As anyone who cried when Aeris died knows, it’s easy to fall in love with your favourite game character. One of gaming's biggest strengths is the ability to allow players to form deep emotional bonds with characters. Empathizing with characters helps players understand themselves and others. Navigating difficult scenarios in a game world helps us manage our lives and provides a sense of belonging.
Games have enormous potential to be used as interventions for mental health promotion, but the majority of mainstream games don't address mental health and inclusion in a purposeful way.
Game designers working on LongStory, a queer-positive dating game for pre-teens, will lead a conversation on narrative and choice mechanics that call for empathy, growth and reflection. We invite gamers, interactive designers, health care professionals and entrepreneurs to discuss with us how designers can include white-label health interventions in their games to build emotional resilience through play.
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official listing on sxsw.comhttp://schedule.sxsw.com/2014/events/event_IAP22916