Prelims

Half Title Page

GAMES

Endorsement Page

By mindfully playing with games, Sandra Danilovic disrupts the way we think of games and play: opening a new generous space of the imagination to grapple with the complex issues of illness, disability, health disparity, and care. This book offers a rich, compassionate resource for anyone struggling with the human realities of health in our society.

—Jutta Treviranus

Director, Inclusive Design Research Centre (IDRC)

Professor, Faculty of Design, OCAD University

Sandra Danilovic is the rarest of combinations: a scientist and a magician – with a munificent heart. In this essentially important book, she shows us how digital games can extend to realms of art, healing, and the deepest levels of human experiences. This book is literally a game changer.

—Laura Arpiainen

Professor, Health and Wellbeing Architecture

Aalto University

Series Page

ARTS FOR HEALTH

Series Editor: Paul Crawford, Professor of Health Humanities, University of Nottingham, UK

The Arts for Health series offers a ground-breaking set of books that guide the general public, carers and healthcare providers on how different arts can help people to stay healthy or improve their health and wellbeing.

Bringing together new information and resources underpinning the health humanities (that link health and social care disciplines with the arts and humanities), the books demonstrate the ways in which the arts offer people worldwide a kind of shadow health service – a non-clinical way to maintain or improve our health and wellbeing. The books are aimed at general readers along with interested arts practitioners seeking to explore the health benefits of their work, health and social care providers and clinicians wishing to learn about the application of the arts for health, educators in arts, health and social care and organizations, carers and individuals engaged in public health or generating healthier environments. These easy-to-read, engaging short books help readers to understand the evidence about the value of arts for health and offer guidelines, case studies and resources to make use of these non-clinical routes to a better life.

Other titles in the series:

Forthcoming Title

Title Page

GAMES

BY

SANDRA DANILOVIC

Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Emerald Publishing, Floor 5, Northspring, 21-23 Wellington Street, Leeds LS1 4DL.

First edition 2024

Copyright © 2024 Sandra Danilovic.

Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.

Reprints and permissions service

Contact: www.copyright.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the text, illustrations or advertisements. The opinions expressed in these chapters are not necessarily those of the Author or the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-80043-597-1 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80043-594-0 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80043-596-4 (Epub)

Contents

Foreword: Creative Public Health

The Arts for Health series aims to provide key information on how different arts and humanities practices can support, or even transform, health and wellbeing. Each book introduces a particular creative activity or resource and outlines its place and value in society, the evidence for its use in advancing health and wellbeing, and cases of how this works. In addition, each book provides useful links and suggestions to readers for following-up on these quick reads. We can think of this series as a kind of shadow health service – encouraging the use of the arts and humanities alongside all the other resources on offer to keep us fit and well.

Creative practices in the arts and humanities offer a fantastic, non-medical, but medically relevant way to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals, families, and communities. Intuitively, we know just how important creative activities are in maintaining or recovering our best possible lives. For example, imagine that we woke up tomorrow to find that all music, books, or films had to be destroyed, learn that singing, dancing, or theatre had been outlawed or that galleries, museums, and theaters had to close permanently; or, indeed, that every street had posters warning citizens of severe punishment for taking photographs, drawing, or writing. How would we feel? What would happen to our bodies and minds? How would we survive? Unfortunately, we have seen this kind of removal of creative activities from human society before and today many people remain terribly restricted in artistic expression and consumption.

I hope that this series adds a practical resource to the public. I hope people buy these little books as gifts for family and friends, or for hard-pressed healthcare professionals, to encourage them to revisit or to consider a creative path to living well. I hope that creative public health makes for a brighter future.

Professor Paul Crawford

Acknowledgments

Writing this book could not have been possible without the generous support of several remarkable individuals and entities.

I express my profound gratitude to Paul Crawford, who as editor of the series Arts for Health, offered me the opportunity to write about games. I am truly honored to be part of the esteemed group of authors and scholars in this series.

I would like to acknowledge Wilfrid Laurier University, Office of Research Services for supporting me with a financial grant and course releases that facilitated the completion of this book. I am particularly grateful to Lauren Eisler and notably, Bruce McKay, for their unwavering support and mentorship. I would like to acknowledge Tracy Woodford, the Research Project Coordinator at the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences at Laurier, as an unsung heroine. She has been instrumental in assisting me with numerous administrative tasks.

I am eternally thankful to my developmental editor and miracle worker, Karen Dewart McEwen, for her invaluable feedback on how to improve the manuscript. I would like to thank Jutta Treviranus who is a role model, for inspiring me to believe in my convictions. My deep gratitude also extends to my two student research assistants, Rebecca Schwarz, and Lucas Leprince for their vital assistance in researching this book.

Ultimately, I could not have written this book without the resolute spiritual and emotional support and encouragement of my family, my sister, Iva Danilovic, and my dearest colleagues and friends, Nadine Boljkovac and Hervé Saint-Louis.

A final thanks to all the game artists and game designers who make courageous, weird, and expressive games about their life experiences with illness and disability—this book cannot exist without your creative innovations and visionary talent.