The relationship between people, individual therapy and computer games is complex, in no small part because the ways in which the relationships between video games and behaviour are presented are fraught, to say the least.
Computer and video games, unlike any other art form or pastime, provide the ability to enjoy the experience either practically or literally impossible in a way that is free from consequences, which naturally leads to people in games acting in ways they would not in real life.
This led to moral panics and assertions with little evidence that these games would cause people who played them to be more aggressive, reckless and violent in real life, a belief that has largely been discredited in the years since.
However, that is not to say that computer games do not have an effect on people’s behaviour, attitudes or emotions at all; all art does this to a degree.
In fact, in the last decade with the resurgence of virtual reality, the concept of computer games serving as an empathy machine has increased in popularity, with a 2021 study proving to be particularly interesting for highlighting the potential for games to increase empathy both for patients and professionals.
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In 2016, Numinous Games released a computer game called That Dragon, Cancer, an interactive exploration and reflection of Writer and Design duo Amy and Ryan Green’s experiences raising their son Joel, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer at just one year old and sadly passed away four years later.
The game is intensely emotional, and the people who played the game had notably strong reactions whilst experiencing its imaginative reconstructions of real moments of their life, flights of fantasy, moments of intense pain and explorations of existential angst caused by the trauma of the situation.
An experiment was carried out involving the chapter “Sorry Guys, It’s Not Good”, where Joel’s condition is revealed to be terminal, with the subjects, all nursing students, split across two different axes.
Two sets played the game using a laptop and its standard configuration, whilst the other two played using the Oculus Go VR headset. As well as this, the subjects were split in half, with one set playing the role of the health care provider revealing the tragic news whilst the others were playing from the perspective of the parents.
The results were somewhat strange, in that whilst all the students felt a degree of empathy for virtual baby Joel and everyone involved, people who were in VR as parents felt more empathy, whilst healthcare providers felt more empathy when playing the game outside of VR.
This would suggest that at least to nursing students that VR could be used as an empathy machine, and help prepare medical professionals for the unfortunate task of giving bad news to patients or learning through personal experience that you cannot save every person you treat.
The consequence-free setting allows people to practice and understand these feelings through a simulation that, whilst based on a tragically true story, is one that is ultimately safe to express how you feel.