In the field of scientific research on video games, many new studies are beginning to suggest that such games may actually have a range of positive side effects for patients of all sorts of debilitative and even potentially life threatening diseases across a range of medical fields. Even those who are attempting to quit smoking may be able to benefit from such games, researchers at the University of California Santa Barbara are now saying. The concept is quite simple: the games will be designed to teach people about ways that they can manage their own health in their daily lives. By studying the principles of solid game design, the researchers are seeking to find out what can be done to help people learn while still being entertained. The professor and director of Health Games Research at the university, Debra Lieberman, has been putting to use the research, funding by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, giving out more than $4 million to 21 different projects to develop such games and test their results in a real world setting.
According to Lieberman, all games feature some sort of main point that they are trying to get across to the player and require a certain approach in order to advance and eventually win the game. To Lieberman, this suggests a ‘curriculum’ that is teaching players how the game world operates. By rehearsing skills, gamers learn to play and if they were rehearsing positive health habits, Lieberman believes they would end up carrying away positive benefits for their every day lives.
