Institute For The Future

Playing with games for health

For the past few years, we've been keenly interested in how games can be used to encourage healthy behaviors.  My colleague, Jane McGonigal, even developed and prototyped a street game called CryptoZoo on behalf of the American Heart Association.  As a proof-of-concept, CryptoZoo demonstrated that it is possible to engage people in fun and playful activities that can elevate heart rates as much as a formal run or workout might.

This weekend, we'll be participating in HealthGamesCampSF, a BarCamp event being held at the San Francisco offices of frog design, a leading innovation firm.  From the event webpage:

Good health behaviors are important—sometimes lives depend on them.
But behaviors are hard to change. Old habits really do die hard.

Fortunately, there are games.

Games are a place where we embrace change, where we love being challenged, and where frustration can be fun.  As we immerse ourselves in games we voluntarily change our behaviors in order to win, and old habits melt away over time.

During HealthGamesCamp we collaboratively learn how games can be used to drive positive change in health behaviors.  HealthGamesCamp brings together multi-disciplinary teams for collaborative learning and co-creation.  The entire event is structured as a multi-level game out of which a variety of games or game prototypes are produced.  Both technical and non-technical attendees are involved throughout the weekend.  Some of the games will be non-digital—either board games, party games, script-based games, or alternative reality games—... and some games will be digital—both web-based and mobile.

We are excited to be a partner for HealthGamesCampSF, along with the mHealthAlliance, the Health 2.0 Conference, and others.  According to the event sponsor, the Innovation Management Institute, a limited numbers of spaces are still available.  Details and registration can be found at bit.ly/hgcsf.