Re-mission - a game for kids by kids

Typical Carcinoid by Yale Rosen is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Computer Games have been around for a while and have generally had a mixed welcome. Many consider it as a plain waste of time, but kids(now the average age of a gamer is 33!) enjoy them. As recent studies show that there are pros and not just cons to gaming, many are slowly coming on board. There are some who have taken the game to new levels - in fact the benefits are felt at the cellular level!

Re-mission is a game conceived by Pam Omidyar. It was developed by game designers with input from a bunch of people we would never associate with gaming - cancer patients, oncology doctors and nurses. The target audience? Young cancer patients.

About the game

Released in 2006, it's about how well a player can control 'Roxxi', a nanobot which is injected into the human body to fight certain types of cancers at a cellular level. The weapons available are the antibiotic rocket, chemoblaster and the radiation gun. There are 20 levels to inform patients about treatment available and the associated procedures, to which a strict adherence is required. Patient health must be monitored by the player and results reported to an in-house doctor.

Benefits to the target audience

The game was used in 34 centers in the US, Australia and Canada, and patients(mostly young adult) monitored for psychological and behavioral changes associated with cancer treatment, over 3 months. In comparison with the control group, the patients who played this game significantly improved their behavioral pattern, maintained higher levels of chemotherapy in their blood and stayed on the antibiotics prescribed. The game had a remarkable effect on a biological level.

Not only did the game Re-mission bring the young participants pleasure in playing the game, it helped build confidence in them that they could fight the cancer. It also helped them understand their cancer and what was required to fight it.

The second version the game has games to build a positive attitude and therefore an adherence to treatment routines. The online games are free and available in many countries. Here are some Play with Purpose games from the people behind Re-mission.

Cases of extreme addiction to online games

While parents and teachers have been using online games that are educational in nature to make learning fun for kids, the world has also witnessed negative incidents stemming from extreme addiction to many different kinds of video games. Here are a few weird incidents of addiction to online games that will leave you baffled. 

Skipping school

In Perth, Australia, a 15-year old was known to suffer from extreme gaming addiction. The little teenager would put on his uniform every morning and leave it on till his mom left for office. As soon as she left, he would change and start playing online games and he would continue to play for 16 hours till his mother came back. To cover himself up, he had informed his school that he was having a surgery. He was caught only when the school called up his home to check on him!To

School scuffle

Photo by:IvanWalsh.com

Schoolyard scuffles are normal – we’ve all gotten into at least one in our lives. In Beijing, a boy who had lost a World of Warcraft tournament thought himself to be a Fire Mage and lit his classmate on fire. He was given a sentence of 8 years in prison and was ordered to pay the victim’s family a restitution of a little more than a hundred thousand dollars. 

Death from all-nighter

There have been quite a few reports of all-night gaming sessions but this one takes the cake. A South Korean man almost pulled off three continuous nights of gaming without enough sleep, washroom breaks, and obviously food. Eventually in the middle of the third night, he collapsed and expired from a heart failure. Preliminary reports suggested his death was caused by undue exhaustion.

Death of children

Photo by: TamahikariTammas

In two separate incidents in South Korea and an unrevealed location, a three year old girl and twins died due to their parents’ negligence toward them. A couple was busy playing Prius Online where the players lived a virtual life with virtual jobs and virtual kids. Unfortunately in this case, the parents in South Korea took their virtual world a little too seriously and left their 3-year old in a real world unattended for twelve hours following which the little child died. 

In the other incident, Gregg J. Kleinmark is serving up to 10 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter when his twins were left unattended in the bathtub for several hours while he was busy playing Gameboy Advance.

Parents murdered

Seventeen-year-old Daniel Petric walked into his parents’ bedroom and told his mother “Would you close your eyes? I have a surprise for you,” and shot her before shooting his father between the eyes. This was an incident of violence that resulted from addiction to an Xbox first person shooter game, one of the few reported fallouts of addiction to single player games.

Online games and the way forward

Because of such gory incidents, cynics and critics fail to look at the benefits of online games. There are many carefully developed online games that develop the technical ability of kids, help them to absorb information with a scientific approach, enhance their hand-eye coordination, and sharpen analytical and logical skills. It is important to engage kids with the right kinds of online games and strike a healthy balance between online time and outdoor play time.