How many times have you encountered a video game that was made for a good purpose? Re-mission is one such game, and today, I will provide you with all the information I have about it.
We need to remind ourselves that not all games are made just for fun; some are also made to provide more than that. Re-mission, the game that ”battles” cancer, provides its players with emotions like hope, courage, confidence, and, of course, fun when they most need it.
What is Re-mission?
Release: | April 3, 2006 |
Developer: | Realtime Associates, Inc. |
Publishers: | HopeLab |
Platform: | Windows , Mac |
Genre: | Single-player, multiplayer |
Mode: | Third-person shooter, serious games |
Re-mission was inspired by Hopelab‘s founder, Pam Omidyar. As a cancer researcher and a person who loves video games, Pam had the idea that a video game for young people with cancer might play a positive role in helping them fight their disease.
Hopelab worked with doctors, psychologists, nurses, and video game experts, among others, to deliver Pam’s vision. So, after 6 years, Re-mission was released. A game with a great vision and purpose, that takes the player on a journey through the bodies of young patients with different kinds of cancer.
BONUS INFO: Re-mission helped define a popular new subgenre of video games, now referred to as serious games.
Gameplay
In Re-mission, players control Roxxi. She is a nanobot who travels through the bodies of fictional cancer patients. Her role is to destroy cancer cells, battle bacterial infections, and manage the effects of cancer and cancer treatments. To defeat the multiplying cells, Roxxi continually shoots chemotherapy at the clusters until every last one is destroyed.
The player must also monitor the patient’s health and report any symptoms back to Dr. West, the in-game doctor.
Through gameplay, young cancer patients can understand better what happens within their bodies as they undergo treatment and deal with side effects.
Re-mission’s Impact
Re-mission empowers patients, giving them a chance to fight back against their illnesses.
”One thing it does, is give kids a tool to fight the disease, a sense of power and control“, said Pat Christen, the previous president of HopeLab. “We know from lots of data that if you perceive that you’re up to the challenge of fighting cancer, then your prognosis is going to be much better“.
Saif Azar, a cancer patient who was battling Hodgkin’s lymphoma, played Re-Mission about five hours a week and said that it helped him get through the worst of his treatment. “I think everybody should try it because it is really helpful to know that other people are going through what you are,“ he says.
Cancer patient, Re-Mission tester
Cancer is power hungry. It’s not satisfied with what it’s got, it always wants more. I want to see the cancer blown up and vaporized!
Study Research
In a preliminary study by HopeLab, researchers gave 375 male and female cancer patients, ages 13 to 29, computers that were installed with Re-Mission and another popular video game, Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb.
Both games were fun and beneficial. However, according to the outcomes study, three months after receiving the computers, the patients who played Re-Mission were found to have high levels of self-esteem and increased knowledge about their disease.
”Broadly, what’s great about it is that it shows video games can really be a force for good in the lives of young people,” Christen said. “There’s a lot of concern in the general public that video games are bad and they’re hurting our kids. What we have shown scientifically is that there can be thoughtful engineering put into these games. They can be designed in such a way that they are fun for the kids and also have great, positive benefits. It’s not like these games are going away. So our belief is that hey, they’re out there, kids are using them, so let’s make sure they are designed in a way that they can be positive tools.”
Game’s Distribution
Confident in the game’s clinical effectiveness, Hopelab deployed Re-Mission through a network of partners, hospital systems, clinicians, nurses, child life specialists, and caregivers.
As of 2012, more than 200,000 copies of Re-Mission had been distributed in 81 countries, placing it among the most successful serious games to date.
Re-mission helped over 135,000 patients adhere to their cancer treatments and gain a greater sense of personal empowerment over their disease.
BONUS INFO: Re-Mission costs about 2.5million dollars to create but is distributed free of cost to cancer patients.
Conclusion
Re-mission may only be a game, but there is something cathartic about having the ability to see and shoot the same cancer cells that are currently ravaging your own body. I hope we will see more games like this being released. At the end of the day, the benefits of games like Re-mission go much further than education, and that is something we are missing in the gaming community.