Nliven concocts anti-drinking software

A San Diego-based technology company is targeting the millions of students who head to college every year with a new video game that combats campus drinking.

Nliven systems, owned by Louisville, Ky.-based insurance giant Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM), launched an online game called “The A Game: Mutants on Campus” to warn students about the dangers of alcohol via cinematics, gaming, infographics and social media.

“Rather than having students participate in the traditional read, click, read, click format, our course is designed to capture and hold attention,” said Robert Nascenzi, CEO of nliven systems.

The program is divided into seven “chapters,” with each containing a scenario-based movie; assessment questions; educational content using animated, concise and colorful graphics; quiz questions and a mini-game.

The story's structure resembles that of a comic book and begins with a hungover student in lab class who ruins a group science project and stumbles into a time traveling machine. A spirited professor with a spiky crop of white hair proceeds to interact with the users.

The program targets incoming students, fraternities, sororities, and students who have violated campus alcohol policies. Existing alcohol awareness programs at schools tend to be boring and monotonous, said Stephen Smythe, director of product development.

“Other people are skipping through, texting and drinking beer while going through it,” he said.

The first school on board to use the game is Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Joseph LaBrie, special assistant to the president at the school, helped create educational content for the program.

LaBrie, director of the Heads UP intervention and research program on college student risk behaviors, is one of the country’s leading researchers on alcohol and drug intervention for college-aged students.

There are about eight pricing tiers for schools to purchase licensing agreements for the software, based on how many users there are. Amazon Cloud is handling Web traffic.

There are verbal agreements from several schools and fraternities to license the program, noted Smythe. He expects more sororities and fraternities to commit after the first semester ends, which is when new pledges come on board.

Under the federal Higher Education Act, colleges that don't adopt and implement a program to prevent alcohol abuse are at risk of losing federal dollars. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism put out its call to action to confront risky drinking on college campuses in 2002.

“There are upsetting problems on campuses related to alcohol, like sexual assault. When you see the numbers it’s absolutely shocking,” Smythe said.

An interactive, color-coded diagram lets students plug in their gender, weight, and how long and how much they’ve been drinking to easily calculate their blood alcohol content (BAC).

Graphics show why a woman will get a higher BAC than a man of equal weight who’s consumed the same amount of alcohol. Users also learn how to discern what a “standard drink” is, or a 4-ounce glass of wine, and how potent cocktails like Long Island Iced Teas contain multiple amounts of standard drinks.

The program doesn’t encourage complete abstinence. Instead, it realizes the realities of college life and suggests maintaining a BAC between 0.04 and 0.06.

The program also squashes misperceptions of college drinking. For instance, high schoolers think just nine percent of college kids don’t drink, while in actuality, the figure is much higher, at 28 percent, according to one factoid mentioned in the game.

The average time it takes to complete the program is 90 minutes. Intermittent, short games break up the informational sections.

There are five mascot-type figures to choose from, with a panda being the most popular among focus groups.

Students can go on a mutant killing spree at the end of each chapter using their keyboard, picking from a humorous arsenal of weapons, like a frying pan, fish, bat, fire extinguisher, and the most popular, the “ballzooka” that shoots out basketballs.

“It offers a fun break for students. It’s not terribly difficult to pick up. Non-gamers have fun with it,” Smythe said, adding that users can also opt to skip the games.

They can also compete with fellow classmates for points.

“Studies show a majority of people are motivated by leader boards,” said Smythe, whose background is in traditional computer-based training.

Students can follow their game characters of choice on Facebook, where they will be provided with periodic alcohol education reminders intended to improve long-term retention.

The company has also developed software for active duty military, veterans and their families to encourage healthy living.