Sea Hero Quest: The Game That Fights Dementia
In the past, there has been a preconception of video games being harmful to gamers with long hours staring at a screen or first-person shooter games increasing the chance of violence. A lot of these interpretations are just a misconception about video games. Games can improve hand-eye coordination and strategy. Some games can help benefit the wider community like Sea Hero Quest. Sea Hero Quest is a game that helps with the fight against dementia.
What is Dementia?
Dementia is a general term for loss of memory, language, problem-solving, and other thinking abilities that interfere with daily life. Disorders grouped under the term ‘dementia’ are caused by abnormal brain changes. These brain changes trigger a decline in cognitive abilities severe enough to impair daily life and independent function. Dementia also affects behaviour, feelings, and relationships.
How Does Sea Hero Quest Help Fight Dementia?
Sea Hero Quest involves the player navigating its seascapes by memorising maps. As you work your way through the game, the map starts to throw obstacles such as fog and unexpected barriers to throw you off course. As you progress through the game, the maps start to become more difficult to navigate.
By playing the game you are helping researchers understand how the human brain works. The early signs of dementia are people becoming disoriented when they visit a new place. The game helps research how different people navigate a map when they are disoriented; the game design had to make sure there were no shadows, sunlight, stars or coins that could help with navigation. As more people play the game, researchers can gain an understanding of how different people navigate by different ethnicity, gender, and age groups.
Summary
As a gamer myself, it’s good to know that video games can help researchers to gain a better understanding of the human body to help fight diseases such as dementia. Using games such as Sea Hero Quest can help researchers gain a bigger population pool to acquire accurate data for their research. Dementia is a problem for many when reaching a particular age that can affect daily life. For more information on dementia and Alzheimers, visit the Alzheimer’s Society website or Alzheimer’s Research UK. To find out more about the Sea Hero Quest and how it is helping further research into dementia; you can watch the original video from GameSpot below or read the research document by Alzheimer’s Research UK.
Sea Hero Quest is currently unavailable but the developers are planning on releasing the full game on the App store and Play Store next year.