Falar sobre a importância dos videojogos na saúde mental e física é algo polarizador. Há sempre uma série de estereótipos que se levantam, de estigmas até, especialmente quando se procura apenas atribuir culpas por determinados comportamentos. Não sendo nós especialistas em psicologia, mas com um conhecimento bastante “prático” do mundo dos videojogos, preferimos demonstrar como existe sempre o outro lado da questão.
A Gamers Outreach é um excelente exemplo daquilo que queremos demonstrar. Da capacidade de, através dos videojogos, ajudar crianças que estão, por exemplo, hospitalizadas, a socializar com outras pessoas, a interagir com outros jogadores, a divertirem-se e a esquecerem-se um pouco da condição que sofrem e de serem apenas mais uma entre outras.
Esta instituição de solidariedade está presente em mais de 230 hospitais, especialmente na América da Norte e já potenciou mais de 2.5 milhões de sessões de jogatanas por ano.
Para além disso, todos os anos organizam um evento de recolha de fundos, o Gamers for Giving, um dos maiores eventos de LAN party da América do Norte. Obviamente que no ano passado. apenas foi possível fazê-lo online devido à pandemia.
A Gamers Outreach apoia-se em dois programas especiais, um deles é o GO Kart, uma espécie de kiosks equipados com uma consola, um monitor, comandos e jogos. Estes GO Karts passam por cerca de 2.900 crianças por ano.
O outro é o Player 2, onde jogadores tornam-se voluntários no hospital, a ajudar a resolver pequenos problemas técnicos que existam, a distriubuir equipamento ou a jogar com alguns dos pacientes mais novos do hospital.
E isto são apenas dois exemplos, pois a Gamers Outreach tem trabalhado também na consciencialização dos problemas de acessibilidade e de como há várias formas de adaptação que podem ser utilizadas.
O mais recente exemplo disso é o documentário realizado ao lado da Xbox chamado “A Player Like Me,” que conta a história de Jordan, um rapaz de 14 anos proveniente de Atlanta, GA que vive com uma estirpe extremamente rara da Síndrome de Ehlers-Danlos e que passou a maior parte da sua infância em hospitais e fisioterapia. Até então, Jordan nunca tinha conhecido ninguém com Síndrome de Ehlers-Danlos, mas tudo mudou quando conheceu Megan, que vive na Escócia, a jogar Forza Horizon 5 na Xbox.
Para sabermos um pouco mais sobre a Gamers Outreach, tivemos a oportunidade de falar com o seu fundador, Zach Wigal, e conversar sobre as várias iniciativas, os objectivos já alcançados e aqueles por alcançar. Pelo meio falámos ainda sobre o papel dos videojogos na saúde mental e física e de como pode juntar as pessoas num mundo verdadeiramente global.
Em baixo está a entrevista no seu formato original em inglês, mas se quiserem, também podem ler na sua versão traduzida para português.
- Salão de Jogos (SDJ): Looking back to all the work the Gamers Outreach has done, do you feel that videogames are now regarded as a useful tool for achieving mental and physical health? And also as a powerful tool to cultural awareness? (I ask this because there are still stereotypes “flying” around about how videogames are violent and misguiding the youngsters.)
Zach Wigal (ZW): Our programs often support kids and families who can’t engage in physical activities. Some of those children are stuck in a hospital room for extended time. For them, video games are one of the few ways to facilitate play or social interaction. From that perspective, it’s undeniable the immense benefit games have.
We supported a child who had been hospitalized for nearly a year. If it hadn’t been for Minecraft, he wouldn’t have had a way to stay in touch with friends outside the hospital. Gaming provided that outlet. Minecraft became a virtual playground.
Since the first moment, people figured out how to control moving images on a screen, fundamentally, there’s been incredible potential for play, interaction, and education. The internet added a layer of connectivity, amplifying that potential in a significant way. So I think video games have always been powerful tools. We’re realizing the depth of that potential as developers and fans continue to support the medium.
“you must be a gamer to know how to provide kids with these experiences at scale”
- SDJ: In terms of organization, structure, funding, opportunities and understanding, a lot has changed for Gamers Outreach in pasted years. Do you still recall how this journey began? Can you describe it to us?
ZW: Gamers Outreach first started while I was a high school student, nearly 15 years ago. I developed an interest in organizing video game tournaments and began hosting events for classmates. I would borrow equipment, print flyers, and message local gamers on social media to spread awareness. Eventually my tournaments started attracting hundreds of participants.
One of my events was canceled by a police officer who believed video games were, in his words, “corrupting the minds of America’s youth.” It was his opinion that kids were “training themselves to kill” by playing games, and my event was a hazard to public safety due to content in games.
As a gamer, I was frustrated by that sentiment. I’ve always seen games as a way to connect with friends, as a way to enjoy a story, or express myself creatively. It’s my belief games can make an incredible impact if we choose to exercise our knowledge in a positive way.
I wanted to prove that point and decided to organize a new tournament for charity. In the process of evaluating causes, I discovered my local hospital was having a difficult time providing kids with activities. The hospital staff had a desire to provide gaming experiences to patients, but they didn’t have the tools to effectively manage devices. That’s how the idea for GO Karts came about, and ultimately caused the birth of Gamers Outreach.
