Speaking of Games for Health...

I'm happy to announce that next month I will speak at the Games for Health Conference in Boston, MA. If you look closely at this photo from last year's conference, you can see my smiling face next to Richard Marks' glowing PS3 Move controllers! (Photo by Stephen Yang.) Wild, huh?

I hope you can come see me on Tuesday, May 17! Here is the info:

Step Up! How Small Actions Can Improve Well-Being

Q. Can a social iPhone app motivate you to climb more stairs every day?
A. It can if you are running Monumental, an iPhone game from MeYou Health.

Please join lead game designer Bill Sabram as he takes you on a visual journey filled with concept sketches, colorful graphics and giant User Experience (UX) maps. Learn why this app is about so much more than just climbing stairs. From its beginnings as a humble stair climbing utility to a collective climb up mythical Mount Olympus with your friends on Facebook, you will never look at stairs the same way again. Don’t touch that elevator button!

With this free app, every step up in the real world takes you closer to your virtual goal in the game: reaching the top of the world’s most famous monuments. Set your own Daily Climb Challenge to stay engaged. Check out the progress of your friends who are also using the app.

As the accelerometer captures your movement, the iPhone slowly shines with an original illustration of the world’s most famous man-made monuments. Every step counts! When you reach the top, see a photo from the observation deck, collect a souvenir and post your achievement to Facebook or Twitter.

For more information please visit gamesforhealth.com

The Power of New Relationships

Recently I took a survey geared towards estimated how long you will live. Apparently, people specialize in this line of research. One of the multiple choice questions really seemed significant: How many new relationships have you made this year that you interact with at least once a week? a.) zero, b.) 1 - 2, c.) 3 - 6 or d.) 7 or more.

I chose d.) since I've been here at MeYou Health for a bit over 6 months now. I'm back to working every day for the same company, complete with a daily commute by foot, train and subway. Designing web products and iPhone apps that foster fun and healthy behavior change continues to be a dream come true. I'm extremely fortunate.

There is something about making many new relationships at the same time that fosters so much wonderful growth, strengthening and understanding .. of the amazing people around you, of the dear people that are already in your life (that we tend to take for granted!) and most surprising, of yourself. You really understand who you are (and what you are capable of) when you start working deeply with a whole new crew of talented and passionate people. I've also found that interacting with people every day in our Daily Challenge product has been a powerful and enjoyable way to maintain my well-being. Again, the people that I interact with make all the difference.

Oh and that age survey?

It said I should live to 100!

But that is mostly because my grandfather lived to his 90s. Apparently, I've hit the genetic jackpot, since having relatives live to near 100 is the best signifier that you could do the same.

The Dawn of a New Age in Healthcare

It seems appropriate to post a photo of these beautiful desert tulips this morning. They greeted me in my front yard yesterday. For the past couple weeks I have been waking each morning before the sun rises, before the birds begin singing, excited for the future. We always think that the future is something that happens in, well, the future. But it is here now, around us, if we know where to look and how to imagine.

Just read this incredible Accenture presentation on "The Dawn of a New Age in Healthcare." It was an utterly fascinating read! The bite sized comments rocket you through all 29 pages.

Such amazing comments. Here are some points that jumped out at me:

• Pg 11 & 12. Industry comments on 1) business model, 2) interoperability / standards and 3) market readiness.

• Your mobile phone operators could facilitate systems: "If network operators get their act together and start acting like a family of operators versus individual companies..."

• Pg 19. Using off-hour carrier mobile carrier services to move around these many small bits of data.

Thanks to @scotteising for retweeting @hajovanbeijma.

Accenture issues new mobile healthcare(mHealth) study:

http://www.texttochange.org/news/accenture_issues_new_mobile_healthcare_mhealth_study

My GDC 2010 Summit Highlights

I am transitioning back from San Francisco and the Game Developers Conference. Miss all the fresh fruit, vegetable and herbs at every turn. But the crocus coming up in the front yard help... and I'm slowly digesting all the amazing things I saw, heard and met last week. Skimming my notes:

Gareth Davis @ Facebook

• Revolution in identity online. "Tremendous value being yourself."

