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Wellness in Gaming
Addressing Mental Health in
the Gaming World
Overview
Context
One of the biggest challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic has been maintaining our mental health. Due to the prolonged time of uncertainty and isolation, many people turned to online gaming to stay connected with their communities. As we slowly embark on a "new normal", we feel that games can continue to provide comfort, connection, and joy to gamers.
Problem
We noticed that occasional gamers were stressed out while playing FPS community games. We wanted to understand how we can use gaming to help them alleviate daily stressors. We want to develop solutions to help people use gaming to make a positive impact on their mental health.
Duration
Aug 2022 - Nov 2022
13 weeks
Game/Product
First-Person Shooting (FPS) games - Valorant
My Role
Researcher
Identifying Pain Points
Conceptualizing
Visual Design
Prototyping
Team
Falak Khurmi
Apurva Patil
Mayuka Lokre
Aditya Shahapure
DISCOVER
Problem and Context
There has been a
46%
increase in the number of gamers in the United States during the Covid 19 pandemic.
Discover
which has led to
3-6.5 mil
gamers in the United States are estimated to have some sort of mental disorders due to excessive gaming.
Our Challenge
Recognize the psychological impacts of excessive gaming and build designs that address the mental health of users without compromising on the pleasurable immersive experience of gaming.
So why is it worth tackling this challenge?
Secondary Research
Digging deeper to understand the problem
Excessive gaming can have several negative impacts such as "Gaming Disorder"
Loss of Control
Inability to regulate the number of hours spent gaming
Over prioritizing
Giving gaming precedence over other interests and daily activities
Loss of sense of reality
Overexposure to FPS games may induce hallucinations, a loss of sense of reality, and disoriented thinking.
Emphathize
Further cementing this research by talking to users
We conducted extensive interviews of video game players between the age of 18 to 24 years (Young adults)
Insights from interviews
Define
Making sense of it all
Further synthesizing insights from our User Interviews helped us in identifying and prioritizing some pain points that we could solve. I learned that just because most users highlight a specific problem doesn't mean it's a major pain point.
User Pain Points
Define
Redefining the problem statement
How Might We motivate the players to balance their personal and gaming life?
How Might We encourage the players to channel their frustration positively?
Iterate
Initial Concepts
We came up with the concept of a "Virtual Safe House", wherein players can de-stress and rejuvenate, when feeling overwhelmed, without leaving the game. They can listen to music, play relaxing games, or work on small skill-enhancing tasks.
Iterate
Test
Validating the concept by testing it with users
Insights
We discovered that the "Virtual Safe House" presented challenges while developing the concept through prototypes, feasability testing, and user testing.
The Solution
An Interactive AI Robot Support Animal
also integrated in Wearables/Smartwatches
First Fold of Solution
An Interactive AI Robot that acts as a Support Animal
Say Hi to "MEEP"
MEEP is an AI Robot that provides emotional support to gamers and cheers them up with music, dance movements, and cute expressions and also reminds players to sleep on time, encourages them to take a walk, and talks to them when they need it.
Solution
MEEP can...
We designed MEEP to have natural expressions and movements when interacted with
Second fold of solution
An interactive app integrated into Smartwatches
High-Fidelity
MEEP Onboards new users
Interactions with MEEP
Players can interact with MEEP using gestures such as stroking the screen
MEEP sends notifications to nudge the players when they are feeling stressed or when it’s time to sleep
MEEP nudges players to listen to calming music when they are stressed
MEEP can help users track their emotions
Players are shown a visual representation of the emotions that they went through during the game using voice detection (conversations between teammates, breathing rate, etc)
This data is transferred to the smartwatch app. The players can view all the emotions that they went through during the month and look at coping strategies or talk to an expert through the app
MEEP can help users track their emotions
Players can set a sleep timer before the game starts and they will be reminded when the time is up. When the timer goes off, the player’s attention will be grabbed using haptics in the watch and a glowing screen
Players can track the time spent gaming in a week and set game time limits
Players can track their monthly in-game expenses and set a budget for themselves
Animations created for MEEP
Future Scope
What's next
-
Incorporating the Virtual Support Animal in all kinds of games.
-
Exploring ambient lights to sync with the smartwatch; each color denoting different meanings.
-
Designing the smartwatch's micro-interactions and haptics for specific interactions.
-
Customization of Support Animals according to player's preferences.
Reflections
Lessons Learned
Scope down
Scoping down enabled us to generate designs that address specific issues. We had several ideas at first, but it wasn't until we narrowed them down that we could focus on providing precise solutions.
Social Impact
Many forums have discussed Mental Health on social media platforms. Our design challenge seeks to raise awareness about mental health in the gaming community and discover innovative solutions to this problem without compromising the player's gaming experience.
Never Presume
Some concepts may be difficult to implement due to feasibility. For example, we deduced from our insights that our Safe House concept would be impractical during extended durations of gaming.
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