Fast forward – I’ve since learned this same challenge exists across most all hospitals. I’ve realized it’s up to us – the gaming community – to instigate change for hospitalized families. We’re the only ones who have the knowledge to help healthcare staff deploy and manage video game content. Literally – you must be a gamer to know how to provide kids with these experiences at scale. My team and I treat this as a responsibility. We want to create a world where all hospitalized kids have access to play. We believe video games are the tool that can achieve that result. Now our programs exist across hundreds of hospitals. We estimate our devices enable more than 3 million gaming experiences each year. Much of that impact has been thanks to support from the gaming community and partners like Xbox.
“we really exist to help restore a sense of joy and normalcy for kids & families in hospitals”
- SDJ: Can you tell us how Gamers Outreach handled this whole initiative in a middle of a pandemic? In which terms did it proved its purpose in times of such struggle, fragility and isolation of all that kids in hospitals?
ZW: Certainly. First, I think it’s important to note we really exist to help restore a sense of joy and normalcy for kids & families in hospitals. We want to make it easy for healthcare staff to provide play alongside care. Our initiatives – GO Karts, Player 2, Save Point, and Portal – fulfill that objective in different ways.
Thankfully, pediatric hospitals weren’t seeing many children hospitalized due to COVID. However, physical distancing measures were (and still are) in place everywhere – and most hospitals we’d spoken with were all isolating patients to their rooms. That also meant visitors and volunteers were strictly limited, if allowed at all.
With limitation on visitors and restrictions on patient activity, the purpose of our work was more pronounced. Staff were looking for ways to help kids stay active, and gaming had a big role to play.
Our GO Karts were in higher demand than ever. We received more requests from hospitals seeking devices than any other period in our history. Our ability to support those facilities was largely driven by donors.
Our team is already organized as a “remote-first” organization, so thankfully we were in a position to continue our operations without much change to our workflow.
- SDJ: Do you think that the videogames industry has showed more concern about all kinds of disabilities?
ZW: There’s certainly more awareness for accessible functions in games these days. Just look at the Xbox Adaptive Controller – a device that was created specifically to help provide greater accessibility, and has been promoted in mainstream channels. The gaming community also owes credit to groups like SpecialEffect and AbleGamers, who’ve been pioneering that work for a number of years.
- SDJ: Today, there’s a lot of new ways to enjoy videogames, thru accessibility options – hardware, software and controllers. Are those the necessary steps in the industry and in the communities to everyone being seen as equals?
ZW: From a gamer’s standpoint: more physical accessibility and distribution outlets mean more ways to enjoy content via means unique to each of us. Our work at Gamers Outreach is specifically focused on supporting hospitals. We want to help hospitals, in a broad sense, have the tools for video games to exist in their environments and allow for patients to be connected as if they were at home.
“Gamers Outreach has certainly shaped my view of the world”
- SDJ: As we’ve seen in the new series of documentaries “Beyond Xbox: Therapeutic Play”, the videogames can bring people together, putting aside their differences and just enjoying each others company by talking, experiencing videogames, exchanging points of view. We can tell you’re close to those children and their experiences. Which was the biggest lesson you learnt with Gamers Outreach?
ZW: Gamers Outreach has certainly shaped my view of the world – especially around how we all relate to each other as people. It’s easy to overlook – but a simple realization has been that, at the end of the day, we all really connect with each other through shared activities and interests. The kids we’re supporting want to play and enjoy life, just like anyone else. Games help break down barriers to enable a more enriching life.
Another epiphany I’ve had through our work at Gamers Outreach has been recognizing that video games enable play-at-scale. Through games we can communicate lessons and values that are otherwise inaccessible to hospitalized kids. If a child gets upset after losing a match in their favorite video game – that becomes a moment for a care provider to step in and encourage sportsmanship or perseverance. Those are values traditionally communicated in sports. But in a situation where children don’t have access to physical activity, games can fill the void as an educational tool.
- SDJ: There’s always a next step to take in the future. Can you tell us the next Gamers Outreach step?
ZW: Building a world where one day we’ll all look back and ask “remember when hospitals didn’t have video games?”
- SDJ: Finally, what do you think is still necessary to be done so that every children have the same inclusive opportunities and achieve the true meaning of globalization?
ZW: Gaming is a bridge between cultures. I really think of video games similarly to music in that regard – a creative medium that can be shared regardless of someone’s physical location or language. I have friends around the world thanks to our shared love for video games. So I think, culturally, video games help facilitate those shared experiences in a way we’re just starting to realize.
Practically, there’s a lot to happen for games to exist in hospitals widespread. There’s an infrastructure aspect, a distribution aspect, a content aspect, and a management aspect. All these pieces need to function in harmony to realize that vision. I think our continued work will play a role, and hopefully we’ll be able to continue setting an example for others to build, with that shared vision in mind.
Recordo mais uma vez que podem ler a entrevista em português aqui. Resta-nos agradecer a possibilidade que a Xbox Portugal nos deu de entrevistar o fundador e mentor da Gamers Outreach, Zach Wigal e, dizer ainda que há várias formas de apoiar esta instituição.
Podem fazer doações directamente no site, podem fazer os vossos próprios eventos de angariação de fundos, por exemplo através de streams e a Gamers Outreach ajuda nesse processo, podem tornar-se voluntários e tentar ajudar a comunidade, ou então, ajudar no “passa a palavra” através das redes sociais (@GamersOutreach).
