A growing body of evidence indicates that digital games are engaging, motivating, and effective tools for various health-related purposes such as health education, behavioral intervention, and disease self-management. In particular, health games enable behavior change by embedding tailored knowledge; influencing players' risk perceptions, attitudes, emotions, self-concepts, and self-efficacy; facilitating social support via online networks; and enabling change procedures such as goal setting, modeling, role playing, and behavioral rehearsal in a simulated and safe environment. Effective health games are designed on the basis of well-established theory and research evidence, tested rigorously with the target population during the early stage of development, and evaluated in laboratory and field studies.

A digital game is a rule-based system in which players are provided goals and challenges as well as feedback ...