Video games helping with mental illness...
by Marcela Roberts · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 04/20/2008 (4:53 pm) · 12 replies
So, I just wrote a blog about video games helping with mental disorders. I thought this would be a prime place to get feedback/ideas/questions from people. Here's the blog website:
http://twistedreality8.blogspot.com/
Please, please comment. I'm really interested in the possibility of video games becoming a viable alternative solution for mental illnesses.
http://twistedreality8.blogspot.com/
Please, please comment. I'm really interested in the possibility of video games becoming a viable alternative solution for mental illnesses.
#2
04/20/2008 (6:37 pm)
Thanks, Mike! I greatly appreciate the feedback. I'm in the process of getting into some mental illness forums to see how the "other side" views this idea. I think one of the keys to success is going to be getting developers and psychiatrists to work closely to ensure this isn't done simply from either side's view, but a merge of both industries to conquer a large problem. Thanks again for your feedback! :) 
#3
04/20/2008 (7:04 pm)
Quote:That could be a challenge, but it is definately the way to go. :-)
I think one of the keys to success is going to be getting developers and psychiatrists to work closely to ensure this isn't done simply from either side's view, but a merge of both industries to conquer a large problem.
Quote:Thanks again for your feedback! :)You are welcome. :-)
#4
http://garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=62984
About 11ish posts down is where i first describe my system, description is a little hack-job now but basic concept is still there.
Realistically I don't think you would ever need a system as complex as what I have outlined, probably just specific things that cater to a particular personality type/category as opposed to an entirely personalized and complete profile.
I'm also on the opposite side of you with my suggestion as well too, seeing as I wanted to make a game that would mentally break someone as opposed to heal them.
Overall I had planned out my system to be able to profile a user by a preliminary test and then continuing study during play to refine the profile. The system could also take third person submissions and factor them into the profile to create a more well rounded perspective in regards to an individual.
What this meant in terms of in the game was the system would then draw on the profile and call up information about the aspects of a person's personality that the game wanted to bring out by using auditory, visual, and control cues via altering game control. If it was supposed to be a calm moment, the system would call up known generic cues for docile and calming states of mind and filter/modify the cue list based on the individual's profile so that it caters more specifically to them.
For a calm moment it might do something like shift the color pallet slightly towards softer colors and brighten things up a bit, things the player likes might become slightly bigger or vaguely highlighted, sounds around them would be rhythmic and soft, so and so forth.
This effectively cold be done to bring out almost any aspect of an individual's personality or mood. In terms of what you wanted to do you might be able to do something like taking war vets to familiar locations and at first trying to recreate how they felt when they were there and slowly shift their focus both on the battlefield. You could then do the same in civilian or local locations, starting them off with the way the individual perceives the environment and slowly shifting the user's focus towards things that they associate positively towards.
04/27/2008 (12:27 am)
Not to pop up out of the blue, but this kinda reminded me of the system I was talking about implementing in a horror game a while back.http://garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=62984
About 11ish posts down is where i first describe my system, description is a little hack-job now but basic concept is still there.
Realistically I don't think you would ever need a system as complex as what I have outlined, probably just specific things that cater to a particular personality type/category as opposed to an entirely personalized and complete profile.
I'm also on the opposite side of you with my suggestion as well too, seeing as I wanted to make a game that would mentally break someone as opposed to heal them.
Overall I had planned out my system to be able to profile a user by a preliminary test and then continuing study during play to refine the profile. The system could also take third person submissions and factor them into the profile to create a more well rounded perspective in regards to an individual.
What this meant in terms of in the game was the system would then draw on the profile and call up information about the aspects of a person's personality that the game wanted to bring out by using auditory, visual, and control cues via altering game control. If it was supposed to be a calm moment, the system would call up known generic cues for docile and calming states of mind and filter/modify the cue list based on the individual's profile so that it caters more specifically to them.
For a calm moment it might do something like shift the color pallet slightly towards softer colors and brighten things up a bit, things the player likes might become slightly bigger or vaguely highlighted, sounds around them would be rhythmic and soft, so and so forth.
