Snow World Helps Soothe Soldier's Pain

How do you ease the suffering of wounded soldiers? Give them a game to play.

Snow World, originally written for children by Hunter Hoffman & David Patterson, is now being tested on soldiers suffering from burns, and the results are astounding.

Based in the Harborview Burn Center, the game, seen here, works by distracting the patient from the severe pain caused by burns. One soldier, struck by an rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq, was brought from a state where "every moment was focussed on pain," to "having great fun."

Burn victims are often trapped in a cycle of pain where the nerve endings are being constantly triggered, whilst the skin forms back over the wound and stretches tight across it. This process can last months, even years. Medication can only do so much to ease the pain, so the potential for a game to be used as therapy is particularly exciting.

So who says games can't have positive benefits?

Source : Ars Technica