Depressed? Try Mahjong Solitaire
“Doctor, I wonder if you could recommend something to help me get over my chronic multiple sclerosis?”“Of course Mr.Smith, a few hours each evening playing Bejeweled, which can be downloaded for free from the Pop Cap Games website, should work wonders.”
A new survey conducted by Pop Cap Games, a casual gaming developer and publisher based in Washington, has revealed that disabled gamers make up 20% of the casual gaming audience and 11% of those have been prescribed casual gaming by their doctors to help with their disabilities.
According to the survey:
More than one in five (20.5%) players of casual video games have a physical, mental or developmental disability; this compares to 15.1% of the American population overall who are disabled, according to the latest U.S. Census data. Over three quarters of the more than 2,700 disabled consumers who participated in the study described their disabilities as “moderate” or “severe,” and the benefits to, and methods of play by, disabled gamers vary considerably from those of non-disabled casual gamers.
Compared to the casual gamer population as a whole (which industry estimates peg at 300 million to 400 million players worldwide), those with disabilities play more frequently, for more hours per week, and for longer periods of time per gaming session. They also report that they experience more significant benefits from playing and view their game-playing activity as a more important factor in their lives than do non-disabled consumers.
Listed amongst the disabilities from the 13,296 casual game players surveyed were multiple sclerosis, bipolar disorder, autism, dyslexia and depression.
What I can't understand is why this survey, which goes into considerable depth, was conducted in the first place? I can understand why a University might undertake such a project and conduct some serious research into the subject of gaming helping those with a disability, but why is a publisher who makes said video games getting involved?
Call me cynical, but to me it seems that the survey is geared towards tapping into the conscious of gamers who happen to have a disability, offering them something of a partial cure through the medical cabinet of games from its website, such as Zuma, Mahjong and Bejeweled.
The report states:
Of the “additional benefits,” responses were numerous and varied, often citing deeper sensations of achievement and “belonging,” or distraction from loneliness and/or chronic pain
Amazingly, the report goes on to say that 11% of these gamers said that a “physician, psychiatrist, physical therapist or other medical professional had prescribed or recommended playing casual games as part of the treatment” for their disability. Just who are these mad-cap doctors?
The real benefit of conducting it doesn’t appear to be to those who are actually disabled, which begs the question, just who is benefiting from such a project?
One word sums up the whole project. Patronising.
