Most of us play video games to entertain ourselves and escape reality. But what if video games were not only used to entertain us, but train us on real life situations? I had a unique opportunity to interview Sharon Sloane, CEO, President, and Co-Founder of WILL Interactive. Read the interview below to find out how WILL Interactive is using their video-based games to train and prepare people on decision-making for real life events.
GamingBits: Please tell us a little about yourself and what your role is in WILL Interactive.
Sharon Sloane: I’m the president, CEO and co-founder of WILL Interactive and we produce a form of game called VEILS. It’s an acronym that stands for "Virtual Experience Immersive Learning Simulations". It’s the trademark of the game we produce. These are serious games. These are games that use a lot of the qualities of entertainment, particularly being highly engaging and interactive, but for the purpose of education training. To help improve people’s decision making skills, to improve performance, and to help people make better choices in life. Because we work with such a broad range of audiences, from middle school kids to doctors and senior military leaders, obviously the programs are all quite different. They are basically a cross between a feature film and a computer game in which the user becomes the lead character(s). You make decisions that change the story line and lead to many different outcomes. It is based on a patented technology that has been shown to positively influence attitudes and behaviors.
GamingBits: Tell us about VEILS and the concept of "play it out before you live it out".
Sharon Sloane: If we go from the notion that is generally agreed by all educators and psychologists that experience is the best teacher, it produces the stickiest content that stays with people. But there are many things in life that are too dangerous, too expensive, or for a variety of reasons we don’t want to have to experience it to learn from it. So this is a virtual experience. This is a way of allowing people the benefit of having a reach back to an experience that they’ve had in the safety of cyberspace, and to learn from it and have it there when they want to reach back and face similar situations in real life, but of course without the potential dire consequences of actually living out these scenarios.
GamingBits: Are these interactive programs accessible online?
Sharon Sloane: Yes, and they are also available on CD ROM and DVD ROM.
GamingBits: What was it that inspired you to start this teaching through interactive experiences?
Sharon Sloane: I’ve always been very interested to learn what it takes to help people learn to change their attitudes and behavior. For me, the question was, what does it take to engage people emotionally and cognitively at a level that lowers their defenses and makes them open to change and helps them make better decisions. What I learned was that it’s the combination of using a lot of qualities of entertainment and the interactivity of games. If you can wrap that together in one solution, you could penetrate people’s minds and touch their hearts at the same time and that’s what enables you to influence people’s behavior.
GamingBits: Why did you decide on going with video as opposed to a graphical simulation?
Sharon Sloane: The reason is that if you want to change people’s behaviors, they really have to identify in an emotional level with the characters, who need to be multidimensional and live in a world where a lot of different things are going on at the same time. Whether you’re an army negotiator, a physician, or an army colonel, these characters have to look and sound like you. In order to achieve that, you have to use real people. That equates to video, to get that emotional attachment, as opposed to something where you’re blowing up buildings and killing people without regard for the consequences because it’s just an animated character that can come back to life. There’s no emotional attachment to the character.
GamingBits: When a video segment is shown, running about a couple minutes, you are presented with a question, or problem, and have to select an action or path.
Sharon Sloane: Yes, multiple choice. You can take a pathway, which is all being transparently tracked. It’s the decisions you make before and after that are influencing the outcome. Just like in real life, sometimes we make a decision and there is an immediate consequence, good or bad. Other times we make a decision and there is no immediate consequence, but it has ramifications down the road.
GamingBits: Is it individuals or institutions that come to you?
Sharon Sloane: It’s mostly institutions. They could be schools, libraries, military, hospitals, law enforcement agencies. But because it’s used for education training, even though they are entertaining to use, our customers are primarily organizations or institutions.
GamingBits: About how long would you say is the average time going through one of these programs?
Sharon Sloane: That really varies. Some may be hours long, others may be much shorter. It can be as little as 20 minutes if it’s self play. It could be as much as 2 hours. All of the programs are designed to be used independently self-paced online, but also in facilitated sessions, where they are used with instructors. In addition to making choices in the interactive game, there’s opportunity for a lot of discussion as well. Often in that discussion, there’s as much benefit as the choice you make in the software.
GamingBits: What kind of interactive simulations do you offer for the military?
Sharon Sloane: We’ve done a number on lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan. We’ve done a suicide prevention program. We’re currently working on one for post-traumatic stress disorder, behavioral health for the Army, as well as sexual assault prevention. We work with the folks that detonate the IEDs. We do a lot of leadership training too.
GamingBits: Who do you think can best benefit from WILL Interactive’s programs?
Sharon Sloane: These programs are all based on real incidents. They have to resonate with the target audience. We are preparing the learners for the decisions that they will face in the future. So when they are in those difficult situations, they can reach back and say "wait a minute, I remember that’s really important to think about what I want to do here, because there are consequences."
GamingBits: How have the results been after someone goes through one of these programs?
Sharon Sloane: Very, very positive. Very powerful. People say how amazed they were by the realism of what was portrayed. We’ve also had pilot studies done by independent academic institutions, which show that we are actually influencing people’s behaviors.
GamingBits: As video games are becoming more realistic visually or immersive by engaging us in physical actions (on Wii), how do you think they are influencing us or the game ratings?
Sharon Sloane: Well, I think we need to be socially responsible and cognizant of what we’re doing when we put things out there. There is a distinction to be made between games that are made purely for entertainment, which have elements in them that quite frankly sell games. Violence is one of them. Our position is you don’t have to exploit violence or those type of things in order to have something that is entertaining and engaging. That said, there clearly is a different bar and agenda by people who are selling entertainment games to maximize their profit versus people who are trying to put out games that are beneficial for people’s lives.
GamingBits: Where do you see the future going with WILL Interactive?
Sharon Sloane: We actually see it broadening exponentially. We see the world right now as it is with, quite frankly, many challenges. Because what we do is easy to use, fun, and easy to deploy, it’s just continuing to grow. We’re also building other features and elements into the game(s) to take them to the next level as technology allows for it. I think people are starting to learn the power of these video-based immersive simulations to really make a difference in what people do and how they think. I also think that with the younger learners, passive lectures and page-turners are just not going to cut it. They’re just mentally out of there if you don’t keep them involved and engaged.
GamingBits: Do you ever see something like this being applied or brought to home game consoles in some way?
Sharon Sloane: Yeah, we’ve actually had some very general conversations about that. I think that is a reasonable expectation. I’m not sure how or when.
GamingBits: So you think WILL Interactive programs could come to home consoles?
Sharon Sloane: I do. I think a lot of parents in particular would like to use the technology available today to help their kids in various ways. To entertain them, but to also be positive in the kind of experiences they’re having. So I think there is an opportunity there.
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Thanks to Sharon Sloane, WILL Interactive, and Dominique Ellis for making this interview possible. To learn more on WILL interactive and its programs, visit www.willinteractive.com .
