iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 5h

"Forever Ago follows Alfred's road trip adventure after the death of his wife" "I didn't think a story of grief and love told through photos & memories would have me feeling existential for a whole evening, but that's the kind of power Forever Ago holds" www.tomsguide.com/gaming/forev...

tomsguide.com

This new adventure game is one of the best indies I've ever played — and it'll make you cry, laugh and then cry a bit more

Forever Ago is a heartfelt road trip about grief, love and loss

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 16h

Study to explore influence of loot boxes on young children. "Generating this knowledge is essential to safeguard children, protect vulnerable groups and promote digital literacy for families navigating increasingly commercialised gaming environments." www.edgehill.ac.uk/news/2026/09...

edgehill.ac.uk

Edge Hill leads study into children’s video games | Edge Hill University

Edge Hill University’s Department of Psychology has been awarded just over £900,000 to lead a major three-year study exploring how gambling-like features in video games influence the development of…

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Gears of War works with Crisis Text Line on "Never Fight Alone" suicide prevention campaign. "The Gears of War community has helped more than 16,000 conversations happen when people needed them most" news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/0...

news.xbox.com

Gears of War Launches Fifth Year of “Never Fight Alone” Suicide Prevention

Today, Gears of War launches our fifth year of the Never Fight Alone campaign, an ongoing commitment to help prevent suicide, in partnership with Crisis Text Line and UK-based illustrator Luke Preece....

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Human connection in Arc Raiders "More than 95% of players use the proximity chat feature" "often, players are just talking... They talk about family struggles, work lives, depression, autism and, in one case, a lung collapse." www.theguardian.com/games/2026/a...

theguardian.com

‘Seeking connection’: the video game where players stopped shooting and started talking

In a post-apocalyptic landscape of cutthroat scavengers, surprisingly peaceful players are opting to team up and open up – a phenomenon that’s intriguing game developers and psychologists alike

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

"FUT remains as morally murky and spirit-sapping as ever... In an interesting development, PEGI has certified the game a 16+, the first such certificate in the series, for its use of loot boxes." www.eurogamer.net/ea-sports-fc...

eurogamer.net

EA Sports FC 27 review - some good weighty play meets the usual, cynical annual grind

Smart iterations and steady developments mark a decent forward step for EA FC 27, amidst the usual cynicism. Eurogamer's review.

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Cyrus Nemati @ahoymehearties.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Can't wait!! If you're in London on November 2nd and are into games and psychology, why would you miss this?

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Fireside Feelings from @team-empreintes.bsky.social currently free “Fireside Feelings offers a respite in a world full of anxiety and awkward social interactions, allowing us to connect without tension or pressure.” store.steampowered.com/app/2990600/...

store.steampowered.com

Save 100% on Fireside Feelings on Steam

Share your thoughts and discover those shared by others, in Fireside Feelings. Gather around the welcoming warmth of the campfire and take part in conversations between real people separated in space ...

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The Gaming the Mind Podcast discusses mental health through the lens of video games. 🧠📷 Find more episodes of our podcast, and subscribe using your favourite podcast app, right here: gamingthemind.org/podcast/

gamingthemind.org

Podcast

Doctors by day; gamers by night! Exploring interactions between mental health and gaming, and promoting wellbeing in the gaming community. In this podcast we discuss a wide range of stories regardi…

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Can you stream... for 24 hours!? In our latest podcast, we spoke to Gina (Z2_Conjurer) after her marathon Twitch stream (fundraising for Gaming the Mind!) Including: healthy streaming, her own experiences with mental health, & the community that kept her going. gamingthemind.org/2026/10/07/2...

gamingthemind.org

Gina's 24-Hour Twitch Marathon: A Journey of Resilience

Join Gina, aka Z2_Conjurer, as she shares her insights from a 24-hour Twitch marathon for Gaming the Mind, highlighting mental health and community support.

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

What does it take to stream for 24 hours? We spoke to Gina (Z2_Conjurer) after her marathon Twitch stream (fundraising for Gaming the Mind!) She talks about healthy streaming, her own experiences with mental health, & the community that kept her going. gamingthemind.org/2026/10/07/2...

gamingthemind.org

Gina's 24-Hour Streaming Marathon: A Journey with Community

Join Gina, a passionate streamer, as she shares her 24-hour marathon experience raising funds for mental health. Discover the power of community!

