Using VR as a therapy for patients in hospital

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the potential effectiveness of VR applications as a therapy for patients in hospital.

Computer games are very engaging virtual environments that allow players to get into the state of flow. While being in the state of flow, the players are completely immersed in the gameplay, hence they forget about everything that surrounds them. In addition, players experience a very satisfying form of joy while they are in the state of flow. In the end, playing computer games becomes a very rewarding and entertaining experience that keeps players motivated to continue playing the games.

Normally, the immersive nature of computer games is what attracts most or even all of the computer game players as it allows them to easily experience new challenges and positive emotions thus allowing them to relax from their everyday life. In addition, it can also provide them with positive emotions that help them to have a more positive attitude towards the challenges they face on a daily basis.

These special distracting and motivating characteristics of computer games are also what make them so important as a special form of therapy for seriously-ill children in hospitals. Computer games distract them from their illnesses and treatments as well as help them to deal with the anxiety and boredom they experience during a stay in a hospital [1]. In the end, playing computer games improves the mood of the patients and helps them to overcome their illnesses.

Now, as the next generation of VR devices is available, computer games have become even more immersive as they allow players to completely surround them in a virtual environment. In addtion, as the VR devices fully cover a player’s eyes, it is less likely that something in the real world distracts the player from the gameplay. Also, VR devices allow the players to turn their head without losing contact with the virtual environment.

This essential feature of VR devices could be very important when VR applications are used for the purpose of distracting patients in a hospital. While playing a VR game, patients are not only distracted from the treatment they receive, they even can not see what the doctors are doing thus reducing their anxiety during the treatment

In the end, VR could even improve the effectiveness of computer games as a therapy for patients in hospital.

Conclusively, I like to raise awareness for ChildsPlayCharity.org, a game industry charity dedicated to improve the lives of children in hospital.

The desire to explore new places

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about my ambition to explore new places and the resulting preference for open world computer games.

Spending time in the nature and exploring new places belong to my favorite hobbies. Constantly, I am driven by my own curiosity, the ambition to reach places unknown to me and the desire to experience challenging environmental conditions. For instance, every time I can venture into a new forest or ascent to the top of a new mountain, I am really excited and enjoy every second of those small adventures. In the end, it is all about of experiencing and discovering new things, finding ways to reach distant places and, ultimately, learning more about myself.

This personality trait probably is also the reason why open world games are my favorite computer game genre as they provide the players with huge and vivid worlds they can explore without any restrictions. For instance, I can easily spend many days in Minecraft by just walking around in order to discover unique and beautiful places in the procedurally generated worlds. Naturally, those games are not only about the exploration of the virtual worlds as they often evolve around a certain narration (e.g. Skyrim) thus giving the players clear tasks they have to complete in order to proceed with the story. However, in contrast to linear games, the players can choose how and when they want to continue with the main story and hence I often get sidetracked as continue to explore the virtual worlds instead of proceeding with the story line.

Skyrim

Unfortunately (or better luckily?), exploring the virtual worlds is still far away from the exploration of the real world. Of course, the audiovisual representations can be very realistic and immersive, but all my other senses are not involved when I discover a new virtual environment. Experiencing the environment with all my senses is, however, very important to me. For instance, I like the feeling of a refreshing breeze after I reached the top of a mountain or the warmth of the sun when I find a clearing in a dark and chilly forest. Only the feedback from all my senses allows me to really experience and grasp the environment around me.

The excitement of discovering new places.

In the end, I will always prefer to explore places in the real world, but in times when this is not possible, exploring virtual worlds can satisfy my desire of discovering new places and enjoying fantastic views over beautiful landscapes.

The value of my computer game experiences

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the difficulties of correctly valuing a player’s computer game experiences.

Since I started playing computer games, I have achieved a lot of impressive things. For instance, I drove virtual race cars on digitalized racing circuits, docked spacecraft to the International Space Station, defeated complex raid bosses in World of Warcraft and saved the world many times. Unfortunately, I am not really sure what exactly I have achieved and if there is a real world application for the knowledge I have gained over the past years (that is also one of the reasons why I go for a PhD in this field!).

Completing complex maneuvers in a simulation games shows that I do have the right mindset and knowledge for the simulated activity. However, as the simulation just happens on my computer screen, I can not directly practice the real world activity as the controls of the vehicles are mapped on my available input devices, such as my keyboard, mouse, racing wheel, and joystick, and not implemented in a realistic way by providing me with a panel full of knobs and switches. Hence, although the simulations are highly immersive, they can not count as a substitute for the real world counterpart of the simulated activity. In addition, all the forces that would normally affect my body, are not or only partly present while playing a computer simulation.

However, despite those limitations, simulation games present and demand the knowledge encoded in the game in a direct way and, as a result of this, I can train and even expand my knowledge of the game’s topic. Furthermore, as knowledge transfer is likely when the computer game shares similarities with the real world activity, which is the case with simulation games, I can directly transfer this game based knowledge to the real world. Unfortunately, there is no way that allows me to keep track of my simulator based experiences in order to have a proof for the knowledge I have acquired so far.

Things are even more complex in case of games that tell an exciting story and/or just challenge some of my abilities, such as reaction time, hand-eye-coordination, and social skills. In contrast to a book or a movie, I am actively doing something in order to proceed with the game. Hence, I am directly involved in the progress of the gameplay which should mean that all the experiences I made in the games I played thus far are real, at least for me. The problem is, however, that computer games lack a comparability to similar real world activities. Therefore, although a player’s computer game experiences might be real, they are hard to understand for others as long as they have not played the game themselves.

In the end, as long as there is no good way of comparing computer game experiences with similar real world activities, it is very hard for outstanders to correctly value a player’s experiences. Nevertheless, the knowledge and experience gained from playing computer games can greatly improve a player’s abilities or expand a player’s knowledge. Also, as a player is directly involved in the gameplay, the experiences are real for the player. The only downside is that only other players can really understand what the player has experienced.

Therefore, it is time to find a method that allows us to compare and value the knowledge and experience we have gained by playing computer games!