BARRIERS TO LEARNING ABOUT MENTAL ILLNESS THROUGH EMPATHY GAMES

Video games are an expressive art form which potentially allows players to explore someone else’s inner world through first hand, embodied experiences. This paper describes the results of an exploratory study on the game Perfection, which models the experience of anorexia nervosa. Perfection’s first and foremost
design goal was to capture “what it’s like” to struggle with the disorder. We were hoping that exploring this struggle in gameplay would have educational and therapeutic potential, increase understanding of anorexia and help to fight stigma. Fifteen therapists were observed playing Perfection and then interviewed about their gameplay experience. Analysis showed that although game’s design did not negatively impact the game’s educational potential, several barriers to therapists’ understandings and positive valuations of the game as a therapeutic or educational tool were identified. Discussing these barriers along with suggestions for use and further study aims to help other designers to create successful educational therapy games and to avoid the pitfalls we encountered when making Perfection.