Summary

PLAY IT! SAY IT! is simple – we propose to use the existing communication functionalities of video games consoles (voice chat and messaging) to provide phone and online counselling to the people who use them.

The online video game community is larger than the population of Canada, and at least one 1 in 5 people playing have a mental health condition.

Beyond the existing benefits of online and phone counselling, consoles offer universal access points to ensure coverage, and the opportunity to develop rapport while playing simple games to support the sharing of concerns.

We value quality of life.

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Mental Health - Why so serious?

1. Depression and anxiety is a major and costly problem throughout the world.
2. Many people who play video games suffer from depression and anxiety.
3. Effective treatment can be provided over the phone or online.
4. However, it's really hard for some groups, particularly young men, to ask for help.
   

According to the World Health Organisation, depression is a common mental disorder that presents with depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, low energy, and poor concentration. These problems can become chronic or recurrent and lead to substantial impairments in an individual's ability to take care of his or her everyday responsibilities. At its worst, depression can lead to suicide, a tragic fatality associated with the loss of about 850 000 lives every year. 6

This means that every five years the world loses the population of New Zealand to suicide. 7

Depression is the leading cause of disability world wide.

It occurs in persons of all genders, ages, and backgrounds. 8

This is not a problem isolated to developing countries, for example, in Australia and America about one in five people with suffer from a mental health condition – the most common is depression and anxiety. Let's look at how the figures play out among Australian young people aged 12-24. 9

• One in four young people 16–24 years (26%) have a mental disorder in a given year.
• One in four young people who do not have a mental disorder are experiencing moderate to high psychological distress.
• Suicide is the leading cause of death for young people. About 8 in every 100,000 young people 15–24 years committed suicide in 2007. Young men are more likely to commit suicide than young women.
• One in three of all young people experience moderate to high psychological distress.

When you look at the number of people who play video games and the number of people who suffer from depression, it’s a 'no brainer': many people who play video games suffer from depression, have a mental health disorder, or are just suffering psychological distress.

Over and above this, some research suggests there is a link between gaming and depression. While some like to claim this link is causal 10, we tend to the view that there’s a non-causal relationship, for example:

An adolescent psychologist, Michael Carr-Gregg, said that one of the first signs of depression was withdrawal. "Watching TV or sitting in front of the internet is a very clever way to mask depression." 11

There is a range of research about the importance of support to help people through tough times. And that it’s harder for guys to access help than it is for girls. In fact there is a growing body of research in the United States to suggest that men are less likely than women to seek help from health professionals for problems as diverse as depression, substance abuse, physical disabilities and stressful life events. In the UK, previous research has revealed that the principle health related issue facing men is their reluctance to seek access to health services. 12

This group is the same group as the one that is most likely to play video games.

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Video Games - What's all the fuss?

1. Playing video games is fun for millions of people.
2. People are increasingly accessing the Internet via consoles opposed to the web.
3. But they’re not just about games – they’re also about community!

Video games are great – they provide fun, enjoyment and social interaction for millions of people all around the world. This social interaction extends to many families: in the United States, 48% of parents play video games with their children at least weekly. The top reasons for playing include:

• It’s fun for the entire family: 87%
• Because they’re asked to: 83%
• It’s a good opportunity to socialize with the child: 75%
• It’s a good opportunity to monitor game content: 60% 1

In 2008, 88% of Australian households had a device for playing computer games; interestingly the majority of installed game devices were consoles (43%). 2

And many people are tapping in to the online opportunities of video gaming - it’s estimated that there are around 40 million Xbox Live and PlayStation 3 Network accounts around the world. 3

In January 2010 Microsoft announced that between Christmas and New Years Day, Xbox Live experienced its busiest week ever.

• A new member was added every second.
• There was a record of more than 2.2 million concurrent members online. 4

One of the real growth opportunities for video games, including consoles, is the aspect of community. When announcing their membership figures, Microsoft said that Xbox Live "is now an active community of over 20 million people".

To capitalise on this they’ve implemented a range of community functions to the Xbox Live experience:

"Nearly 10 million people have logged into Xbox Live's nongaming applications including Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Last.fm, Sky, Canal and Zune."

That’s right, you can access Facebook or Twitter through your Xbox console.

The industry is already massive - and it’s growing. Xbox Kinect and PlayStation Move are bringing new dimensions to video game consoles, including full body play and voice recognition. 5

There is little doubt that this will bring new opportunities to make video game consoles even more integrated into our lives and our communities.

Interested in more stats about who plays video games, why they play and just how big the industry is? Check out these links and do your own research – you might be surprised:

• In America, the Entertainment Software Association published the 2010 Sales, Demographic and Usage data: Essential facts about the computer and video game industry. This is really easy to read and full of interesting statistics about gaming in America.
• The Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia has a similar publication titled Interactive Australia 2009.

