Imagine this: You tell your doctor that you're struggling with stress, and she sends you home with instructions to play videogames every week. Even better, your health insurance is going to cover a subscription to the game service, and maybe even a VR headset to play them on.
The basic idea is to get players into the relaxing, dopamine-rich"flow state" game designers and athletes often talk about, and to improve their everyday stress response by incorporating breathwork—a well-established stress management tool—into the mildly-demanding task of shooting accurately. The way Douglas sees it, great games are already therapeutic, and developers don't necessarily have to design around Deepwell's biofeedback system to take advantage of the FDA clearance. For example, a hub of games meant for stress reduction, some of which make use of the breathing mechanic and some of which don't, would still qualify. They can also continue to sell their games outside of a healthcare context.
"I think what happened in gamification is that the game designers were not really recognized for how much expertise they were bringing," he said."The most effective mental health videogames are commercial games. They were accidentally therapeutic. And the one thing they have in common is they were created by the masters.
The voice control mechanism in Zengence doesn't seem especially challenging for other game developers to replicate, but Deepwell and other digital therapeutics companies bring clinical research and knowledge of the healthcare industry, insurers, and regulators to the table that game developers don't have.