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Read Dr Sin Fai Lam’s testimonial from King’s College Hospital about how Gaming the Mind’s equipment donation is helping create moments of respite, comfort, and positive distraction for patients in the hospital's busy Emergency Department. gamingthemind.org/2026/10/06/g...

gamingthemind.org

Transforming King's College Hospital's A&E with Gaming Support

Discover how Gaming the Mind is transforming King's College Hospital's Emergency Department into a calmer space for patients in distress.

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

What happens when CBT meets a vampire video game? 🧛🎮 At Gaming the Mind Conference 2026, BAFTA-nominated developer Cyrus Nemati will explore how Vampire Therapist blends narrative game design with CBT concepts and what games can teach us about mental health.

Meet the Speakers

Cyrus Nemati

Little Bat Games, makers of Vampire Therapist

Talk:

Once More, With Feeling: How Repetition and Emotion Internalize Cognitive Distortions in Vampire Therapist

Cyrus Nemati

Cyrus Nemati is a BAFTA-nominated, multi-award-winning game developer, writer and voice actor. He is the Studio Director of Little Bat Games, a Berlin-based studio well known for Vampire Therapist, an acclaimed narrative game that weaves history and the mechanics of cognitive behavioural therapy into its gameplay.

As a voice actor he has lent his voice to games such as the Hades series, as well as toys, commercials and animation for organisations like Hasbro and Hallmark.

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Cyrus Nemati @ahoymehearties.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Londoners, come see me speak along with people who have much higher academic credentials than I do! (disqualifying the positive) (for real this should be good)

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Reposted by Gaming the Mind

Hedge @angiemckeown.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Oh this looks interesting! (also Hi @ahoymehearties.bsky.social 😎)

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

With your support, we were delighted to donate gaming equipment for the Lavender Walk Adolescent Mental Health Unit as part of an ongoing project! "It has helped the young people interact with each other in a positive and supportive way" gamingthemind.org/2026/09/17/g...

gamingthemind.org

Gaming Equipment Donation Boosts Mental Health Care at Lavender Walk

Discover how Gaming the Mind's donation brought joy and connection through gaming at Lavender Walk, enhancing young patients' hospital experience.

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Look forward to seeing these speakers at the Gaming the Mind Conference 2026, exploring the evolving relationship between video games, mental health, research, and game development. 📍 Royal College of Psychiatrists 📷 2 November 2026 🌍 Hybrid format; join us online!

Poster:
Gaming the Mind Conference 2026
Bringing together mental health and gaming
Join us for our second academic conference exploring the intersection of gaming and mental health, with speakers including:
Prof. Paul Fletcher
RCPsych Fellow and Hellblade collaborator
Laura Helsby
Researcher and Lecturer on Games & Impact on Low Mood
Thareq Barasabha Researcher on gamification for cognitive cemediation
Elena Petrovskaya Researcher on Virtual Currencies in Comes
Mark Backler
Founder & Creative Director, Sketchbook Games
Philip Vassilev
Lead Data & Science Analyst at Five Lives
David Zendle
Behavioural Data Scientist & Lootbox Expert
Cyrus Nemati Little Bat Gomes, makers of Vampire Therapist
Alan Thorn National Film & Television School, Author and Educator

When
9:30-17:00
2nd November 2026
Where
Royal College of Psychiatrists, 21 Prescot St, London E1 8BB

Online and in-person tickets available!

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

🎮 Early bird rates end soon! Register to attend the Gaming the Mind Conference 2026, exploring the evolving relationship between video games, mental health, research, & game development. 📍 Royal College of Psychiatrists 📅 2 November 2026 🌍 Hybrid format; join us online!

Poster text:

Gaming the Mind Conference 2026: Bringing together mental health and gaming

Last week to grab your early bird ticket!
Early bird sales ending 24th July, get your discounted ticket now!