This effectively cold be done to bring out almost any aspect of an individual's personality or mood. In terms of what you wanted to do you might be able to do something like taking war vets to familiar locations and at first trying to recreate how they felt when they were there and slowly shift their focus both on the battlefield. You could then do the same in civilian or local locations, starting them off with the way the individual perceives the environment and slowly shifting the user's focus towards things that they associate positively towards.
#5
Interesting game idea. Do you write about your ideas anywhere? Or just informally in forums? The original idea reminded me of 28 Days Later (movie) meets Condemned (game, you should REALLY check this one out because I think it's one of the better games in the "horror" genre, and the main character keeps fighting of hallucinations) meets I Am Legend (the psychology behind dealing with people who "turned" into something more/less "evil"). I'm glad you're no longer going with the government messes up and now there's some sort of "virus" spreading which causes lots of violence. I'm an intrigued, though, about incorporating vampire lore into it and how that might be introduced to the player.
As for using personalized psychology in games, it would be interesting to find out the "how" when determining what might make your player more frightful. That's the main question on ANY idea... How? :) You mentioned war vets, so I think you'd find this article interesting:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4806921
("Virtual Reality Therapy for Combat Stress")
Someone just showed me the link a couple of days ago, so it's nice to know that the ball is already rolling, in a sense, towards the directions of mental health. What I wonder is how the psychiatrist actually goes about "taking the soldier through it".
04/27/2008 (8:30 pm)
Aaron:Interesting game idea. Do you write about your ideas anywhere? Or just informally in forums? The original idea reminded me of 28 Days Later (movie) meets Condemned (game, you should REALLY check this one out because I think it's one of the better games in the "horror" genre, and the main character keeps fighting of hallucinations) meets I Am Legend (the psychology behind dealing with people who "turned" into something more/less "evil"). I'm glad you're no longer going with the government messes up and now there's some sort of "virus" spreading which causes lots of violence. I'm an intrigued, though, about incorporating vampire lore into it and how that might be introduced to the player.
As for using personalized psychology in games, it would be interesting to find out the "how" when determining what might make your player more frightful. That's the main question on ANY idea... How? :) You mentioned war vets, so I think you'd find this article interesting:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4806921
("Virtual Reality Therapy for Combat Stress")
Someone just showed me the link a couple of days ago, so it's nice to know that the ball is already rolling, in a sense, towards the directions of mental health. What I wonder is how the psychiatrist actually goes about "taking the soldier through it".
#6
04/27/2008 (9:56 pm)
Well, its an interesting idea but there is one significant aspect everyone seems to forget. Games or any "virtual" reality is just that.....Virtual. As in NOT real. Look, I am not knocking the idea of creating peaceful spaces or anything like that but, the mind is a very complex place. It requires REAL experiences. Just because I play Medal of Honor does not mean I know a single thing about what it meant to really participate in WWII. I do not have "flash backs" about storming the beaches or anything, and if I did... well then I may need a lot more help than I am happy talking about in a public forum :-) The concept of "escape" into a virtual landscape and having it truly impact a persons mental health is far fetched and probably about as "sci fi" as you can get. I think the best approach for any mental illness would be a real approach. Just my 2 cents.
#7
The Condemned series was a well done trip for trying to freak people out, people like to reference Eternal Darkness as well.
That's actually a good question on the how, maybe making the game have recordings of a player's run through of places and record their reactions that way you can review the moments where they reacted strongly and see what triggers were active at the time. Wouldn't in and of itself be able to tell you what the reason for the reaction was, but might help you in that you now have a circumstance and response you can simulate again and observe closely.
Also, that VR therapy looked kinda cool, kinda the baseline concept of what we got here.
As for the plot for my game idea, that's been reworked several times over since my posting. I've actually gone back to a plot similar to my original one, but made the story and fault set much more directly on a particular character who manipulates his way into a position of power so he can more obliterate and recreate world order "for fun". Not really associated with this topic so I don't wanna babble about it unless some one wants me to. Very few people ever want me to babble. >.>
@Ron
I think you missed slightly the point of how these games or rehabilitation programs would be able to affect people. One main point being that someone who needs something like this likely is predisposed to something. In the case of war vets, they have all ready experienced what it's like on the battlefield, and the system's main function then is simply to replicate those conditions as accurate as possible. The profiling system I suggested would play off particular aspects within the digital environment to emphasize things related to the individuals psyche in order to incite particular reactions that the system otherwise wouldn't be capable of.
