We didn't know it at the time, but 2004 turned out to be the peak year for deaths from AIDS. It was very sad. A lot of work had been done to educate people about safe sex, but a big problem that had been identified (in some cultures more than others) was people’s shyness or even inability to talk about it. With internet adoption growing rapidly in the developing world, and multimedia really taking off, we thought there might be something we could do to help. Sexual purity tests had been around for years, but we were sure that with Adobe Flash, we could make something that would go viral. And it did! Take a look...
The quiz started with the language selection screen. Volunteers from around the world supported our cause, and freely gave their time and language skills to translate the test into 30 languages. Thank you!With language selection complete, the game started. We had an animated ‘attract mode’ like an arcade machine. And there was of course a warning that the test was not suitable for minors. It's hard to imagine, but back then, very few kids were actually on the web – there were almost no good games!The questions were actually randomized, and as you can see, they started out pretty tame!If the test recognised that you were very pure and innocent, a check was put in place to make sure you were not exposed to mature content. We were very careful like that!Players answered around 30 questions. The questions were a little different each time to keep things interesting. At the end, players were awarded a score from 100 (most pure) to 0 (least pure). In reality nobody could ever get 0 unless they deliberately answered ‘yes’ to every question. Probably some people did genuinely get scores of 100 though. Ah, bless!Each time the player took the test, they would be presented with an interesting fact about poverty or AIDS. The good news? Since 2004, many millions of people worldwide have been lifted out of extreme poverty, and deaths from AIDS are now almost a third of what they were. Many people however still struggle, especially with conflict and freedom, with over 50 countries still considered to be undemocratic / dictatorships. At the end of each test, users were asked to donate to charity. We raised thousands of dollars. A huge thank you, all these years on, to the charities listed, who were brave enough to be happy to partner with us on this. Bravo!
So what happened next?
The test ran successfully for several years, and was played by millions of users. We got a lot of hits from Stumbleupon, and also later (for a month or two) from the Friv games website, before it got big. Back in the day Friv offered Late Night Games and this was a good fit. We’re really sorry that because Purescore ran on Adobe Flash, it doesn’t work any more. There are many more great purity tests out there online, so check some out. Finally, here are links to those charities. If you can, please support their life-changing and life-saving work. Thank you!