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

"I hadn't considered the reason I play Anno as a cosy experience. When work is stressful, I often reach for a game where you create and manage a complex economy. Anno 1800 forces all thoughts of the day out of my head" www.rockpapershotgun.com/how-croakwoo...

rockpapershotgun.com

"Your town will never outright collapse": How Croakwood captures the challenge of a townbuilder like Anno but avoids the stress and pressure

Townbuilders like Anno and Settlers series often scale into stress and pressure pots, cosy city builder Croakwood captures that complexity without the pressure

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

FFXIV "In previous series... our emphasis was on a policy of comprehensively ensuring player comfort & stress reduction. This approach did help make content more accessible... There was less room for individual players to demonstrate their true abilities" www.gamesradar.com/games/final-...

gamesradar.com

Final Fantasy 14 devs looked to the MMO's best expansion to design the Arcadion series after feeling like "ensuring player comfort and stress reduction" limited creativity

Heavensward, beloved by fans and Square Enix alike

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

(On salaryman Kenji): "Coffee Talk Tokyo has no interest in pursuing the threads of how Japan’s strict and strenuous overwork epidemic could affect him, prospectively obliterating his mental wellbeing... as is depressingly not an infrequent occurrence" www.rockpapershotgun.com/visual-novel...

rockpapershotgun.com

Visual novel Coffee Talk Tokyo serves up an image of 'Cool Japan,' but not much more

How VN sequel Coffee Talk Tokyo transplants itself to Japan - but fails to truly engage with the culture, or societal issues, of its new home.

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

"Constance is a game about overstimulation and concentration, following the titular character as she escapes her overwhelming reality in favour of a fantasy realm of her own mind’s creation" "the game is making you focus."

nintendolife.com

Review: Constance (Switch) - A Beautiful Metroidvania With Something To Say

Constance craving

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

🎮 Booking open! You can now register to attend the Gaming the Mind Conference 2026, exploring the evolving relationship between video games, mental health, research, & game development. 📍 Royal College of Psychiatrists 📅 2 November 2026 🌍 Hybrid format; join us online!

Gaming the Mind Conference 2026 graphic.
"Bringing together mental health and gaming"
"Early bird tickets out now"
"Reserve your place today"

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Watch: "Explore the science behind esports, from top players' skills to its potential for healthy aging." Including an esports team for over-60s, and a professor who found that oxytocin levels rise in participants playing multiplayer games. www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/...

www3.nhk.or.jp

Esports: The Science Behind the Thrill - Science View | NHK WORLD-JAPAN

Esports has evolved into a global phenomenon. Explore the science behind the excitement, from top players' skills to its potential for healthy aging.

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Toasted @toastedpixel.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

I attended the inaugral event last year and it was incredibly informative and eye opening 🎮🧠✨

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Here's a look back at our 2025 conference! gamingthemind.org/2025/06/21/j...

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Please visit our website for more info! gamingthemind.org/2026/06/18/s...

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

🎮 SAVE THE DATE! 🎮 We’re excited to announce the Gaming the Mind Conference 2026, exploring the evolving relationship between video games, mental health, research, and game development. 📍 Royal College of Psychiatrists 📅 2 November 2026 🌍 Hybrid format; join us online!

Gaming the Mind Conference 2026. "Bringing together mental health and gaming". Save the date: 02 November 2026. Royal College of Psychiatrists. More info coming soon!

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Under-16 social media ban: "you can boot up RuneScape, Arc Raiders, and thousands of other games right now and talk to people you don't know there. Will the UK force developers of online games to implement these blocks?" www.eurogamer.net/uk-social-me...

eurogamer.net

UK to ban social media and streaming platforms for under 16-year-olds, as full impact on gaming industry remains unclear

Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok, and more are confirmed on the list, as are streaming platforms.

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

"Flock Around acts as a perfect digital gateway into the relaxing world of birdwatching... you need to become a patient observer... All of this works as a relaxing single-player experience, but it also translates perfectly to a multiplayer hangout game."

polygon.com

The perfect video game exists and it's a $5 Pokémon Snap replacement

Flock around and find out

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

"The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time soundtrack has been given a soothing jazz remix... ‘Prescription For Sleep: Ocarina Of Time’ is a jazz lullaby tribute album to Koji Kondo’s iconic score, designed for chilling, relaxing, sleeping or studying."

nme.com

‘Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time’ music gets jazz remix album

Gentle Love have reworked 11 classics for this anniversary collection

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Relaxing video game soundtracks Including Breath of the Wild, which among the Zelda soundtracks is "easily the most mellow. Press play and imagine yourself riding through endless green fields on the back of Link’s trusty steed Epona."

