Game Education Summit North America

According to a study conducted by RAND, fewer than 50% of veterans with post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) seek professional help. The consequences of untreated PTSD and depression can be devastating and lead to substance abuse, increased irritability or violence, social isolation, unemployment, divorce, and suicide. According to a recent report by the Department of Veterans Affairs 18 veterans commit suicide every single day, adding to over 6,500 veteran suicides a year. There is a critical need to better detect and refer for treatment those veterans who are experiencing these debilitating consequences of traumatic wartime events.

Kognito, a NYC-based developer of role-playing simulations and games is working with the NY/NJ Veterans Affairs Department to create an online game for families of returning veterans where they can learn to identify when their loved ones exhibit signs of PTSD and psychological distress and how to best speak with them to motivate them to seek help at the local VA.  The training will be made available starting March 2011 to the families of over 900,000 veterans in NY/NJ area.

In the game, users assume the role of a family member and engage in simulated conversations with emotionally responsive avatars exhibiting signs of PTSD, anxiety, psychological distress, and thoughts of suicide. Utilizing Kognito’s proprietary game engine, the virtual veterans are capable of visually and verbally expressing emotions in reaction to users’ decisions during the conversation, effectively replicating the key challenges of a real life interaction. The goal of the game is teach users effective conversation tactics in managing these often challenging conversations while avoiding common pitfalls of addressing someone at‐risk, such as attempting to counsel or diagnose the problem. The engine also records all tactical decisions made by the user and generates a report analyzing their decisions.

Kognito has utilized this technology to create three other suicide prevention training products for university and high schools teachers and students. These programs are currently utilized by over 75 universities and 120,000 high school teachers and have undergone several studies to analyze their effectiveness.

In the presentation, we will (1) show a demo of the game and explain its underlining technology and behavioral analysis component, (2) provide an overview of the game’s development process including the unique challenges of working with a federal agency which has little history in adopting games for health, (3) share lessons learned during development, (4) describe the study being conducted in NY/NJ to assess its effectiveness as well as share initial results from the study, and (4) discuss other application of this technology in the area of health.

You can learn more about Kognito and this game at www.kognito.com/atrisk