Forget the moral panic, gaming and impact games can stimulate mental wellbeing

No matter how much you enjoy gaming, chances are you’ve felt a lingering sense of guilt over gaming at one point or another. Maybe it’s the result of your parents telling you to go outside and play when you were little. Or maybe it’s just a societal-induced feeling that spending a couple of hours immersed in a virtual world every day might not be the best for your mental health.

While there are always risks involved in allowing any hobby to become an obsession, we now know that much of the moral panic surrounding gaming has been overblown. In fact, a growing body of research shows that gaming can actually be very positive for mental health. It’s also becoming increasingly clear that those effects can also be magnified through the potential of impact games.

So, as people around the world seek to address widespread mental health crises, there’s a strong case that they should add gaming and impact gaming to their toolkits.

Tetris, Animal Crossing and the positive impact of games

Before we delve into how games can be used to boost mental well-being, it’s worth noting that our understanding of the subject is evolving all the time.

Just five years ago, for example, the researchers discovered that tetris could help prevent post-traumatic stress symptoms. In reaching that finding, the researchers showed that car crash survivors had fewer intrusive memories if they played Tetris (accompanied by psychological intervention) within six hours of being admitted to the hospital.

More recently, Oxford University research showed that people who played the popular Nintendo game animal crossing title or EA Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville reported a greater sense of well-being. The study was a milestone in showing that playing games can have a positive impact.

It is worth emphasizing that these profound effects were produced by games that were designed for no other purpose than to be fun and entertaining. Furthermore, the examples provided involved players interacting with games on a two-dimensional screen (even if the games are rendered in 3D). So what might be the effects of participating in a fully immersive environment like virtual reality (VR), with games designed specifically to promote wellbeing?

virtual sanity

It is a question worth asking. After all, we know that VR is already widely applied in contexts like industrial training to safely take people through scenarios they might encounter in their work environments. So why shouldn’t the same be true when it comes to promoting mental wellness?

As it turns out, it’s a question people have been asking for a lot longer than you might think. In fact, American clinical psychologist Barbara Rothbaum began using virtual reality to help people overcome psychological disorders from mid 1990s. Since then, the field has evolved considerably, with doctors using virtual reality to treat everything from depression and addiction to ADHD and anxiety.

However, many of these therapies are based on bringing exposure therapy techniques from the real world to the virtual world. While there is undoubtedly value in that, there are still people who might be resistant to even that kind of exposure.

Here, the introduction of the principles of impact games can help. Simply put, impact games, like serious games, are games created with a purpose that goes beyond pure entertainment. Most of us are familiar with them in the education space, but they also have wide applications in mental wellbeing.

We know this because we have experienced it firsthand. Commissioned by Maestro Games, we developed a proof of concept using classical music in virtual reality to create a healing experience for those struggling with mental health. More specifically, the game concept aims to help treat PTSD through an immersive music driving experience. Early raters report feeling more in control of their emotions after going through the experience.

The supplementary value of games.

Of course, none of this is to say that games should replace traditional modes of therapy or mental wellness tools. But even with traditional games demonstrating a positive influence on mental well-being, it would be foolish to ignore them.

Rather, healthcare providers should work with researchers and game developers to add impact games to their treatment toolkits. As a complementary tool that people are naturally very receptive to, it’s hard to beat. Given how much we’ve learned in a relatively short period of time, and the promising advances that have already been made, it’s clear that gaming and impact gaming should play an increasing role in promoting mental wellbeing in the future.

In light of the immense mental health crises plaguing many parts of the world right now, the need for impact games, and games to fill that role, has perhaps never been more pressing.

Author of the photo: wavebreakmedia / Shutterstock

Glenn Gillis is Managing Director, Sea monster.