Tag Archives: Coronavirus game

New Pandemic Edition of SuperBetter Promotes Mental Health During Coronavirus Crisis

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The Coronavirus pandemic is a crisis and source of stress & personal challenge. Nearly everyone on the planet is impacted. Most have felt a loss of normal, many will lose jobs, some will lose friends & loved ones. The mental, social, emotional and physical burden will be heavy. The surge in anxiety during the initial phase of the pandemic is just the beginning.

To help people around the world navigate the crisis, we just added a new power pack to the SuperBetter game.

The Stay Strong in a Pandemic power pack is for anyone who wants to overcome challenges and stay strong during the COVID-19 pandemic. Activities help players increase mental, social, emotional and physical resilience while following World Health Organization and CDC guidance to slow the spread of the virus.

The Stay Strong in a Pandemic power pack features Quests to complete each day, troublesome Bad Guys to battle, and resilience-building Power-ups to activate. It includes two of Jane McGonigal’s special Power-ups: The Power Breath and The Plus One Technique. 

Because the crisis is so new, we initiated the pandemic edition of SuperBetter by crowdsourcing ideas from the our amazing community. We learned about the biggest challenges faced so far and anticipated during the pandemic. The ideas and insights informed the new evidence-based activities. 

SuperBetter is a game played in real life to improve resilience, mental health and social-emotional learning. Everything in the SuperBetter game is backed by the science of resilience and challenge response growth. Playing SuperBetter can help players navigate the crisis, build whole-person resilience and achieve personal growth in the process. 

Published meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials show SuperBetter is among the most effective mobile apps validated for reducing anxiety and depression. 

“So many people are already struggling. We feel the urgency to help,” says Keith Wakeman, SuperBetter CEO. “Adding power packs and making the app available for free is our way of doing our part to help right away as we put plans in place to have greater impact in the future.”

We previously introduced the Stay-at-Home Scavenger Hunt power pack to help players and their friends strengthen social connections while physical distancing. 

Find Stay Strong in a Pandemic in the ‘Get Power Packs’ area of the SuperBetter apps (iOS, Android) or website.

Stay safe and healthy. We will get through this together.

Your allies at SuperBetter

Stay Strong in a Pandemic

Help Turn SuperBetter into a Coronavirus Game

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Coronavirus Game

The SuperBetter team is developing two new Power Packs in response to the Coronavirus Pandemic. The first – to be introduced next week – is a Physical Distancing Game to increase social connection while practicing physical distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19. The second is the Coronavirus Game discussed in this post.

Navigating the realities of life during a pandemic is new to all of us. We need your help to adapt the SuperBetter game to help people thrive during the Coronavirus pandemic.

At SuperBetter we are grateful to be part of an amazing community willing to collaborate on big epic wins. This one is really big.

We want to turn SuperBetter into a Coronavirus game that helps people and communities around the world successfully managing the stress, disruption and uncertainty associated with COVID-19 while supporting public health strategies to inhibit its spread.

To support this epic win, we are creating a new Coronavirus Power Pack for the SuperBetter game. The Power Pack will have Power-ups to activate, Bad Guys to battle and Quests to complete.

The Power Pack activities will help players build mental, emotional, social and physical resilience as they follow World Health Organization and CDC Coronavirus guidelines. The Power Pack will be available for free in the SuperBetter apps and website.

You can help by reflecting on the challenges you anticipate due to Coronavirus and what is working for you right now. Think like a gamer and turn your ideas into Power-ups, Bad Guys and Quests. Have fun with it and don’t worry about making your ideas perfect.

Share your ideas here.

Back at SuperBetter HQ we will use the ideas to inform the creation of an evidence-based Power Pack for the SuperBetter game.

The SuperBetter game is backed by science. Published studies show that playing SuperBetter increases the seven mental, emotional and social measures scientifically linked to higher resilience. Meta-analyses show SuperBetter to be among the most effective mobile apps on the market for reducing anxiety. Nearly a million people have played SuperBetter so far. Its popularity, strong science and gameful approach makes SuperBetter a promising solution to help people around the world thrive during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Thank you in advance for being an ally in this epic win of global magnitude!

Game on!

Please go here to share your ideas by Sunday, March 22, 2020.