Behave Yourselves!

Stage magicians/provocateurs Penn and Teller aimed their show, Bullshit, in the direction of video games this past week.  In their predictable yet entertaining anti-authoritarian manner, they cut a curse-laden swath though the public arguments that gamers have repeatedly endured/ignored.  Gamers, like all close watchers of the industry, already know the answer to whether or not video games influence behavior.  Of course they do.

It doesn't take a university study to understand the fact that a large barrier to managing illnesses in children is modifying their behaviors to aid in their recovery.  In the early to mid-nineties, doctors and drug companies turned to the Super Nintendo to teach life saving lessons in an edutainment manner.  Titles like Captain Novolin (for diabetes sufferers) and Bronkie the Bronchiasaurus (asthma) were developed and made available by mail-order prescription.  Independent research has shown that players of such games have:

[…]experienced higher perceived self-efficacy for diabetes self-management, increased their communication with parents about diabetes, and improved their daily diabetes self-management behaviors […] The treatment group had a 77-percent decrease in diabetes-related emergency and urgent care clinical visits.

Such success in modifying the behavior of gamers has led to a shadow gaming industry producing new medical games like Escape From Diab and Re-Mission for modern gaming formats.

Gamers are a valuable target to marketers.  In 2006, revenue from advertisements in games rose to over 77 million dollars, with no sign of abating in the coming years.  Despite the negative reaction that in-game ads receive from the gaming press and gamers, their continued existence indicates some level of efficacy.  In-game ads, like the ads on broadcast TV and print, are influencing their viewers by modifying their buying behavior.

There is an old joke among gamers that no one ever learned plumbing playing Super Mario Bros., so therefore the hysteria about games teaching people to kill is laughable.  Unfortunately, it’s also wrong.  While a rank of 65 in Call of Duty 4’s multiplayer won’t turn a gamer into a real Black Ops nightmare, you can be sure that he or she has learned the importance of taking cover, ammo management, enemy identification and other skills that every branch of the military teaches in their own simulators.  Nothing motivates behavior change like a drill instructor yelling in your ear or repeatedly placing last in an online Deathmatch.

Whether it’s remembering to take your insulin, being subconsciously motivated to switch antiperspirants, or calling in a recon plane to give you and your buddies a tactical advantage, games are used to educate, motivate and train their players.  What they do with that knowledge is up to them.