Stigma is a serious issue for patients suffering from depression. It prevents patients from getting timely treatment, thus leading to serious consequences such as suicide.
I designed this video game to address this issue. In the heroic recovery journey, the player may undergo cognitive changes to reach the idea that depression, like any other serious physical diseases, simply defines what the patient is suffering, rather than who the patient really is.
Related Publication
IEEE GEM poster
Serious game for serious disease: Diminishing stigma of depression via game experience
Jin, Weina, Gromala, Diane, and Tong, Xin
In 2015 IEEE Games Entertainment Media Conference (GEM) 2015
TLDR: The design of an empathy game for people with depression.
Stigma is a common and serious problem for patients who suffer from depression and other mental illnesses. We designed a serious game to address this problem. The game enables player to experience and strive to overcome the disempowering aspects of depression during the journey to recovery. Through the game’s interaction, player may gain a better understanding of the relationship between patient and the disease, which in turn may help to change the players’ moral model with the disease model, and thereby diminish the stigma of depression.
@inproceedings{jin2015likemind,author={Jin, Weina and Gromala, Diane and Tong, Xin},booktitle={2015 IEEE Games Entertainment Media Conference (GEM)},title={Serious game for serious disease: Diminishing stigma of depression via game experience},year={2015},volume={},number={},pages={1-2},doi={10.1109/GEM.2015.7377256},project={likemind},}
