I wrote a meditative slow game called Calmer (was iOS, sold terribly, no longer available). I was contacted by a US psychiatrist who said he prescribed it for anxiety patients.<p>It never occurred to me to try to raise tens of millions of dollars for medical trials and then charge a huge amount to insurers!<p>It does strike me as dubious that the investors are backing <i>this</i> game. When surely any positive result would hold for any number of similar games. A branding play, presumably 'we're the game that did the trials'. But it does seem like that relies on ignorance of what games are available. It remains to be seen if and when they actually show the gameplay!
When a video game is backed by clinical trials, you could charge a ton of money for it. Like $100s per month that insurance plans will negotiate down to fewer $100s, but still 100s, per month. At least for a few years.<p>The difference is that games, unlike drugs, are not mechanistically patentable (correct me if wrong please). Someone could create a close-enough lookalike, and sell it for $1. And if it really works, which I sort of don't believe, then it would improve access to real therapy. A lookalike would not have some of their proprietary evaluation system based on ever-questionable psychology metrics, but I bet a few hours with the game would show the gist of it: "You're paying attention! High score!" "You're old and also can't rearrange the blocks like you used to," -->poor executive function and memory, maybe dementia, etc<p>And yet given the ubiquity of the standard cognitive battery tests like MMSE and Minicog, I do question whether any therapist would ever recommend a substitute. The difference is these tests are often printed out on paper and royalties are not paid to the owners, whereas a tighly controlled Saas model would really cut down on illegal distribution and encourage alternatives.
I've tried to find more information on what this game actually does, and how it treats ADHD / autism. I looked at a few articles and the Akili website, but details are pretty spare.<p>Does anyone have some additional information of how this video game plans to treat autism / ADHD?
If they want to fight ADHD, I have a feeling meditation would be a better treatment. (Too bad you can't make money off it.) And this is coming from a HUGE fan of games (17 days till Fallout 4, OMG).<p><a href="http://www.feelguide.com/2014/11/19/harvard-unveils-mri-study-proving-meditation-literally-rebuilds-the-brains-gray-matter-in-8-weeks/" rel="nofollow">http://www.feelguide.com/2014/11/19/harvard-unveils-mri-stud...</a>
I would love it if this turns out to be effective, but we've already seen something similar with Cogmed - bought by Pearson, can cost thousands of dollars, overhyped claims and highly dubious benefits<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogmed" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogmed</a><p>"Cogmed working memory training is sold as a tool for improving cognitive abilities, such as attention and reasoning. At present, this program is marketed to schools as a means of improving underperforming students’ scholastic performance, and is also available at clinical practices as a treatment for ADHD. We review research conducted with Cogmed software and highlight several concerns regarding methodology and replicability of findings. We conclude that the claims made by Cogmed are largely unsubstantiated, and recommend that future research place greater emphasis on developing theoretically motivated accounts of working memory training."<p><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211368112000629" rel="nofollow">http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211368112...</a>
Is someone trying to market mobile gaming as a therapeutic?<p>It looks like it does the same thing than other click-fest-attention-grabbing games on mobile OS. The claim that as you progress you need to "multitask" more, seems familiar. They maybe adding their on twist on it. So, Minion Rush with a metric based difficulty generator?
One of my favorite Mac (anti-)games was a zen-like, music space platformer called Tranquility[1]. The relaxing "floating" gameplay was interesting enough, but the generated ambient music was the best part. I'd leave that running on the background like some rain loops I use nowadays. It was an online game, despite being single-player, and I paid $10 out of my allowance for a lifetime membership. I was pretty sad when it abruptly shut down some years afterward.<p>I've always hoped someone would remake it for mobile or VR. The music/synth engine alone would make a pretty neat app.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tranquility_(video_game)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tranquility_(video_game)</a>
There was Sparx in New Zealand, but that appears to be not available.<p><a href="https://www.sparx.org.nz/" rel="nofollow">https://www.sparx.org.nz/</a><p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130511003457/http://sparx.org.nz/?Levelling-Up" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20130511003457/http://sparx.org....</a><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparx_(video_game)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparx_(video_game)</a>
Reminds me a little of some mobile games that are supposed to improve your vision by training your brain to be better at interpreting fuzzy input.<p><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/can-an-app-help-you-ditch-your-reading-glasses/" rel="nofollow">http://www.cbsnews.com/news/can-an-app-help-you-ditch-your-r...</a>