Positive Offerings from the Video Game Industry
It’s not all fun and violence in video games, according to makers of a new genre of games which claim to boost players’ mental health and self-esteem.
A group of developers inspired by the success of Nintendo Co. Ltd.’s “Brain Age” title that gets the gray matter working with math and word puzzles, hopes to harness the power and popularity of video games to boost psychological health.
Among them is Tokyo-based Dimple Entertainment, which in May will begin selling the unconventional title “DS Therapy” in Japan for Nintendo’s (7974.OS) hand-held DS player.
Answer a few light-hearted questions on topics ranging from love to money and the title promises to deliver a measurement on your mental and emotional health on a daily basis.
Mark Baldwin, a psychology professor at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and designer of another new title “MindHabits Booster,” is hoping his game will make people feel good about themselves.
Baldwin and his research team designed the game based on social psychology research after finding that repetitive components from video game play could be used to shape the way people think and how they perceive themselves.
The game, distributed via www.Mindhabits.com, tries to address insecurity and stress by having players repeatedly pick a smiling, approving face from a group of frowning faces, training players to look for acceptance and ignore rejection.
“All it does is change your attention from one thing to another, but that can make a big difference (in self-esteem and lower stress),” said Baldwin, who is releasing new game study results later this year and hopes to take his game from the lab to stores.
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