health sciences

Gaming’s favorite villain is mental illness, and this needs to stop

“Representation is the key to kickstarting discussion, and video games have taken a woefully one-dimensional approach in the mental health conversation. While there’s no shortage of mental health-related content in today’s games, it falls into one of two specific camps, neither of which confront the complex and nuanced issues with the empathy and consideration they deserve.” – Patrick Lindsey

Why is motherhood so poorly portrayed in video games?

“I’ve never had a baby. I once had one of those dolls that you could feed and it periodically pissed itself, but I gather this represents only a fraction of the maternal experience. I’ll tell you what I have done, though: I have played a lot of video games. And games, you may be startled to discover, are not too great at portraying motherhood – though they seem to have fatherhood all figured out.” – Kate Gray, The Guardian

Night Shift

“Night Shift is an adventure video game played on iOS-capable devices where the player is an emergency medicine physician in a number of different environments. As the player goes through each chapter, they must solve different puzzles and cure patients of their maladies. The goal is for the player to learn the characteristics of the patients and diagnose each patient as accurately as possible. The game’s design is to challenge the heuristics of physicians and how they think of the “trauma” patient.” – Schell Games

Big Pharma

“What if you had it in your power to rid the world of disease, to improve the lives of millions, to ease suffering and cure the sick… and earn a tidy profit? As the head of your own Pharmaceutical Conglomerate you have this power resting in your hands. Will you use it for good? Being totally altruistic may not be the best business plan. The uncomfortable truth (is there an ointment for that?) is that some remedies are more profitable than others and illness is good for business. Welcome to the world of Big Pharma!” – Twice Circled

Sea Hero Quest

“Dementia is a growing health threat. Affecting over 47M people worldwide (135M by 2050), it is becoming one of the greatest medical challenges we face globally. To help scientists working towards finding a cure, we created Sea Hero Quest – a mobile game where anyone can help fight dementia. ” – Glitchers

Syllabus: Games for Health

“CS798 Games for Health is a graduate reading seminar and game design course that will review the current major applications of games in healthcare. Readings will cover the major fields in healthcare where games are being used. Case studies will survey a representative set of current health-related games, from best-practices to examples indicating just how far this application area has yet to develop. ” – Syllabus

Longstory

“LongStory is an episodic dating/adventure game about surviving your teenage years. Track clues to solve a mystery and navigate the school’s social scenes. Available for iOS and Android, the game currently has three episodes available. There will be five more episodes released to complete the first and second seasons.” – Developer

Video Games for Health

“Substantial resources are being committed to the development of so-called ‘serious’ video games as interventions for health issues. Health educators and others with an agenda for educating young people are well aware that this group buys video games and spends a lot of time playing them. Games therefore seem to have promise as a vehicle for…”