Hello everyone!
My name is Jessica Tavarez. I played a game called At-Risk by Kognito Interactive. The URL for this game is https://demos.kognito.com/courses/atrisk-us-demo/launch.html.
The learning objective of this game is to helping players to identify an individual who is under distress, with attempts on helping them engage in conversation about their issues. These individuals are from a high school or college based age. The beginning of the game has an introduction with a virtual narrator whom explains what the game is about and asks questions about people you might know that fit into a category of feeling certain ways: depressed, anxiety, thoughts of suicide, etc. After the brief introduction you are then taken to through a scenario where you have a friend that you must interact with to help then discuss what is bothering them. There are preset questions and statements that you are able to choose to interact with this person. When there is a question or statement that has you go off course and not speak about the issue in itself with your friend, the narrator steps in and gives advice on how you can stay on tract with engaging with the character to identify the issue and help the character speak upon it. At the end of the simulation the game gives a number where you can call if you know someone who is in distress or feeling depressed, anxiety, etc.
I think this interactive game is a great for anyone. For myself who is studying mental illness, I connected with this game immediately because I have studied how to identify certain attributes within individuals who are suffering from an illness or disorder. But you do not need to be studying mental illness to connect with this game. There might be people in your own personal life that you know who are having a difficult time dealing with everyday activities, and their behaviors and attitudes might not be their norm. This game gives insight to any person who might know of a person who acts a certain way and help them to try and engage in conversation with them to open up about their problems. The only downfall about this game that I do not like is how they cut the simulation short, and you do not actually find out what is bothering the person. In retrospect, people can be going through a number if issues at the same time, and it can be a while before everything comes out. So for that aspect I can understand why it is not that long. People are in therapy for a long time and it can take a psychologist time to find out the root of a problem,or you might have a friend that has a hard time expressing their feelings to you. Either way, this game gives a one-on-one simulation on how you can approach someone going through situations that they themselves might not understand, and help guide you onto how to present the situation without being overbearing.