Also like the suggestion I made above, it would be hard to replicate wartime conditions for rehabilitation purposes without posing a certain level of unnecessary threat if we can incite similar response using a digital format.
04/28/2008 (12:01 am)
I mainly just jot down ideas and work on them as my interest picks up, only post things occasionally when I'm looking for input.The Condemned series was a well done trip for trying to freak people out, people like to reference Eternal Darkness as well.
That's actually a good question on the how, maybe making the game have recordings of a player's run through of places and record their reactions that way you can review the moments where they reacted strongly and see what triggers were active at the time. Wouldn't in and of itself be able to tell you what the reason for the reaction was, but might help you in that you now have a circumstance and response you can simulate again and observe closely.
Also, that VR therapy looked kinda cool, kinda the baseline concept of what we got here.
As for the plot for my game idea, that's been reworked several times over since my posting. I've actually gone back to a plot similar to my original one, but made the story and fault set much more directly on a particular character who manipulates his way into a position of power so he can more obliterate and recreate world order "for fun". Not really associated with this topic so I don't wanna babble about it unless some one wants me to. Very few people ever want me to babble. >.>
@Ron
I think you missed slightly the point of how these games or rehabilitation programs would be able to affect people. One main point being that someone who needs something like this likely is predisposed to something. In the case of war vets, they have all ready experienced what it's like on the battlefield, and the system's main function then is simply to replicate those conditions as accurate as possible. The profiling system I suggested would play off particular aspects within the digital environment to emphasize things related to the individuals psyche in order to incite particular reactions that the system otherwise wouldn't be capable of.
Also like the suggestion I made above, it would be hard to replicate wartime conditions for rehabilitation purposes without posing a certain level of unnecessary threat if we can incite similar response using a digital format.
#8
Aaron: Well, if you do "babble" about your game somewhere, send me the link. You should consider creating a blog about your game ideas. I've found it extremely useful and it helps organize things while getting feedback at the same time.
Now as for your idea on how to approach the "scary factor", it sounds like a lot of research. Also, to tailor it to each individual person, how would this be instant? I suppose you can take different categories of what makes people scared (include all the phobias like darkness, clowns, 13, spiders, etc., plus some creepy new creatures/concepts), and maybe the engine can determine what scares the player more by how frantic they play. Maybe?
Ultimately, virtual reality seems to be the key that unlocks the brain just a little bit better to us.
04/28/2008 (10:53 am)
Ron: What do you think about dreams? Did you ever wake up and go, "Man... that felt real." Well, it turns out, your brain didn't know the difference. What you did/learned in your dream, you learned/did in real life except it was all in the context of your mind, not mind AND body. You seem to miss the point of virtual reality. The brain mimics a lot. When you see someone do something, your mind mimics and does it as well. These are all internalized and subconscious thoughts, though, so that's why you don't physically do it. You're right in saying the the brain is very complex. It is. Virtual reality, though, seems to be its loop hole.Aaron: Well, if you do "babble" about your game somewhere, send me the link. You should consider creating a blog about your game ideas. I've found it extremely useful and it helps organize things while getting feedback at the same time.
Now as for your idea on how to approach the "scary factor", it sounds like a lot of research. Also, to tailor it to each individual person, how would this be instant? I suppose you can take different categories of what makes people scared (include all the phobias like darkness, clowns, 13, spiders, etc., plus some creepy new creatures/concepts), and maybe the engine can determine what scares the player more by how frantic they play. Maybe?
Ultimately, virtual reality seems to be the key that unlocks the brain just a little bit better to us.
#9
The other thing is the system will be able to incorporate approved reviews from psychologists or others that know the user well in order to refine the profile. The iffy thing about this part is that the reviews have to be trustworthy before hand, which the system will try to filter the reviews for inconsistencies and make sure it fits with what information it has garnered from the user's playtime.
