Typologies and features of play in mobile games for mental wellbeing
Typologies and features of play in mobile games for mental wellbeing
Background: the smartphone market is saturated with apps and games purporting to promote mental wellness. There has been a significant number of studies assessing the impact of these digital interventions.
Motivation: the majority of review papers solely focussed on the impact of strict rules and award systems of the apps. There is comparatively little attention paid to other game techniques designed to encourage creativity, a lusory attitude, and playful experiences.
Results: this gap is addressed in this paper in a consideration and analysis of a purposive selection of six mobile games marketed for wellbeing, our focus is on both external and internal motivations that these games offer. Our specific interest is how these games balance rule-based play with creativity. We find that ludic play is a highly-structured, rule-bound, goal-oriented play, in contrast to paedic play which a freeform, imaginative, and expressive. We argue that while ludic play is purposed towards the promotion of habit formation and generates feelings of accomplishment, it nonetheless relies heavily on extrinsic motivation to incentivise engagement. By contrast, paidic play, specifically role-playing, improvisation, and the imaginative co-creation of fictional game worlds, can be used effectively in these games to facilitate self-regulation, self-distancing, and therefore provides intrinsically-motivated engagement. In the context of games for mental wellbeing, ludic play challenges players to complete therapeutic exercises, while paidic play offers a welcoming refuge from real world pressures and the opportunity to try on alternate selves.
Conclusion: our intention is not to value paidic play over ludic play, but to consider how these two play modalities can complement and counterbalance each other to generate more effective engagement.
apps, gaming, mental health, mental wellbeing, play, therapeutic, gamification, mobile games for mental health, mobile apps
508-533
Reay, Emma
07fd9558-6d41-426a-abba-c278b28a78f3
Ma, Minhua
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Krzywinska, Tanya
3a88c22a-9af9-4be9-83b2-1ae9eb1e7e08
Pavarini, Gabriela
58b03c3d-6bea-4bae-9555-4c08de2d4b49
Hugh-Jones, Siobhan
8212b32c-858f-4222-8924-cd48cc099d0d
Mankee-Williams, Anna
6ba88311-4813-4850-a8d0-f8d262845582
Belinskiy, Anton
cdce0d56-4270-4f8f-8521-daefbccc4b38
Bhui, Kamaldeep
03b3537e-946a-44cf-955c-449625685897
October 2023
Reay, Emma
07fd9558-6d41-426a-abba-c278b28a78f3
Ma, Minhua
f64fcd80-abe3-461c-a8a0-f5f033d16428
Krzywinska, Tanya
3a88c22a-9af9-4be9-83b2-1ae9eb1e7e08
Pavarini, Gabriela
58b03c3d-6bea-4bae-9555-4c08de2d4b49
Hugh-Jones, Siobhan
8212b32c-858f-4222-8924-cd48cc099d0d
Mankee-Williams, Anna
6ba88311-4813-4850-a8d0-f8d262845582
Belinskiy, Anton
cdce0d56-4270-4f8f-8521-daefbccc4b38
Bhui, Kamaldeep
03b3537e-946a-44cf-955c-449625685897
Reay, Emma, Ma, Minhua, Krzywinska, Tanya, Pavarini, Gabriela, Hugh-Jones, Siobhan, Mankee-Williams, Anna, Belinskiy, Anton and Bhui, Kamaldeep
(2023)
Typologies and features of play in mobile games for mental wellbeing.
Simulation and Gaming, 54 (5), .
(doi:10.1177/10468781231188392).
Abstract
Background: the smartphone market is saturated with apps and games purporting to promote mental wellness. There has been a significant number of studies assessing the impact of these digital interventions.
Motivation: the majority of review papers solely focussed on the impact of strict rules and award systems of the apps. There is comparatively little attention paid to other game techniques designed to encourage creativity, a lusory attitude, and playful experiences.
Results: this gap is addressed in this paper in a consideration and analysis of a purposive selection of six mobile games marketed for wellbeing, our focus is on both external and internal motivations that these games offer. Our specific interest is how these games balance rule-based play with creativity. We find that ludic play is a highly-structured, rule-bound, goal-oriented play, in contrast to paedic play which a freeform, imaginative, and expressive. We argue that while ludic play is purposed towards the promotion of habit formation and generates feelings of accomplishment, it nonetheless relies heavily on extrinsic motivation to incentivise engagement. By contrast, paidic play, specifically role-playing, improvisation, and the imaginative co-creation of fictional game worlds, can be used effectively in these games to facilitate self-regulation, self-distancing, and therefore provides intrinsically-motivated engagement. In the context of games for mental wellbeing, ludic play challenges players to complete therapeutic exercises, while paidic play offers a welcoming refuge from real world pressures and the opportunity to try on alternate selves.
Conclusion: our intention is not to value paidic play over ludic play, but to consider how these two play modalities can complement and counterbalance each other to generate more effective engagement.
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More information
e-pub ahead of print date: 10 July 2023
Published date: October 2023
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the UKRI (MRC/AHRC/ESRC) Adolescence, Mental Health and the Developing Mind Programme (Project name: ATTUNE—Understanding mechanisms and mental health impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences to co-design preventive arts and digital interventions. Grant number: MR/W002183/1).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.
Keywords:
apps, gaming, mental health, mental wellbeing, play, therapeutic, gamification, mobile games for mental health, mobile apps
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 485350
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/485350
ISSN: 1046-8781
PURE UUID: 2a40b353-b3a6-4a62-970a-6c511506c71b
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Date deposited: 05 Dec 2023 17:35
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 04:08
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Contributors
Author:
Emma Reay
Author:
Minhua Ma
Author:
Tanya Krzywinska
Author:
Gabriela Pavarini
Author:
Siobhan Hugh-Jones
Author:
Anna Mankee-Williams
Author:
Anton Belinskiy
Author:
Kamaldeep Bhui
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