title: Stories in Games for Health: More Pros or Cons?
abstract: There has been a debate about whether entertainment videogames should incorporate story or narrative. A concern has been whether story cut scenes break game immersion, and thereby minimize the fun of gameplay. Alternatively, games for health (G4H) have an agenda that goes beyond just having fun. The possible role of story in G4H has not been thoroughly addressed. We have assembled a group of experts who have worked with stories in G4H, and asked some pointed questions.
authors.affiliation: 1 Baylor College of Medicine , Houston, Texas; and Editor, Games for Health Journal: Research, Development, and Clinical Applications.
authors.forename: Moderator Tom
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Baranowski
authors.affiliation: 2 Northwestern University , Evanston, Illinois.
authors.forename: Amy Shirong
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: 3 Archimage, Inc. , Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Buday
authors.affiliation: 4 University of Texas Medical Branch , Galveston, Texas.
authors.forename: Elizabeth J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Lyons
authors.affiliation: 5 Schell Games, Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania.|6 Carnegie Mellon University , Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Jesse
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schell
authors.affiliation: 7 East Carolina University , Greenville, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Russoniello