Long gone are the days when the idea of "games for health" meant exergaming. The mobile and social world has virtually exploded with a wealth of productivity apps, interactive personal trainers and beyond -- to say nothing of the complex effect the gamification movement has had on the concept of digital games that can help people feel better and do things better.
Portable phones now come equipped with GPS and accelerometers that can help people keep track of fitness goals, and reward-oriented game design shows promise in helping people engage with their health goals. But Ben Sawyer, founder of the games for health conference, says there are even more big things about to happen that can create opportunities for game developers.
"You're seeing this whole cadre of people rethinking software-based health," Sawyer tells Gamasutra. "They're getting very interested in games, and you're seeing this gamut from apps and apps with gamification through things that are true games."
A happy side effect of current venture capitalist interest in game mechanics has been a stronger, business-oriented push into the field. They may be coming from the busines world, "but they're bumping into people who have been working on games for a while," Sawyer explains.
The upcoming Games for Health conference, set for June 12-14 in Boston, will convene health, gaming and business professionals looking to explore these synergies. Keynote speakers include Constance Steinkuehler Squire, senior policy analyst for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Bill Crounse, MD, senior director of worldwide health for Microsoft, and SuperBetter Labs' Jane McGonigal.
"You're seeing people who aren't grant-based, not research-based, but product people looking at this mass opportunity in health and wellness, and they know games are going to be part of it," Sawyer says. "That's why you see this quick glom-on to gamification... then they have to figure out how to go further."
It's game developers that can take intrigued health and wellness companies beyond the sort of participation that comes from imitation or a sense of obligation and into meaningfully-fun experiences that can help people improve their health. A number of wellness and productivity apps -- take the popular Runkeeper for example -- are making APIs available for developers to use, too.
In particular, Sawyer is interested in a future for biometric sensors: "I think it's going to be a significant opportunity. It's still one of those things where you can see the pieces of it, but you haven't had that kind of 'aha' moment."
Right now, the tech -- sensors like Nike's Fuel band, which provide detailed feedback on fitness and body performance and interface with interactive software -- is a little too cost-prohibitive to create a ton of mass market opportunity, but "it's going to happen," Sawyer says. "If I were [a sensor company], I'd be talking to developers already, saying over and over, 'this is a big opportunity."
When you get those costs down, what's going to happen is if we can show that people who wear these bands get healthier because they change their behavior ever so slightly... then the large health companies might step in and start saying, 'okay, we're going to subsidize this.'"
Sawyer expects two distinct groups to emerge: Developers doing apps directly, and companies that focus on enabling app economies for game developers. From there, it could only be a matter of time before major healthcare providers look to buy in.
The gamification movement is useful in that it offers a starting point for companies from well outside the world of games -- but it can only do that, Sawyer warns. Without a strong, engaging infrastructure, layering game-like qualities on top of things will provide health companies only a temporary blip -- with the downside being that the minimal response might put them off games altogether, or make them believe gaming is a "box" they've already checked. Goal-setting or reward apps are only the beginning, not the sum of the whole.
"There's this real ability to present to people what those differences might be, so that's good; one doesnt exist without the other right now," Sawyer says.
Good article. Do you consider mental exercise part of this same movement? I'm thinking of a site like Memrise that gamifes the memorization of language or anything else you want to commit to memory:
http://www.memrise.com/welcome/
Have you seen the Ted talk about feats of memory? http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_foer_feats_of_memory_anyone_can_do.html
In it it explains that a good memory is just practice at it using some more "interesting" hooks that your brain thinks in anyway. Memrise after looking at it seems to be more like a trivia learning tool that mental exercise. Language is a bit of a weird one to teach through software because there are a few different ways of going about it, in addition, most languages are changing or have odd exceptions ("Nobody talks like that"/You are actually learning the "book/study" version of the language. Common in austro-germany).
Extra Credits did a piece on Tangental Learning http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/tangential-learning [which I attribute my knowledge of some interesting facets of Shinto, Buddhist, and Chinese mythology to], and Gamification: http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/gamification which this article pertains to more.
I learned how to type by playing Tibia where you had to type "Sell rat" hundreds of times before you had any money and your randomly generated log in name, repeatedly if your chosen server was full in order to catch an open slot. WoW teaches economics and the stat/gearing/optimization game is quite mathy. Games can also teach problem solving (overcoming obstacles) and higher level thinking (Starcraft's macro strategy).
I think games are a good medium for motivation or to set learning/culturally accepted values inside of, in addition to be a medium where learning can take place inherently.
There was that brain-age blip for the DS not too long ago until studies happened.
NYU's game center also has a "Games for Health" seminar series. I saw one in regards to mental health and bullying about an upcoming interactive website (almost a game) called "Boy Code". If you are in the NY area and want to hear more about these events, make sure you joing the NYC IGDA Facebook group and check out http://www.nycgameindustry.com/
Strava 'gameifys' cycling in a major way. Not only do you get to see how well you do on 'segments', you can create your own and see how you do compared to others.
http://www.memrise.com/welcome/
In it it explains that a good memory is just practice at it using some more "interesting" hooks that your brain thinks in anyway. Memrise after looking at it seems to be more like a trivia learning tool that mental exercise. Language is a bit of a weird one to teach through software because there are a few different ways of going about it, in addition, most languages are changing or have odd exceptions ("Nobody talks like that"/You are actually learning the "book/study" version of the language. Common in austro-germany).
Extra Credits did a piece on Tangental Learning http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/tangential-learning [which I attribute my knowledge of some interesting facets of Shinto, Buddhist, and Chinese mythology to], and Gamification: http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/gamification which this article pertains to more.
I learned how to type by playing Tibia where you had to type "Sell rat" hundreds of times before you had any money and your randomly generated log in name, repeatedly if your chosen server was full in order to catch an open slot. WoW teaches economics and the stat/gearing/optimization game is quite mathy. Games can also teach problem solving (overcoming obstacles) and higher level thinking (Starcraft's macro strategy).
I think games are a good medium for motivation or to set learning/culturally accepted values inside of, in addition to be a medium where learning can take place inherently.
There was that brain-age blip for the DS not too long ago until studies happened.