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How Play It! Say It! Works

1. Consoles are an access point to the internet … this means they have the same communication functionality as your phone or your PC
   
2. Connecting to counselling through a consonle has some beneficial advantages.
   

Just like Skype and chat functions such as Instant Messaging, you can communicate through your console by sending messages or talking to people. You can even video chat.

There's a lot of flexibility around this too:

• you can chat to a whole bunch of people who are playing the same game as you are (game chat)
• you can chat to only one other person while (private chat)
• or on some consoles you can chat to a group of people (party chat)
  

You can talk to people while your sitting on the front end screen of the console (the dashboard), watching a movie, listening to music or playing games. You don’t even have to be playing the same game as the other people you’re talking to.

Instead of a phone, you use a headset.

The Xbox headset looks like these.	This is what the PlayStation headset looks like.

The Xbox even has a little qwerty key pad you can attach to your controller and links to Instant Messaging (IM).

Play It! Say It! is simple. It's about using this functionality to offer the same services of phone and online counselling through video game consoles.

Then, instead of a phone number, you have a friend request – here’s a picture of what a friend list looks like on the Xbox 360.

We already know it will be effective because it gaming consoles are used by many of the same people who are struggling with their mental health – that is, everybody. With a basis of around 40 million people, there’s as much opportunity to make a positive difference as there is in a country the size of Canada.

So, we hope you’re on board with us by this point. But, if you’re not, here’s a couple of other reasons why we think you should support Play It! Say It! -

Firstly

One of the real problems with people accessing services is knowledge of them; where do I find out about them? With consoles, that problem disappears because everybody accesses the same dashboard that’s controlled by the company that owns the console – one strategically placed message and people will see it every time they’re on the dashboard. Market coverage is pretty much complete.

Secondly

The second reason is to do with guys and gender differences. As we talked about before – guys are less likely to seek help for things like depression. By the time they do, the problem is likely to be pretty bad.

• We think Play It! Say It! could respond to this in two ways: there is a real opportunity to develop messages that are low key and effective for guys and to use this message to advertise the service to EVERYONE.
• Then, we can support this message with the prospect of doing something while, or before, they start chatting. It must be hard to pick up the phone and start talking about stuff that’s getting you down. It might be easier to pick up a controller, start playing a game of Uno with someone, feel comfortable with them, and then start to talk about what’s going on in your life.

If you think this is an idea worth 5 or 10 minutes of your time to share it with friends and have a look at the actions you can take to help make Play It! Say It! a reality on a console near you.

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References

1. 2010 Sales, Demographic and Usage data: Essential facts about the computer and video game industry. Entertainment Software Association. United States of America. Pgs 5-6. Sighted 17 August 2010 <http://www.igea.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/ESA2010EssentialGameFacts.pdf>
2. Interactive Australia 2009. Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia. Pg 5. Sighted 17 August 2010 <http://www.igea.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/IA9-Interactive-Australia-2009-Full-Report.pdf>
3. joystiq. Sighted 17 August 2010 <http://www.joystiq.com/2010/01/06/xbox-by-the-numbers-20m-xbox-live-users-10m-nongaming-39m-xbo/>
   Note - This article suggests there are up to 38 million PlayStation Network accounts, but acknowledges that as these accounts are free, individual users are likely to have multiple accounts.
4. joystiq. Sighted 17 August 2010 <http://www.joystiq.com/2010/01/06/xbox-by-the-numbers-20m-xbox-live-users-10m-nongaming-39m-xbo/>
5. You can find out more about Xbox Kinect at http://www.xbox.com/en-AU/kinect/ and PlayStation Move at http://au.playstation.com/ps3/news/articles/detail/item268480/PlayStation-Move-motion-controller-revealed/
6. World Health Organisation. Sighted 17 August 2010 <http://www.who.int/mental_health/management/depression/definition/en/>
7. Figures based on the New Zealand population clock. Sighted 17 August 2010 <http://www.stats.govt.nz/methods_and_services/population_clock.aspx>
8. World Health Organisation. Sighted 17 August 2010 <http://www.who.int/mental_health/management/depression/definition/en/>
9. State of Australia’s Young People. Australian Government Office for Youth. Pg 17. Sighted 17 August 2010 <http://www.youth.gov.au/Documents/YoungPeopleReport.pdf>
10. For example, CVG. Sighted 17 August 2010 <http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=239855> & the Sydney Morning Herald. Sighted 17 August 2010 <http://www.smh.com.au/news/home/technology/teen-depression-risk/2009/02/03/1233423278930.html>
11. The Sydney Morning Herald. Sighted 17 August 2010 <http://www.smh.com.au/news/home/technology/teen-depression-risk/2009/02/03/1233423278930.html>
12. For example: Galdas PM, Cheater F, Marshall P. School of Healthcare, University of Leeds, PO Box 214, Leeds LS2 9UT, West Yorkshire, UK. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15737222; & the World Health Organisation http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2007/9789241595711_eng.pdf; & http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/bjprcpsych;186/4/297