Serious Gaming For Health

TecnaDigit writes "The Games for Health Conference, is being hosted this month by the Serious Games Initiative at the Maryland School of Medicine. The writers at GamEnlight have posted an editorial about the Serious Games organization. The organization has an uphill battle facing them, with the way games are so readily scorned these days. But they recognize the potential for this area as well, and work with honest dedication to develop games for a better, more knowledgeable future. The article also has an insightful look at how the uses of technology and gaming changes as we become older."

Comments

The real issue

[Otter]

First, can we please drop this inane persecution complex stuff? There is no one against video games about health care public policy. No one! (Except maybe the Taliban, what's left of them.)

A more useful question, it seems to me, is what one gets out of such games. It seems like their "educational" value is limited to demonstrating the correctness of the underlying ruleset, which is to say, the correctness of the developers' prejudices. Passing that off as "learning" seems entirely counterproductive to me.

/Frivolous/ gaming for health is more fun!

[GlenRaphael]

This world needs fewer health conferences and more games like Mocap Boxing, Propcycle, and Dance Dance Revolution. And more home controllers like the Kilowatt Sport.

Fortunately the trend is well established. Thus, I predict that future videogame players will all be lean, flexible, well-muscled, finely-trained athletes able to beat up football players and steal their lunch money.

Re:/Frivolous/ gaming for health is more fun!

[GlenRaphael]

How are stepping, hopping, and pedaling a bicycle not "real activity"?

Personally, the main thing I don't like about home video games is feeling like a couch potato - sitting in one place for hours on end using only thumb and finger muscles. Using a Kilowatt or a DDR pad makes gaming feel more productive, in that you can exercise your brain and your body at the same time.

And you don't have to track calories if you don't want to. But hey, different strokes. It's not like I'm opposed to riding bikes or jogging or whatever...