Everyone that considers themselves a gamer has had to defend our hobby at some point. Either against the accusation that it’s childish, how can an adult want to “play” anything? Or that it encourages anti-social traits with the stereotypical image of a kid shut away in a room shouting for mum to bring him more cheese-flavoured dust. And the biggest stigma of them all: video games lead to violence. That topic is too hot a potato to really talk about without a lot of evidence to back both sides and it’s too easy to say something pithy and dismissive, so I’ll save that discussion for another time.
But what never really gets any press attention, and therefore wider attention, are some of the really positive things that gaming can bring to people. I’ve seen a couple of stories recently that I’ve looked at and want to share, and then I’ll share a time when gaming didn’t quite save my life, but it definitely kept me sane.
The first one is a pretty light-hearted news story from the good ol’ U S of A. This story over at Kotaku (and the video below) tells the story of a cool-headed ten year old who saved the lives of himself, his brother and grandmother when she passed out at the wheel.
Whilst the mention of Mario Kart only comes at the end, and then briefly, it’s still nice to see it being mentioned as a positive thing. It also helps that the kid seems like a very level-headed, mature person. I’m fairly certain I would have just wet my trousers and cried if that’d happened to me. The gaming angle to the story is only mentioned as a light-hearted note and it’s important to keep it in that context in this story. It is true that video games can be used to develop motor skills and the next story I saw really shows that.
I first saw this on a documentary I watched, I can’t remember where, and it stuck in my mind. Video games are being used as a form of treatment for Chronic Pain in children and teens. Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome is a condition where patients suffer from “burning pain, pathological changes in bone and skin, excessive sweating, tissue swelling and extreme sensitivity to touch”. It’s a disorder of the nervous system and has no definite known cause or cure.
At the Children’s Medical Centre in Washington, DC doctors are using the Microsoft Kinect to help understand and treat this condition. When Microsoft opened up the Kinect Development Kit they did so with the knowledge that it wouldn’t only be used for gaming needs, but also as a valuable tool for healthcare providers. For a reasonably low price, considering the technology, healthcare providers have access to a 3-D camera that recognises gestures and movement.
This was particularly useful in the treatment of Chronic Pain. Kinect tracks 24 points on a users body and relays that information to a tablet, via custom software, to a physiotherapist in real-time. Heart-rate and data about a patients movements are displayed on a tablet whilst the patient themselves can give subjective information such as pain and difficulty to the therapist. For an accessory to a games console, that some dismissed as a gimmick, I think this is incredible. One of the doctors involved in the programme calls it a “treasure trove of information”.
The games focus around movement and balance and are designed to build strength in the muscles and areas affected. The documentary also showed the kids enjoying the games, it made therapy less sterile and more interactive for the kids, whilst allowing the medical staff to objectively measure the pain the children were suffering and teach them how to manage their conditions at the same time. Some of the innovations are fantastic. The adaptable nature of the technology is awesome, but the integration of interactive games into a really useful medical setting is incredible.
The next game I want to write about was brought to my attention by my girlfriend who saw it on the BBC technology show, Click. The game is called That Dragon, Cancer and is referenced about five minutes in but the whole show is worth a watch. (The link may only work for UK users, for non-UK try this).
That Dragon, Cancer tells the story of a young boy, Joel, and the struggle that him and his family are going through as he fights terminal cancer. What’s even more poignant is that one of the developers is Joel’s dad, Ryan. The overwhelming message of the game isn’t one of pain and despair, but one of hope. The game is described as “An adventure game about hope in the face of death. A story about raising a son. A parable of grace.” The video below is an interview with Ryan Green and Josh Larson which is interesting and this review from Unwinnable seems to really capture what the team is aiming for.
The story of Joel’s struggle is heartbreaking, it really is. Just watching and reading about the game is simultaneously gut-wrenchingly sad and hope giving. It’s a really powerful use of the medium and I really admire the team for taking on such a personal, ambitious project. Hope isn’t always something that’s easy to convey, and the mere fact that there is at least one game out there that’s doing it is an incredibly positive thing. On top of that, the game is being self-funded and published so all proceeds will go to help Joel and his family.
This next section is about Brad, Xav and myself sharing some of our personal stories about a time that gaming has been a really positive thing in our lives.
Charlie
I’ve got lots of great memories with gaming. Hanging out with friends playing FlatOut 2 in party mode, an all night FIFA drinking game and I use gaming to keep in touch with a very close childhood friend who has moved away over the years. The biggest impact that gaming as had on my life comes from a time that I really needed an escape.
My situation seems totally trivial in light of some others, especially Joel’s mentioned above, but at the time it was all encompassing.
I was an active kid, I played sport a few times a week and I was getting prepared to go to university and join the Army and then I developed a hip problem in my first year of college which gave me mobility difficulties and caused me a huge amount of pain. I struggled through college but managed to get good enough grades to get me into a local university, one that was far from my first choice.
I was set to undergo an operation the Christmas after starting uni, which put me onto crutches for six months and pretty much made me next to useless for a good three months and to top this all off the uni weren’t going to let me return until the year after my operation. This all caused me to slip into a depression that started at college and lasted for a few years.
Gaming was a minor hobby before this point, something that I did a little bit of in some downtime between college and work, but whilst I prescribed bed-rest for a few months it kept me sane. It was an escape, a way of forgetting that I was stuck. Fallout 3 and the Capital Wasteland was where I spent a lot of time, which is why it featured on my favourite sandbox games list.
I think I played through the game at least three different times, each time playing differently. The first time through I was a paragon of the wastes, helping strangers and not being an arse. The second playthrough involved the deaths of most strangers, the genocide of ghouls and the intentional nuking of a small town. Being able to wander off into the wastes managed to keep me in something resembling sanity. It almost became a project, making sure that I made the choices that suited the character I was trying to create, taking time to develop the skills I felt I needed.
Gaming wasn’t only something I did on my own. I was lucky enough to be visited by friends a few times a week and hours were spent in co-op. Resistance and Killzone were favourites for a bit of catharsis but the most fun was had in Littlebigplanet. We spent hours pillocking about in the levels, hitting each other with frying pans, tackling each other into traps and stapling engine parts to each others Sackboys. I swear I laughed so hard once that crisps came out of my nose.
Gaming was my escape. It was a relief from the monotony of sitting by myself all day and it was something interactive that I could share with my friends. Whilst it was only a videogame, having something to focus on really helped. It also spawned this brilliant get well soon card from my very good buddy Jack.
Which was inspired by many shared hours of this:
So, that’s when gaming kept me from totally losing my mind. Xav and Brad will be sharing their thoughts a little later. Until then we’d appreciate it if any of you would want to share any times when gaming has got you through something, or even just some good times.
