health and games: behavior and mechanics

May 2, 2011

Health and Games: Behaviors and Mechanics Alex Tam

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Behaviors

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Daily Exercises 10 squats X 6 20 lunges alternating X 3 10 plank push up X 3 20 calf stretches Jump Rope 5 mins

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Patient Behaviors Drive Health 1.  Rehabilitation exercises 2.  Medication compliance 3.  Progress measurement 4.  Nutrition Plan 5.  Correcting Bad Habits

Note: In many of these cases the HCP engagement is short. The patient is responsible for much of the treatment.

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Health Behaviors are HARD

We know we SHOULD be doing these BUT they are:

Frustrating Extra work Hours of effort

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What about Games?

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Why Games? Games have the ability to get people engaged.

They get people to do challenging difficult things.

People will play for hours and hours even through fatigue.

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Why Games? Old Historic Games.

Three examples of cultural Games. (example 1, example 2, example 3)

What is it about games that makes it compelling in out culture. Folded into every aspect of our culture.

Why. Let’s talk about that cultural power.

Games are everywhere.

-  Credit cards

-  Report cards

-  Bonus Miles

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Why Games? Three examples of cultural Games. (example 1, example 2, example 3)

What is it about games that makes it compelling in out culture. Folded into every aspect of our culture.

Why. Let’s talk about that cultural power.

Games are everywhere.

-  Credit cards

-  Report cards

-  Bonus Miles

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Why Games? Credit card points

What is it about games that makes it compelling in out culture. Folded into every aspect of our culture.

Why. Let’s talk about that cultural power.

Games are everywhere.

-  Credit cards

-  Report cards

-  Bonus Miles

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Health Behavior vs. Games

HEALTH BEHAVIORS

Frustrating – “Don’t feel like doing it”

Extra work – “Enough work for today”

Hours of effort – “This is a chore”

GAMES

Frustrating – “Bring on the challenge!”

Extra work – “If I stretch, I can win!”

Hours of effort – “Tired but want to continue”

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Mechanics

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Game Mechanics 101 All Games can be broken down into one or more game mechanics.

These game mechanics are the building blocks of games, the active ingredients that drive how a game is played and whether or not it’s engaging.

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Pictionary Draw pictures within a category that your teammates can guess.

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Pictionary: Lottery (chance) A game dynamic that is subject to chance. This creates a high level of anticipation.

Players randomly roll dice and then randomly select a card from the deck.

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Pictionary: Countdown The dynamic in which players are only given a certain amount of time to do something. This will create an activity graph that causes increased initial activity increasing frenetically until time runs out.

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Pictionary: Team Competition Team competition creates a sense of camaraderie and shared goals. Team success depends on co-operation.

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1.  Lottery 2.  Countdown 3.  Team Competition 4.  Narrative 5.  Leader Board 6.  Progression Dynamic 7.  Meta Game 8.  Status 9.  Achievement

Basic Game Mechanics

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Health Games

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Example 1: Expresso Fitness A bicycle game where pedaling lets you move around in a virtual game world with the objective of chasing dragons.

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Expresso Fitness: Countdown The objective is to gather as many dragons within a set time. Maintaining a level of intensity in this game.

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Expresso Fitness: Narrative The game is set in a fantasy world where the play escapes to an alternate reality and does consciously focus on the physical exertion of pedaling.

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Example 2: Nike + A system of measurement devices and software that lets runners track progress while activating communities of runners

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Nike +: Leaderboard The rankings of all individuals in a micro-set. Often great for distributed game dynamics where you want many micro-competitions or desire to induce loyalty.

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Nike +: Progression Dynamic A dynamic in which success is granularly displayed and measured through the process of completing itemized tasks. As runners accumulate miles, they switch from yellow level to green level. Small contributions add up to a large recognition.

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Example 3: Brain Age A series of small puzzles and tasks designed to test and sharpen brain response through mental exercises

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Brain Age: Meta Game A series of small games embedded into another game. These small puzzles break up and focus engagement.

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Brain Age: Status The rank or level of a player. Players are often motivated by trying to reach a better level or status.

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Applying Game Mechanics

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Daily Exercises 10 squats X 6 20 lunges alternating X 3 10 plank push up X 3 20 calf stretches Jump Rope 5 mins

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Have to vs Want to.

Good health games successfully apply game mechanics that make games fun to play. They will be successful because it shifts difficult and undesirable tasks into something that patients will actually look forward to doing.

Measuring success

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Thank You