Social Gaming for Health

Whether your using a geo-location app to check-in at your favorite venue or virtually farming with your 500 Facebook friends, social gaming is creating new online currencies to boost your online identity, and in some cases, motivate your offline behavior.

But beyond digital gifts and status, how is social gaming really having an impact on our daily routines? 

Our friends at HopeLab, a nonprofit social enterprise that harnesses the power of technology to promote positive health behaviors in young people, believe in gaming’s potential to move beyond pure entertainment. They want gaming to help educate and motivate users to be more mindful of their health and drive positive behavioral change.  Their video game, Re-Mission, challenged young cancer patients to destroy cancer cells. According to CEO Pat Christen, since its release in 2006, the game has helped the kids who play it to better adhere to oral chemotherapy and antibiotics, while increasing their cancer knowledge. In fact, according to the journal Pediatrics, patients who played 1hr a week were more likely to follow their drug regimen.

HopeLab’s latest social gaming project, Zamzee, aims to tackle childhood obesity through an online rewards system powered by physical activity and recorded through an activity meter.

I had the chance to chat with HopeLab’s Richard Tate about how Zamzee uses mobile technology to give young people power and a sense of control over their own health. Richard explains how game based mechanics and extensive user testing had a huge influence on their final design and ecosystem around the device.