What incidence can video games from yesterday have on today’s teenagers ?

Nowadays, video games offer unparred beauty, top-notch refined images and design, and utmost gameplay. Newer generation, 21st century born teenage gamers can experience what is generally referred to as “Virtual Reality” (VR). Nevertheless, a glance at today’s most successful games on the market will show Fortnite in pole position, and not so long ago it still was Minecraft. Those two games are emblematic of “gameplay games”, in which visual finesse is not the most important aspect! Indeed, a game may well not be visually jawdropping (labeled as “beautiful”) yet remain simply attractive, thanks to its gameplay, its appeal, its ability …

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Therapeutic work and the ‘reward circuit’

Neurosciences have always been of great interest to me and it is with pleasure that I read this or that article on different fields, enriching my understanding of a particular phenomenon or striving for an ever greater openness of mind. What is even more interesting is to try to find cross-overs between the world of neuroscience and my therapeutic practice. It turns out that the use of video games as a therapeutic mediator precisely facilitated these crossings, of which here is an example : I was using Minecraft with a young client to help him build his self-confidence, supporting him …

Spore, a game about growing

In the video game The Sims, the client has the opportunity to project a number of affects and perceptions through a single character or family structure, whose physical appearance and certain personality traits they have been able to shape. The client will also have to be attentive to the needs of his or her Sims character and maintain a relationship level with the other Sims encountered in the game. In Minecraft, the client becomes an explorer and creator of the world in which his or her character will evolve, and can thus project other aspirations and desires. Confronting dangers and …

Portal 2: Reflection and Cooperation

This first article on Portal 2 aims to present the game ‘technically’ by pointing out interest in its use in therapeutic mediation. This will be the subject of future articles detailing aspects of it which are relevant to therapeutic work. Appearing at the practice in June 2014, Portal 2 established itself very well with 45 clients and about a hundred sessions. This was as many clients as with Minecraft but there were three times fewer sessions. In an initial analysis, I thought that Portal 2 should be suggested to clients older than those using Minecraft and that the use of …

Minecraft : Getting lost in diversity

After the rather technical articles explaining the game and describing the therapeutic framework around the practice of Minecraft, this is the first article built around ‘an effect’ observed during the session. There are several of them and I mainly spot them when I rework my notes of video game sessions with clients in the aftermath. These effects that emerge during the therapeutic practice fuel questions about the client’s problems, but also in a broader way about this or that aspect that the video game will help to shed light on. It is these reflections and questions that I would like …