Jane McGonigal, Cybertherapy, and PopCap Survey

Jane McGonigal's Future: First, I am glad to know that not only is there another person out there that believes the world can be "saved" with the use of games, but that this person is also a woman! Recently, Jane gave a speech at the 2008 New Yorker Conference on video games influence and effect on the world. She specializes in alternate reality games (you might know her from iLoveBEES or her current game: The Lost Ring). Her games are much more immersible because they are, in a sense, more "hands-on". An interesting tidbit from her speech was that in the "old days", starving communities were made to play games on certain days because it allowed them to forget about eating; therefore, the food would last longer. If games could once upon a time allow a community to survive longer (and even outlive those that didn't play games), I don't see how it cannot have that same amazing effect today. The idea that games are "just for kids" is ridiculous and stifles us as an evolving human race. Anyway, Jane's speech is very interesting and inspiring, so go watch it here!

Cybertherapy 2008: is a convention specializing in the use of technology as forms of therapy (ding ding ding! :D ). I wish I could attend because some of their topics this year include: Neuropsychological assessment, Anxiety disorders (plus a PTSD workshop!!), Augmented reality, Videogame applications, and Virtual reality applications (among more). I may just be a strange person, but whenever I hear the words "anxiety/depression/mental disorder", "video games", "surreal", or "art", my ears perk up like ultrasonic radars. I'm very excited to be going to the GDC, but I'll be slightly disappointed if not a single gaming company is interested in talking about video games for use as therapy. Although not far off, Cybertherapy 2008 doesn't start until June 23rd. I've noticed they've reserved a link on their site for upcoming .pdf presentations from the conference (yay!); so, I'll be checking up on them soon to see if they've posted any. Here's their website in case you're interested in checking them out as well: Cybertherapy 2008.

PopCap Games: seems to be on to something. According to a PopCap survey, more disabled gamers (physically, mentally, and developmentally) play casual games than other types of games (20%+ for casual games vs. 15% for games in general). This supports my theory that casual games can be prescribed as therapy for those with mental illnesses. They provide for a necessary release, but I just don't want games to "avoid" the actual issues. I want games to be created by developers and therapists together to push through the hill of "distracting the brain from the illness" over to the "helping in a long term sense" field. You guys don't have to hold hands to complete this quest (but it might help).

On another note, I am very interested to see what PopCap games is going to do with their newfound information. All I can say is that I hope they do something.

Random Link: Cyclepong 2.0. Yes, I said it... cycle + pong = Cyclepong. I wish I had one to put in my basement! (but, I guess I need a house with a basement first... or money... or preferably both). One day, I'll have my dream basement; so far: ping pong table, turn tables playing gnarls barkley and/or gorillaz, and now Cyclepong (for those waiting to play on the ping pong table). You may call it redundant, I say it's brilliant!