Paper Information
| Title | Assessing At-Risk: Strategies for evaluating a training simulation-based game for suicide prevention |
| Presenter(s) | Ron Goldman |
| Session | Assessing Games for Health |
| Time | Friday, October 22, 2:30p-3:30p |
| Location | Lake Huron Room |
| Format | Paper Presentation |
| Description | One of the biggest challenges facing serious-game developers is providing empirical evidence that their game can influence players' skills, knowledge, and behavior. Without concrete results, many will continue to view the use of games for health (or other serious endeavors) as more "buzz" than substance. This presentation will describe practical strategies used for conducting efficacy research - including successful techniques, process and funding - used to evaluate At-Risk, a suicide prevention training simulation designed to prepare university faculty to identify and refer to counseling students experiencing psychological distress. The presentation will demonstrate how this approach can be adapted for evaluating the outcomes of other games and reducing the misconception that empirical studies are highly complex and unachievable for game developers. |