superbetter, a real life mmorpg...

@sf- yea, im usually the same way. i try to hold myself accountable for my own mood swings and i would sooner pull my hair out than go to a motivational seminar or self help group specifically. but this last year i'm feeling very bleak about not having a "thing"... not just professionally but a real calling that i can feel like i'm achieving things in and growing in... and so far just wanting to find it and my normal routine haven't produced that. this superbetter definitely has elements of things i normally construe as silly but it also has a format that i've grown accustomed to in gaming that might be a ticket to me internalizing these good things that will aid me in that. i think it's just another way to learn things... through achievements in small steps... as opposed to learning from listening or seeing them in a class or reading about them.

so far i leveled up to 5 and have 1 ally. i think things will get more popping in it when i get a couple more friends in my group on it.

 

Ok, I actually played it...

If it is helpful for some people that's good for them. It isn't for me. Personally I find it patronising, and slightly demeaning. That's just how I took it. If you didnt find it that way then I am not having a go at you, just sharing my own experience of it.

 

All I am going to say is this. In "real life" if someone asked me how I was keeping and I replied "ah, not the best"... and this man looked me in the eye and said "why dont you do a google image search of a baby of your favourite animal?" then "don't patronise me" would be the exact thing I would say to the man. I might give him some extra language I wont mention here.

 

Maybe the way you feel is not the same as the way everybody feels?

Like I said, for the people who like it... that's nice for them.

You have absolutely no position at all to know how I react to something or how I take it.

 

@sf- thats true, everyone has their own subjective experience, but no one is trying to talk you over a hump to get into this either. if you click the little atom icon at the top of the pages, it gives you scientific data that shows why these things work and just how often (usually) that they do work with people. thats what gets ME over the hump of feeling stupid when i go outside and high five a tree.

of course it goes without saying there's no reason it applies to you just because it applies to the vast majority of the population.

 

I think this game could be useful for those types of people who liked to collect gold stars and prize pencils from the teacher but there are few therapies in life that are universal to everyone. My guess is that if Strange Famous is feeling annoyed and irritable about the game, he isn't going to gain much from it. Okay, there is scientific data etc.. but it isn't for him. If the same treatment always worked for everyone the same we would have little need for pharmaceutical research, new drugs, specialists etc... all we would need would be a dictionary.

The game is dull, uninspiring and only a few of the exercises seem to have any practical benefit for myself per my own personal goals. I have better methods of achieving them established already. Maybe it will help someone dealing with their depression, cancer, losing weight or becoming a better vegetarian, I have no idea.

I had a physician once explain to me his thoughts on why they call it the practice of medicine. They practice because they don't have it down yet.

 

I think Baraka you have a good point if someone is dealing with some mental health related issues, but that is not what my personal goal is referring to. I am not depressed or suffering for some grief issues in dealing with a physical defect. I am perfectly content in my life to be quite honest. I checked the game out on this recommendation and to me, it hardly is deserving of being titled as a game as to myself there is zero entertainment value for myself.

I read the OP that it was designed by a patient dealing with a concussion. I have experienced TBI personally so I thought I would investigate. My TBI was several years ago and I have already dealt emotionally with the ramifications of that. I was more interested if the game provided any value in the physical aspects which it really does not seem to do, at least not for myself. Considering I am several years out from the original injury, I have already reached a level of acceptance. I have had a very high level of personal motivation and was able to continue physical and mental training beyond what was provided through my medical care. It isn't for me, is that fair now?

Not everyone needs therapy.

 

If I couldnt be bothered to go to the gym for myself, the fact some video game tells me to wont make me change my mind.

I do not object to the principle of setting yourself goals or encouraging yourself to do things helpful for your own well being.

I just dont find that a video game that tells me it will advance my level if I do things like look at a picture of a baby killer whale is anyway motivating to me.

Like I said, to me it was simply patronising. The interface is by the standards of even the people who made it, entirely subjective. To somehow state that if someone doesnt like it there views are somehow unscientific is simply to say that the person making the statement does not understand what is meant by "scientific"

I am not always eloquent, and I know that the way I speak and write sometimes is unclear, but I'm not an idiot. I understand how something makes me feel.

_

For ME, if I want to do something, I challenge myself in my own way. Whether or not I succeed, I dont need someone giving me a virtual "gold star" to help.

And again, I am not criticising the people who find it helped them. I am asking you to consider that the way that something effects you (or the way it effects a group of people) is not the way it effects everybody.

 

i agree. it isn't for everybody. especially if you factor in time and where someone is in their life. i doubt it would have been for me at all a couple years ago.

but currently, even though i am someone who's never been to therapy in my life or put myself through cbt, i'm finding value here. i see it as someone bothering to collect a lot of the habits and perceptions of the most generally successful and happy people in life (as much as you can measure that anyway). and i figure why not apply those things to my life? and while there is no guarantee that doing what these people do will get me to that same place in life, there could very well be facilitators in there that bring success and happiness to it. there's most likely a reason that these common threads of thinking positively and building yourself up through positive actions and steps (toward the resiliency they talk about) IS a common thread with people already there getting the most out of life. i'd be considered a very level headed well adjusted person in most estimations, but this stuff is opening doors in my head i didn't know were there.

 

I'm doing pretty well with my health goals based on the fact that my doctor told me that either I improve my diet and exercise or Wilford Brimley will find me and eat me. I may be remembering his exact words wrong, but I don't know how much a game is going to help me.

I tried Second Life back in the day. I logged in, looked around as my computer lagged to a few frames per second, saw a quarter-mile-long flying penis soaring um ... majestically .. overhead, and decided it wasn't for me.

 

I want to drink with you. And watch The Thing.