Experience Cancer Through a Video Game

(Today we have our first post from Meredith MacMartin (@GraniteDoc), a palliative care doctor in New Hamsphire, who referenced this video game in a Tweetchat several weeks back. I'm pleased to welcome her to Pallimed and I know you will enjoy this thought provoking post. ~ Sinclair) My brother-in-law Dennis is seriously into video games. He’s a designer and programmer who has worked with NASA on using video game technology for training and community outreach purposes, and who is passionate about expanding the use of gaming for entertainment and especially education. I’ve had many conversations with him about this, but always came away thinking something along the lines of “My work is with people, and you can’t translate interpersonal dynamics into a game”. I just couldn’t see how gaming could have any application in the palliative care world, which grapples not only with strong emotions but also with high-level decision making that is deeply personal and specific to each patient, family, and illness. How could a video game create anything like my daily work experience? And then I read this article about That Dragon, Cancer. This is a video game currently in development, describes on its website as: “... an adventure game that acts as a living painting; a poem; an interactive retelling of Ryan and Amy Green’s experience raising their son Joel, a 4-year-old currently fighting his third year of terminal cancer. Players relive memori...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - Category: Palliative Carer Workers Authors: Source Type: blogs