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/