Hello, everyone.
I am Seyeon Lee.
I'm a PhD student at KEIST, Graduate School of Culture
Technology, and I'm the first author
of the study, Life Review Using a Life Metaphoric
Game to Promote Intergenerational
Communication.
Life review is similar to reminiscence,
recalling past memories, but it is a more structured activity
that organizes life events in chronological order.
Life review can provide opportunities
to organize past experiences, rediscover the meaning of life,
and prepare for future life, and eventually death.
Although life review is a meaningful activity,
it is difficult to practice in daily life.
Therefore we designed an intergenerational activity
that combines life review and co-playing digital games.
We wanted to figure out whether digital games could
be an effective tool to facilitate
intergenerational communication in the life review activity.
In our workshop, one older adult one college student
were coupled, and 33 couples were formed.
The young partners taught senior participants how to play games,
and asked questions to promote reminiscence.
Long Journey of Life is a mobile game developed
by Li Yang, PINX Studio.
You can find it on the App Store.
It has very simple interaction.
Going forward and backward, the player becomes a small boat
and sails the course of a person's life
from birth to death, while crossing the ocean.
We were interested in the conversation
between two generations, so we recorded
and transcribed the whole conversation
during the workshop.
Then using inductive thematic analysis,
we identified seven communication themes.
This table shows identified communication themes and number
of references.
Reminiscence, future and death preparation, and life advice--
these three themes were identified
from only senior participant discourse.
Explanation of control method was
identified from only young partner's appreciation
and evaluation-- small talks involving self-disclosure,
and interpretation of metaphors.
These three were identified from the both groups.
We investigated the relationships
between communication themes and game design elements
that promote those conversations.
You can see the detail in the article.
We found that games can create comfortable and enjoyable
atmosphere.
The life review process can sometimes
be unpleasant, because participants tell
personal stories to others.
However, using the game, participants
could review their lives objectively from a distance.
In addition, we found the possibility
of having a balance of conversation
between two generations.
Young people can teach seniors about game playing
and seniors can provide life advice
from personal experiences.
And we found the role of a young adult partner
is very important.
So what should be considered to design
digital games for life review?
First, it is important to link real life to game design
in order to promote conversation about personal stories.
Second, if we apply interactive storytelling to the life review
game, players can choose the game stories
that best fit their own life experiences.
Third, it is very important to express the life of old age
in a richer and more active manner.
We suggest that the ordinary lives in old
age not be described in excessively static, passive,
negative, or gloomy terms.
Lastly, life review games should promote integrative resilience
and personal growth.
We hope our findings can support future researchers
and designers who create games for life review.
Thank you very much.