The next 21th and 29th January 2020 two events will be held to promote the new game app Peer to Peer Players, created thanks to the homonymous project, funded by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers – Antidrug Policies Office and coordinated by CESIE, in collaboration with Associazione Identità Sviluppo Integrazione (I.S.I.) Onlus and the Department of Psychological, Pedagogical and Training Sciences of the Università degli Studi di Palermo.
The project was born with the aim of rising awareness among young people of the risks of the web and the use of psychoactive substances, two issues that, in this context, meet in the online purchase of illegal substances.
The game app, created by the developers of Sylphe Labs,, which stands out as one of the activities planned in the project, belongs to a category called “serious games”. These are games whose content is not limited to entertainment, but also has educational purposes and elements. This interactive game, which can be downloaded for free from the Play Store and Apple Store, is based on real and everyday life situations and leads the player to make decisions that, in turn, will lead to other situations and choices:
“The game puts you in the shoes of a school student and catapults you into all those everyday situations that can take place over the course of an entire week: the choices you make will lead you to many different issues and hundreds of different alternatives will force you to make decisions that sometimes are really complicated. In this way, you will pass through the seven days of the week, which are divided into three phases, morning-afternoon-evening, and you will face choices and circumstances, each of which will affect five behavioural parameters that determine your survival in the game: health, intelligence, leisure, sociability and fairness.
You will often encounter unforeseen events, crossroads, questions and requests for help that may hinder or help you in your experience.
It is the choices you make that determine your character!”
The app’s creation process originated from a research carried out within the project, which examined the lifestyle of about one thousand students from two secondary schools in the historic centre of Palermo. The results of the research made it possible to map the main dimensions related to the risk behaviours adopted by young people.
In addition to the research, an ideas contest was launched, with the aim of collecting ideas and proposals on the creation of useful content for the app development. The contest was open to students from all secondary schools in the city of Palermo and took into consideration specific topics such as the prevention of risks arising from an inappropriate use of the Internet, access to dangerous sites or the use of psychoactive substances that are harmful to health.
The contents of the game were therefore developed thanks to the input of two young students who won the ideas contest and a young visually impaired girl who contributed to the testing of the app, helping to develop a game that can also be played by visually impaired people.
The two promotional events will be held at the two schools actively involved in the project: Liceo Scientifico “Benedetto Croce” and Istituto Magistrale Statale “Regina Margherita”.
During the events all the activities carried out since the beginning of the project will also be retraced and students will be given space to express their reflections and ideas on the themes dealt with.
About the project
Peer to peer players is a two-year project, funded by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers – Drug Policies Department.
Partners
Project partners are:
- CESIE (coordinator);
- Associazione Identità Sviluppo Integrazione (I.S.I.) Onlus;
- Dipartimento di Scienze Psicologiche, Pedagogiche e della Formazione dell’Università degli Studi di Palermo.
For further information
Read more about the project.
Contact cooperazionelocale@cesie.org