• Shift from: "How do I sell the most games on day 1?" to "How do I grow an audience? How do I keep them?"

• Design for social interaction. "Friends as ultimate compulsion loop."

COOL: Game designers customize the game based on the capabilities of each platform: iPhone --> GPS play, console --> great sound, TV and computer --> keyboard and mouse.

Justin Smith @ Inside Network

• "Playing with strangers will be seen as strange."

• "Most people want to play with their friends."

• Rise of Virtual Goods in the West. Parents who will spend $5 to play FarmVille with their kids instead of $20 to see a non-interactive movie.

Noah Falstein, very mellow game design veteran, like his attitude & current focus

• "You only survive in this industry if you love learning new things. Recalibrate yourself!"

• Told story of friend who was the best 256 color artist... but he refused to grow and now this friend no longer possesses the relevant skills for today's electronic games.

• Shared cool story of friend who programmed an "oracle" computer program, that had you answer previous visitor's questions! Can't find a link but I wanna read more...

Violence Prevention - Playing a Videogame Can Make a Difference.

• Teach safety without fear. Help children discern who is a threat. Joystiq link here.

• The way Allan McCullough and Parry Aftab met and married reminds me of the twist in The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill! Too cool.

• Game includes "Trouble seekers" --> their in-game behavior mirrors real world sexual predators. If you fail, they steal a valuable item from your backpack.

Ken Perlin @ NYU Games for Learning Institute

• "Your next generation is your most valuable resource."

Katherine Isbister @ NYU Polytechnic Institute

• Shared a video of Steve Theodore, "engaging your emotions while delivering learning."

Jesse Schell. His DICE talk wow'ed me and this GDC talk also inspired!

• Talk titled: "10 Tips for Designing Games for Kids & Parents to Play Together."

• Connection between parent and child is the strongest emotional force we know.

• Here's a link to an Edge story about the talk, until I can find Schell's 10 Tips post...

Colleen Macklin, PETlabs @ Parsons School of Design

• Quoted Eric Zimmerman, "The Ludic Age," How you manipulate data. Plastic.

• The Economist: The Data Deluge

• Kyle, showing his Kimono Color Wheel (cool!) "We control how the data is revealed over time to the users." He advises, "Analyze the data." Then asks, "Where is Level 1?"

Jason Rohrer, on making a mature game for the DS and Majesco Entertainment

• Loved his payoff matrix. He builds his game dynamics for Diamond Trust's just like I do!

• Awesome description of 'Knowledge Chains'. How do you know that they know what you know? Very funny and intriguing explanation.

• Intriguing things to follow up on that he mentioned: The Muddy Children Puzzle, "Nash Equilibrium"

David Whatley, iPhone game developer for GeoDefense

• Stick to something you know. Outsource what you hate.

• Self Assessment: Time, Skills, Cash

• PR is key; go to a PR firm 3 months before launch. "Unleash the power of a PR firm."

Hello, old friend! Let's collaborate.

Lately I have been thinking about the people I already know in the health care industry. Therapists. Researchers. Nurses. Maybe we were in high school musicals together. Maybe we dated. Maybe we went hiking last month. Would any of these people like to use game design to help the sick or injured, change patient behavior or explore a new approach to healthcare? Maybe they have not even considered such an idea. Or maybe success stories like Wii Fit intrigue them. I'd like to talk to them.

I'm really looking forward to the Games for Health conference here in Boston in May. But rather than starting up a games for healthcare project with someone I don't know, maybe somebody right under my nose would like to pursue a STTR grant with me? Reaching this conclusion might not seem like a big deal... (although preparing a grant application seems like one of the 12 Labors of Hercules!) but it feels like a glacial shift in my approach to my game design consulting. I suspect my dabble with the latest social media tools this past year (and all the reconnections I have experienced) have nudged me to build something amazing with the connections I've already got.

