Developed in collaboration with the play2PREVENT Lab at the Yale School of Medicine and with funding from the Women’s Health Research at Yale Pilot Project Program comes One Night Stan, a role-playing social card game designed to get people thinking (and talking) about sexual situations and potential sex partners.
One Night Stan is a humorous, social card game about navigating sexual situations and encounters with potential sex partners
In the game, the player takes on the role of a young woman who meets a variety of guys in different social situations. As each new story unfolds, a player must consider the risks and benefits involved. The more empowered a player becomes, the better choices they can make!
Our main goal in developing One Night Stan was to empower women to make informed decisions regarding sexual encounters by playing on the real-life scenarios that women have found themselves in at bars, block parties, and perhaps even at a soup kitchen!
Played by 3-5 players, One Night Stan encourages conversations about the sometimes-difficult topics to talk about, such as STIs and sexual risk-taking.
Testing the Game
After creating the card game prototype, we conducted a small pilot study with 21 young black women (average age 19) to test One Night Stan and collect data on the preliminary impact of the game.
Data suggests that the game increased important factors related to behavior change, including attitudes, social norms, self-efficacy (confidence), and intentions one month after women played the game.
Important behavioral changes were also observed after one month: of the currently sexually active participants (n = 11), 64% discussed condom use with their partner and 73% used condoms with their partner. Additionally, 5 participants talked to their partner about getting STI/HIV tested, 4 participants reported partners actually got tested after being asked, and 2 participants got STI/HIV tested themselves. The published results can be read here.
Game Feedback
We conducted focus groups with women who played One Night Stan, all of whom described their experience as both fun and enjoyable. We asked them what they learned from playing the game, and the women discussed facts about STIs (including HIV), the effects of drinking alcohol on sexual behavior, and the consequences of poor decision-making, including not using condoms.
The women also talked about how the game reinforced the importance of asking potential partners about their sexual past, including if they had been recently tested for HIV/STIs. The women also said the game was relatable and felt tailored to situations they had encountered in their own lives.
When asked how playing this game might help others make better decisions, the women discussed how experiencing consequences in the game allowed them to see how certain choices could affect their lives, which provided the knowledge and empowerment to make good choices when confronted with real life situations.