Psychology of a Gamer: Gaming and the Mental Health Services – Valuing Opinions

Psychology of a Gamer: a weekly feature on RGM that looks at how psychology might play into the inner-workings of games and gamers.

Unless you’ve been living under a Nintendo specific rock, you may have noticed that there are two major first person shooters coming within the next month or so; Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Infinite Warfare, the 12th release in the Call of Duty series, by Activision, takes the series into space for futuristic shooterific fun. Whereas Battlefield 1, annoyingly the 5th major Battlefield release (Hardline and Bad Company etc are more side games in the Battlefield series), from EA, goes back over 100 years to the Great War, World War One, for expansive and impressive looking huge scale battles.

Now I will say this straight off the bat, I am more of a Battlefield fan, I used to love the Call of Duty series, the way it depicted the horrors of war through an interactive and informative medium, made it so we never forgot the trials that millions of men and women went through less than 100 years ago in the Second World War, whilst also providing a fun and well-built shooter in a setting that was different and interesting. When it ventured into the modern-day and eventually became less about relaying a message and more about the K/D spread that I became less enamoured with it.call_of_duty_2_pc_43
When they stopped putting in quotes on-screen when you died, I knew it had lost its way as a series. Not that the games are any less functional, I have no doubt that Infinite Warfare will be well played and well-received by critics and many of the fans and I think that Call of Duty games are well up there in what they want to achieve in terms of handling and gun play, but they have, for me at least, lost their sparkle and indeed my interest.

Ultimately, Battlefield became the more attractive option, more variety in the gameplay, vehicles and huge expansive maps that are made for some epic shootouts. It was never about depicting the horrors of war in the way Call of Duty was, in fact I think Call of Duty quite often told the better story, except for the Battlefield: Bad Company stories, they were great (here’s hoping for the next one). Either way, both shooters firmly placed themselves in the modern warfare camp after the success of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, an excellent game that shook up the first person shooter genre for the mainstream. It had always been World War in the past and that was seen in many places: Brothers in Arms, Medal of Honor, Company of Heroes etc. Given how well revered Modern Warfare is now, it might be surprising that the game didn’t sell brilliantly to start with, in fact I remember it dropping to £35/£30 not long after release, before interest picked up properly, something we haven’t seen with a Call of Duty until Black Ops 3 this year just gone.13118952_10201634904870668_4501237608272288055_n

Once the shift to modern shooters began, it began in a big way, even the big players switched to modern takes of well-established series, with mixed results; Medal of Honor: Warfighter anyone? World War shooters dried up as the gaming community seemingly cried out for more and more modern-day shooters and developers were happy to oblige, hoping to create the next Modern Warfare or Modern Warfare 2 (not Modern Warfare 3, that was dire).

So we come to the present day, many a modern shooter released and people seem to be getting bored with them, the Call of Duty series continues to tread on other series’ toes (*cough Titanfall) and push where the series is set. It seems with every new announcement for the next installment in the series, it becomes more and more apparent that the Call of Duty may well be running out of steam. You need only look at the comments on any of the videos of Infinite Warfare to see the disdain people have. battlefield-1-trailer-reaches-over-1-million-likes-on-youtube“The most disliked video on YouTube” an accolade afforded to the reveal trailer. Conversely, Battlefield 1, has one of the most liked videos on YouTube ever, people have been asking and speaking about the need to return to a World War shooter, a bit of difference and variety and maybe even more of a challenge perhaps?

Alas, from what I can remember, fans have been asking for a world war shooter for years, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Black Ops 2, even Battlefield 4, all had similar comments and suggestions about a time that is scary to think ever happened in real life. And lo, DICE, the developers of Battlefield have listened to the fans and put out what they have been asking for…

I want to try to make a point here…

How good does it feel to have a point of view and have it listened to and validated, even acted upon? Good right? Even more so when it’s a big deal.

For years people have been asking for a world war shooter and now one of the developers has listened to the repeated requests and responded to them, appeasing the fans, and probably getting a lot of respect (and presumably sales) going forward. Isn’t this a strange concept? Actually being listened to for once?

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As consumers of their products wouldn’t it make sense that we are listened to by the people who make the product. Why has it been the case that, for the majority of the time, the consumers, the users of the services provided by the company if you will, ignored in lieu of what the company wants to do and what their vision is?

Undermining the opinions of those who want to use the service and doing what they want.

Could you imagine what it would be for this to be the case in everyday life, to have everything you want or do, or have to say, ignored or discarded for lieu of what those in charge feel is the better option? You’d be pissed right? The fact is that this can often be the case in the mental health service.

mental-health-disordersPeople who experience problems with their mental health aren’t any less human than your mum or dad, or the person sitting next to you on the bus or in the cinema. They are just people who are experiencing an issue that may impact on their life, or the way they perceive life.

For some, it is a scary world, with constant sources of anxiety.

For some, it is an unfair and enraging world, filled with people who don’t understand.

For some, it is a place with abusive people who damage physically and mentally on a regular basis.

Those who receive treatment, often in hospital, have been through an unimaginable amount of hurt to get them to the point in their lives where they are that they finally receive treatment (often, a person needs to present as an immediate risk to themselves or others to be eligible for quick mental health treatment; i.e. to be sectioned under the mental health act, in the U.K. at least).

Being in a general hospital is never a fun experience, but we try to make the best of it; people bring you newspapers, things to do, they make sure you have something to listen to, read or play on for example. The little things that make it easier whilst you await an operation or to go home can make a big difference. But you can make a request of the medical team, ask for something that might make it a bit better, question and raise concerns about your treatment and if there are alternatives.

In mental health services, people are often thought of as not knowing what is best for them. That, because they may think differently, or more abstractly than the person making the decision, that their opinions or ideas are less valid. A treatment plan may well be established and pushed forward without much consideration of what the patient might want, or whether they had any thoughts about this. Many mental health patients could be likened to the Call of Duty fans, with Activision as the psychiatrist:

Call of Duty patient: “We want a world war treatment.”

Dr. Activision: “Ok, the modern treatment doesn’t seem to be working, how about we try a futuristic treatment?”

Call of Duty patient: *angry “No!”

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Now I know this isn’t the case across the board. Thankfully, the majority of my experiences have been that mental health patients are listened to and their concerns and ideals are acknowledged and often acted upon in order to create a better working relationship between the patient and the healthcare provider. This creates a better environment for all those involved, with an approach where patients are valued and listened to and respectively, the healthcare is revered for doing so. In these instances we have the mental health patients as the Battlefield fans and EA as the psychiatrist:

Battlefield patient: “Ok, we’ve tried the modern warfare treatment, how about going back to what used to work, it was fine before.”

Dr. EA: “Ok, here’s what we’re proposing *shows Battlefield 1 medication*, what do you think?”

Battlefield patient: “Hell yeah, I feel better just knowing we are heading this way.”

I guess my, as always, convoluted point is that, in anything, be it gaming, psychiatry or politics, if you listen to your customer/patient/constituents about what they want, then you will be better respected for it. Speak with them, liaise with them, hold a focus group for Mario’s sake. What do the future users of your service want to play? Don’t try to force your ideals on to people if they don’t want to hear it and especially don’t try to blackmail them into it…

Dr. Activision: “Ok, you don’t like the look of the Infinite Warfare medication, but we’ll give you this ‘Remastered’ version of one you used to like if you take it.”

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