently confront the abuser (Duggan, par.4). To put it in perspective, there have been many positive developments that people made to fight sexual harassment within the physical world, which leaves a possibility to develop it within the virtual world.
In summary, creating an addition to the current games like Bystander or Vantage Point on virtual sexual harassment and allowing it to be an adaption to schools can really prevent the normalization of sexual harassment within video games. This allows the abusers to be put in the victims shoes or allows them to at least explore what they are doing wrong and how to break that apart and understand why their actions can be harmful. This creates a sense of understanding to men on why they shouldn’t sexually harass womxn in video games. As well as allowing players to have the knowledge to keep themselves and other players accountable is valuable to the gaming world. The proactive approach can allow the reactive solutions to be for emergencies when even people going through the training still are being abusive to any player should be removed from that environment. Additionally, the proactive solution makes the rate lower for a womxn to have that negative interact with another player. This solution definitely is a step in the right direction but there is definitely a lot more work that needs to be done for every community within video games in order to be a safe space for everyone.