Need to go read more about STTR grants.

Conversational Time Travel

Recently I was an adult volunteer at the RAW Arts Career Night in my hometown of Lynn, Massachusetts. I have not discussed job prospects with random teenagers in years. We tell ourselves we are too busy to volunteer. Rarely does our bubble of influence drift from our family, our friends, our coworkers. I was excited to connect with some of today's young adults and help them consider a career in art or design. Answer questions. Share stories. It was an incredible night. Suzanne Lenz was the best. I did not expect to learn so much in return!

I spoke with 4 or 5 students, each for about 10 - 15 minutes. Some of them want to be game designers, like me. I tried to keep it like a conversation and not a lecture. As much as I vividly recall being a wide eyed teenager considering a career in the unknown field of Graphic Design (I went to college for GD but fell in love with Industrial Design at first sight), I sensed this widening gulf between me and each student. Everything went great but by the end of the night, something dawned on me...

In conclusion, everyone sat in a *huge* circle. Adult volunteers and students. We went around, one after the other and each person shared two things: a) something you learned from the other person and b) something that you learned about yourself.

I learned that no matter how much value you think you can bring to a situation, your efforts will go unnoticed/unheeded/unused unless you find a way to relate to your audience. This realization was like a thunderclap, echoing through everything else that we do (or attempt to do) in our daily lives. Whether it is for work. Or for play. Or a relationship. As I spoke with one student after another, I found myself trying to remember my life as a 17 year old. It was like squeezing into an old suit from way back in the closet, this teenage me who had rebelled against his father to pursue art instead of engineering. Relating to people younger than yourself requires a feat of internal Time Travel! You literally must "dial back" entire portions of your life that Do Not Matter to these younger humans. If you can't do this, I think your voice transforms into those honking "Waht wa wah" teachers from the Peanuts cartoons.

It seems like a lot of the trouble today is caused by not attempting to see an issue from another person's perspective. (I don't even think you need to *succeed* in this "other-view"... you just need to try!) If you don't speak directly to what matters to your audience, all your wisdom or knowledge or enlightenment will just come across as blather. And don't forget to use your time machine.

Eat and Exercise your way to Level 80

The one-day Games for Health meeting that I attended in NYC a couple weeks ago is still rattling around in my head. I can't stop thinking about it. This game design initiative excites me like nothing else. Maybe it's because eating right and exercising have become such an important part of my own life... I put the smack down on high cholesterol with my Wii Fit, yoga and a radical diet change (that has become my new "normal" diet, two years on). I agree that games can be used to motivate and teach people of all ages to get healthy. And stay healthy. Because it worked for me!

It's just fascinating to hear about games + biology, and how it is being found that neurons grow from learning something *new*! The Hopelab Research director has noticed that "something is happening in the limbic system" of the brain during gameplay. They see it on brain scans. Children experience improved bone densities from playing Dance Dance Revolution, too. I spoke with medical professional in NYC that want to create games that utilize those lit up brain areas of gamers to change habits. Very cool stuff.

In fact, Microsoft recently filed a patent on the creation of an avatar based on *your* physiology! Won't that be something? A relationship with your doctor where real data about your body is modeled onto a personalized three-dimensional computer model. Of you! And talk about in-game motivation. If you want to look like a super hero on-line... you'd better exercise and eat right in the real world. Man, imagine a World of War Craft MMO where you need to go on "exercise quests" in the real world to improve your avatar's power. Drop and give me twenty push-ups. Ding! You just leveled up.

Very excited for the Games for Health conference here in Boston on May 25-27, 2010. People are doing the most *amazing* things with games + health. You should go, too! I can't wait.

http://www.gamesforhealth.org/