Games against health: A player-centered design philosophy

  • Conor Linehan
  • , Sabine Harrer
  • , Ben Kirman
  • , Shaun Lawson
  • , Marcus Carter

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingsChapterpeer-review

Abstract

This paper announces the "Games Against Health" (GAH) research agenda, a criticism of, and response to, the cultural imperialism of the "Games for Health" paradigm. Committed to player-centric design ethics, GAH seeks to dismantle the "games for health" myth as neo-liberal elitist diktat. We acknowledge the values, tastes and pleasures of billions of game players worldwide. We argue that game designers should engage more efficiently in the disimprovement of player health and wellbeing in order to cater to those players' existing preferences. We hope the paper can serve as a convenient reference for those designing psychotic, sociopathic or antisocial games.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCHI 2015 - Extended Abstracts Publication of the 33rd Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Subtitle of host publicationCrossings
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages589-598
Number of pages10
ISBN (Electronic)9781450331463
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 18 Apr 2015
Externally publishedYes
Event33rd Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2015 - Seoul, Korea, Republic of
Duration: 18 Apr 201523 Apr 2015

Publication series

NameConference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
Volume18

Conference

Conference33rd Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2015
Country/TerritoryKorea, Republic of
CitySeoul
Period18/04/1523/04/15

Keywords

  • Eat
  • Game
  • Play
  • Sit
  • Still

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