Delving into the World of "Pain": Understanding, Experiencing, and Reacting to “Pain”

Games for Good: An Enchanting Possibility

Games makes us happy because they are hard work that we choose for ourselves, and it turns out the almost nothing makes us happier than good, hard work. We don’t normally think of games as hard work. After all, we play games, and we’ve been taught to think of play as the very opposite of work. But nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, as Brian Sutton-Smith, a leading psychologist of play, once said, “The opposite of play isn’t work. It’s depression.”When we’re depressed, according to the clinical definition, we suffer from two things: a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity. If we were to reverse these two traits, we’d get something like this: an optimistic sense of our own capabilities and an invigorating rush of activity. There’s no clinical psychological term that describes this positive cojndition. But it’s a perfect description of the emotional state of gameplay. A game is an opportunity to focus our energy, with relentless optimism, at something we’re good at (or getting better at) and enjoy. In other words, gameplay is the direct emotional opposite of depression.When we’re playing a good game - when we’re tackling unnecessary obstacles - we are actively moving ourselves toward the positive end of the emotional spectrum. We are intensely engaged, and this puts us in precisely the right frame of mind and physical condition to generate all kinds of positive emotions and experiences. All of the neurological and physiological systems that underlie happiness - our attention systems, our reward center, our motivation system, our emotion and memory centers - are fully activated by gameplay.  [Reality, 28]

All play moves and has its being within a play-ground marked off beforehand either materially or ideally, deliberately or as a matter of course. Just as there is no formal difference between play and ritual, so the 'consecrated spot' cannot be formally distinguished from the play-ground. The arena, the card-table, the magic circle, the temple, the stage, the screen, the tennis court, the court of justice, etc, are all in form and function play-grounds, i.e. forbidden spots, isolated, hedged round, hallowed, within which special rules obtain. All are temporary worlds within the ordinary world, dedicated to the performance of an act apart. [Homo, 10]

Active-play video games are increasingly popular in the United States. A growing body of research suggests activeplay video games that require moderate-to-vigorous physical exertion to play, such as balance board games, camera-based games that require physical movement as the interface, dance pad games, gym equipment games on stationary bicycles and sport walls, and mobile games that help players monitor and track their workouts or that challenge them to go physically to certain geolocations, can improve players’ cardiovascular health by increasing their frequency and intensity of physical workouts both during game play and away from game play in other forms of physical activity. Essentially, a game is a rule-based activity that involves a challenge to reach a goal and provides feedback on progress made toward the goal. Games are immersive and experiential, and when well designed they can be highly motivating. Digital games use technology completely or use it to support real-world activity. To involve the player in active play, video games can include exertion interfaces that involve, for example, balance boards, remote controllers, camera interfaces, and gym equipment. To support real-world activity, games can be supported, for example, via mobile applications, alternate reality games, and robots. Game designers can use game elements such as social and interpersonal influences, coaching (virtual characters that coach directly or games that connect people so they can coach each other), nurturing of characters (taking care of a character’s health), competition, and collaboration to motivate active play. [active play]

http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/circulationaha/123/21/2507.full.pdfhttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/07/virtual-reality-acrophobia-paranoia-fear-of-flying-ptsd-depression-mental-healthhttp://medicalfuturist.com/top-vr-companies-healthcare/

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