A blog turning into a game

Gamasutra and the SF Chronicle today discuss the findings of a non-profit called HopeLab, founded in 2001, concluding that video games can help encourage young people with cancer to take their medications more consistently.  Dr. Steve Cole, who helped direct the study, wrote,

“We now know that games can induce positive changes in the way individuals manage their health.  The game not only motivates positive health behavior; it also gives players a greater sense of power and control over their disease — in fact, that seems to be its key ingredient.”

The game, called Re-Mission, and introduced in May 2006, is an open community for teenagers and young adults afflicted with cancer.  The study followed 375 teens and young adults with cancer at 34 medical centers in the United States, Canada, and Australia. The results were very promising: young people who played the game maintained higher blood levels of chemotherapy and showed higher rates of antibiotic utilization than those who did not.

Re-Mission is powerful because of its focus on a specific cause and the ability to combine interactivity with gameplay.  Here is a trailer of the game:

At Ramo, we’re big fans of serious games, games that serve a purpose other than pure entertainment. The ability to create engaging products with meaning beyond the games themselves is wonderful, especially if the lives of others can be improved.

In a previous post, we wrote about FreeRice. The website, in cooperation with the UN World Food Program, donates 20 grains of rice to the hungry across the globe for every word that a visitor gets right in its word game.

Best of all, the game is surprisingly simple. You are given a word and you must click on one of four choices that most accurately reflects its meaning. The game gets harder after each correct answer, but 20 more grains of rice get donated for each word that you get correct.

As of today, 39,471,718,130 grains of rice have been donated. Roughly several million grains of rice get donated every month.

The simplicity of FreeRice, combined with the charitable nature of the cause and the fact that visitors of any age can play it make it one of the best examples of a serious game with meaningful educational value. In fact, the guy who started the game built it using the 10,000 words his son was studying to prepare for the SAT.