{"id":42229,"date":"2012-08-01T11:16:59","date_gmt":"2012-08-01T09:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=42229"},"modified":"2012-08-01T11:18:56","modified_gmt":"2012-08-01T09:18:56","slug":"new-game-tackles-teen-depression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/business\/42229-new-game-tackles-teen-depression","title":{"rendered":"New game tackles teen depression"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite gaming being one of the more joyous things in life, many researchers believe video games are a primary contributing factor to teenage isolation and depression.<\/p>\n

A New Zealand psychiatrist, Sally Merry, is looking to flip the scripts and use gaming as a remedy tool for this gaming-induced depression.<\/p>\n

SPARX is the game of choice for the anti-depression programme, which instead of engaging players in mindless destruction (which does sound fun), it instead allows players to blast negative thoughts with fireballs and save the world from a new evil force \u2013 pessimism.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the bizarre concept, the RPG game has proved popular.<\/p>\n

“You can deal with mental health problems in a way that doesn’t have to be deadly serious,” project leader Sally Merry said. “The therapy doesn’t have to be depressing in and of itself. We’re aiming to make it fun.”<\/p>\n

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This could be you, being not-sad<\/p><\/div>\n

And apparently it is fun, with the world constantly changing to be brighter and more vivid as players progress through the game.<\/p>\n

“We had to look at the learning objectives and still design it to be a game,” she said.<\/p>\n

“That meant keeping the entertainment value, such as interactive 3D environments, puzzles and quests that you’d find in commercial games.”<\/p>\n

Speaking of commercial games, a lot of the feedback from the test groups asked for a shooter, instead of SPARX.<\/p>\n

“We knew we couldn’t have shooting because of the nature of the game,” she said.<\/p>\n

“So instead of having your character going around shooting or killing with machine guns or bombs, we gave the avatar a staff so they could shoot lightning bolts to turn negative thoughts into positive ones. It was about compromise.”<\/p>\n

Feeling depressed? Check out the SPARX website<\/a>.<\/p>\n