“No reading, no writing, no video games, no computer time, no running, and no caffein, so, in other words, no reason to live.” - Jane McGonigal, developer of Superbetter
I started listening to On the Media podcasts as part of a class last year. In September, they interviewed a game developer who created a gaming/social media experience to recover from a serious concussion. It intrigued me, as I was also recovering from a severe head injury. The story of her struggle to recover (along with a similar experience of one of the show's producers) resonated with me. I did a lot of research about the game and the theory behind it, and continue to read the producer's blog about his ongoing experiences using the game in his recovery.
The story is interesting because Jane McGonigal has created a video game that helps people recover from illness and injury. We often separate the fields of entertainment and medicine. And we certainly separate the world of video games from anything productive. The efficacy of positive emotional experiences in the recovery process has long been recognized. Superbetter seeks to create this positive experience using media we are familiar with.
The medium of the story is interesting because it echoes the content of the story. This story pulls from sources of many mediums. The link is to a blog post, with an embeded clip from a radio show that played an audio segment from an online video presentation by McGonigal as well as the live on-air interview. All these converge in a concise story that we can read, listen to online, or download and listen to later. Similarly, with Superbetter, the fields of medicine, technology, psychology, and gaming and social media converge to provide a valuable tool for people to reach health goals. It is the story of interactive healing told through interactive media.
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