title: Designing serious video games for health behavior change: current status and future directions.
abstract: Serious video games for health are designed to entertain while changing a specific health behavior. This article identifies behavioral principles that can guide the development of serious video games focused on changing a variety of health behaviors, including those attempting to decrease risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Guidelines discussed include how to develop video games that provide a solid foundation for behavior change by enhancing a player's knowledge and skill, ways in which personal mastery experiences can be incorporated into a video game environment, using game characters and avatars to promote observational learning, creating personalized experiences through tailoring, and the importance of achieving a balance between "fun-ness" and "seriousness." The article concludes with suggestions for future research needed to inform this rapidly growing field.
authors.affiliation: United States Department of Agriculture/Agricultural Research Service Children's Nutrition Research Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030-2600, USA. dit@bcm.edu
authors.forename: Debbe
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Thompson
mesh_terms: D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000150:complications / Q000628:therapy*; D004704:Endocrinology / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D004867:Equipment Design / Q000379:methods; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications / Q000628:therapy; D012648:Self Care / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D018910:Video Games