With data collection well underway for the randomized controlled trial of Invite Only VR: A Vaping Prevention Game, the play4REAL team got a special visit from NPR!
Health reporter Nicole Leonard met us at one of our middle school sites to chat with our participants and capture the auditory ambiance of 15 young teens playing a VR game about the dangers of vaping. Since Invite Only VR uses the Oculus Go’s on board microphone and voice recognition software, kids across the room were using their in-game knowledge power to correct their virtual peers and calling out things like “Actually, JUUL is an e-cigarette! JUUL is just the name of the brand” or “People have been burned or poisoned just by touching the liquid from an e-cigarette pod. I wouldn’t touch it if I were you!” In addition to these scripted prompts for vocalizations during game play, we have noticed that players enjoy calling out to their real life friends how far they are in the Space Cats minigame–what level they are on and how many lives they have left. There was no shortage of such exclamations for Nicole to capture during her visit!
Two participants in our RCT beat the game while Nicole was making her recording rounds, and both of them were awesome enough to spend a few minutes to talk about their impression of the experience. The NPR segment is live! Listen to it here to find out what kids are saying about Invite Only VR!