My other hope is that the system might be able to incorporate the electrochemical and biofeedback devices that have been getting developed for a while now to better monitor the user's reactions during sessions.
And yeah, this thing is probably more than I alone will ever be able to manage. :P My hope in general is just to see this system more or less get made and become available regardless of if I'm the one to make it. Would be nice to get the credit, but I guess it makes sense that it would only go to whoever wins the race. >.>
04/29/2008 (1:21 am)
Right off the bat the profile system would only work based on more generic profile categories with anything apparent from the test results being noted and emphasized. The system then would do further refinement during play based on the way the player behaves and how strong their reaction may be. The other thing is the system will be able to incorporate approved reviews from psychologists or others that know the user well in order to refine the profile. The iffy thing about this part is that the reviews have to be trustworthy before hand, which the system will try to filter the reviews for inconsistencies and make sure it fits with what information it has garnered from the user's playtime.
My other hope is that the system might be able to incorporate the electrochemical and biofeedback devices that have been getting developed for a while now to better monitor the user's reactions during sessions.
And yeah, this thing is probably more than I alone will ever be able to manage. :P My hope in general is just to see this system more or less get made and become available regardless of if I'm the one to make it. Would be nice to get the credit, but I guess it makes sense that it would only go to whoever wins the race. >.>
#10
05/27/2008 (12:03 pm)
IS there a way to tie in a visual/sound reward system and give a print out of some sorta 'report card' to keep a youngster's attention? Games today have rewards and such but i see a problem: FAQs! Cheat sheets and some times repeating the same questions/actions too. I'm just going on and on here so don't mind me >_>;
#11
05/28/2008 (10:08 am)
There's is definitely a way to have a "print out" reward system. That might even be necessary if psychiatrists prescribe it.
#12
Its like the mental version of using Wii's Activity based games to help with physical fitness.
One idea I had a long time ago and I am sure others have as well, is Bio Feedback based controllers.
Mind you thats more hardware than software, but you need software to interface with or the hardware
is pointless.
Basically the game monitors through the use of the hardware, a persons biometrics at the least, (Personally I think it would be perversely fun to monitor a person's bio's and words, and take action on those in game.)
You know, rising pulse? Swear words? Oh they are frustrated, time for the game to be nice....or cheat and make them even more passionate about winning.
But if the game were tied into the physical feedback, the ability to further cue in on what motivates the person, to heal or harm would improve.
Personally I say this, do not use this to scare the literal crud outta someone...shame on you..
But if you can use it to further healing, awesome :)
05/28/2008 (11:53 am)
Love some of the Ideas here, especially the using Games to heal.Its like the mental version of using Wii's Activity based games to help with physical fitness.
One idea I had a long time ago and I am sure others have as well, is Bio Feedback based controllers.
Mind you thats more hardware than software, but you need software to interface with or the hardware
is pointless.
Basically the game monitors through the use of the hardware, a persons biometrics at the least, (Personally I think it would be perversely fun to monitor a person's bio's and words, and take action on those in game.)
You know, rising pulse? Swear words? Oh they are frustrated, time for the game to be nice....or cheat and make them even more passionate about winning.
But if the game were tied into the physical feedback, the ability to further cue in on what motivates the person, to heal or harm would improve.
Personally I say this, do not use this to scare the literal crud outta someone...shame on you..
But if you can use it to further healing, awesome :)
Torque Owner Mike Rowley
Mike Rowley
Your idea is a good one. Having a set of game types the person plays dependant on their mood/needs is a good thing. It may help, but on the same token, may not. The good thing is that it couldn't hurt.
Your biggest challenges are going to be in the programming. The individule maps would be quite simple, but making everything work as you want would be quite a challenge.
You would have to figure out every detail including how you are going to simulate plants growing, their speed of growth, etc...
The other programming challenge is going to be figureing out what questions to ask and how to use the answers to figure out which map the person needs to play.
Start with yourself first. Figure out what would help you. Then, ask a psychologist the same questions and get their take on it.
From a person who makes little games for a youngster who has motor skill problems, I know how well video games can and do work. The biggest obsticle I have to overcome, is keeping his interest.
I would recomend moving forward with your idea.