The design and evaluation of a body-sensing video game to foster empathy towards chronic pain patients

Chronic Pain (CP) has been identified as a complex medical condition, one that is difficult for sufferers to articulate and for others to discern. This may interfere with the ability of a patient's family, friends and healthcare practitioners to understand what it is like to live with CP, or to even believe it exists. A reluctance by or ability of others to believe a CP patient may in turn exacerbate pain and sequelae common in CP, such as depression, frustration, stigma or social isolation. The goal of this research is to help foster empathy of what CP patients experience by designing and evaluating a body-sensing video game titled AS IF. In this game, players "inhabit" a virtual body or avatar of a CP patient. The virtual body simulates physical limitations and displays red areas meant to indicate painful areas. A pilot study with 15 participants was conducted. Results show that while not every aspect of the game proved successful, players had a significant increase in their willingness to help patients. This research demonstrates an approach that may help foster empathy towards CP patients through an embodied game simulation, and has design implications for future research and gameplay explorations.