nme.com

The most relaxing 'Minecraft'-style game soundtracks

The ultimate chill-out jams from your favourite video games

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

"When [we] put together seventh edition Call of Cthulhu, we made a conscious effort to move away from real-world depictions of mental health conditions... altering the language of sanity so it's more in tune with how things are portrayed these days"

wargamer.com

Call of Cthulhu's new Scout-themed book made me feel like a kid falling in love with tabletop RPGs again

Campfire Tales, or as I've been calling it, 'Cthulhu versus 11-year-olds', is a delightfully novel take on the top Lovecraft TTRPG.

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Zero Parades "The way you're encouraged to use drugs to pass the buck from fatigue to anxiety (caffeine), anxiety to delirium (alcohol), delirium back to fatigue (cigarettes) feels stingingly real, too."

gamesradar.com

Zero Parades: For Dead Spies review: "Being built from Disco Elysium's bones is a blessing and a curse for this spy RPG"

As a successor, ZA/UM's spy-fi RPG is a little too fearful to roll the dice on something new

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

"Researchers at the University of Plymouth recently confirmed what board game fans and RPG enthusiasts have known for decades: tabletop games “enhance well-being, foster inclusion, & support learning, with strong evidence that games improve engagement.”"

theconversation.com

Not just a fun hobby: Board games can help build connections and reduce stress

Research demonstrates that playing board games helps develop socio-emotional growth, strengthens relationships and helps build community.

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Zero Parades "Hershel partakes in the occasional drunken cigarette... I keep coming back to these acts of self-medication and destruction... they’re a way for Hershel to balance Zero Parades’ three competing gauges... fatigue, anxiety, and delirium."

kotaku.com

The Disco Elysium Studio's New RPG Is Uneven But Absorbing

This follow-up to Disco Elysium is righteously angry at the state of the world, though sometimes its anger gets the better of it

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Zero Parades "Cascade has meters that determine her level of anxiety, delirium, and fatigue... [If] one of those meters hits 20... You have to force her to chill out — whether by sleeping, downing some alcohol, or petting a payphone dolphin mascot" www.polygon.com/zero-parades...

polygon.com

Zero Parades: For Dead Spies blurs the line between betrayal and survival

Disco Elysium studio's new spy RPG is an ode to career screw-ups

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

"Paralives [opts] for a sort of cosy-game-adjacent level of lower-stress, lower-stakes tranquility. It's an ambience reflected in its aesthetic, as Paralives Studio adopts a muted, sketchbook-watercolour artstyle that's just inherently chilled" www.eurogamer.net/paralives-pe...

eurogamer.net

After five hours with its eagerly awaited early access release, Paralives feels like the opposite of The Sims - and in just the right way

Paralives gets off to a lovely start. We fade up to see the camera tracking a moving train as it winds serenely across …

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The Video Game Library 📚 @thevideogamelibrary.org · 18/03/2026

𝐕𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡: 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐬𝐲𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧 is one of the week’s more academic arrivals. ☝️ This collection looks at games and mental health through both psychology and design. #GameStudies @gamingthemind.bsky.social @sebgenvo.bsky.social @federicoalvarez.bsky.social

Book cover with a bright blue background and a stylized brain made from video game controller parts in black, yellow, orange, green, and blue near the center. Text on the cover reads "Federico Alvarez Igarzábal, Emmanuel Guardiola, Carmen Johann, Katharina Tillmanns (eds.)", "Video Games and Mental Health", "Perspectives of Psychology and Game Design", and "[transcript] Studies of Digital Media Culture".

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

The BCI Game Jam 2026 is here (Feb 27 – Mar 7) 🧠🎮 Build a brain-controlled video game in just a week: no prior game dev or brain-computer interface experience needed! Join online, get expert support, and help shape the future of accessible gaming... bci.games/jams/2026

bci.games

BCI Games | BCI Game Jam 2026

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Gaming the Mind @gamingthemind.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

We are at the National Student Psychiatry Conference at University of Kent, showing off extracurricular volunteer activities that psych trainees can engage in through the charity, to support mental health in the gaming community! @rcpsych.bsky.social @kmmsmedschool.bsky.social

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