The document discusses how mindfulness practices like yoga, meditation, and breathing can reduce stress, and how certain video games incorporate similar stress-reducing elements through physical activity feedback, social engagement, and immersive gameplay. It outlines mindfulness techniques, video game practices, the intersection between the two, and poses questions about how to design games that balance engagement and reflection to reduce player stress.

1. Understanding how to
reduce stress through
mindfulness while
playing video games
Frank Chen
Stanford University

2. Outline
• Mindfulness Practices
• Physical: Yoga, meditation, walking,
breathing
• Reflective non-judgmental
interfaces
• Video Game Practices
• Physical activity feedback
• Social engagement
• Intersection
• Conclusion

3. Breathing, Yoga, Walking, Meditation
- Reduces stress and presents a host of mental, physical,
emotional benefits. Ability comes through training. Trigger
come from class, alarm, etc. [US News 2010, Latimer 2006]
- Arises from being in the moment, escape from everyday
stresses, focusing on self. [Shapiro 2006]

4. DayTender.com, Last.fm
• Reduces stress of knowing what I am doing (body, thoughts,
music). Guides exploration of data and enhances ability for self-
reflection.
Triggered through email, homepage, or music player.
• Gives feedback of behaviors and increases awareness of
behaviors while being non-judgmental.

5. Dance Central
• Reduces stress through taking out of everyday experience in
game-play & being silly—not exercise [questionnaire, 4/19].
Ability to escape everyday stress; triggered through seeing system.
• Engagement through points / accuracy feedback, challenges,
avatar & narrative. [Reeves, Reed2009]

6. Nike +
• Reduces stress of knowing how I am running. Ability for
exploration of data for coaching. Triggered by mobile
notification or need to track runs (akin to exercise machines).
• Engagement through social ranking, cooperation &
competition, transparency, goals / planning (prescriptive).

7. How might we reduce stress
for someone playing video
games?
¡ Looking to mindfulness techniques?
¡ Using physical activity to focus, free of distractions.
¡ Enabling self-reflective interfaces.
¡ Looking to video game techniques?
¡ Using physical activity to escape and track feedback.
¡ Enabling engagement with feedback: rewards,
goals, prescriptive, ranks, avatars, narratives.
¡ Enabling social engagement: communication,
cooperation / competition.

8. Conclusion
¡ Different heuristics in the design of mindfulness
and gaming technologies.
¡ Discussion:
¡ How can we balance tradeoff between game
engagement (escape) & mindfulness (reflection)?
¡ What are designs that work in presenting mindfulness
in physical activity video games?