About Lifegame

The producers of the Lifegame health multimedia programme are the Finnish Centre for Health Promotion and the Finnish Science Centre Heureka. Lifegame was originally prepared for the exhibition "Minä ja sinä - seikkailu itsessämme" (Me and you - an adventure in ourselves), but has now been put on CD-ROM for use as a teaching aid in school health education.

In Lifegame, the player or players lead an imaginary character through their life from childhood to old age. The game consists of situations where the player makes decisions based on multiple choice options. At the end of the game the player receives an evaluation on the health impacts of the choices made during the course of the game. The assessment takes into account four factors: physical, psychological and social health, and general coping ability.

In Lifegame, what counts most is comprehension and not point scoring. However, the scoring is based as far as possible on existing research findings. If the current evidence from such findings is not strong, the option chosen does not influence the result.

Many things determine health. Lifegame deals mainly with those that people can influence by their own choices.

The Lifegame internet teaching aid has been prepared by a working group comprising Maria Nyrövaara, a teacher in physical and health education at Apollo Comprehensive School, Paula Mannonen from the Finnish Centre for Health Promotion, Mervi Skyttä, a biology and geography teacher at Matinkylä School, Heli Tyrväinen from Jyväskylä University, and Harri Vertio, the general secretary of the Finnish Cancer Society.