ABSTRACT
Games come so naturally to humans and afford so much pleasure that only someone of a very extreme philosophical orientation would maintain that all gameplay is harmful. Several positive effects are often attributed to games. Games are one of many activities that people engage in to try to maintain and control their mood and emotional state. Games, particularly sports, give us reason and motivation to perform healthy physical exercise. Games that help us exercise, connect with others, or change our habits are also meaningfully helpful. Possibly the most important reason to use the phrase “transformational games” is because it helps everyone remember the goal of creating the game: to transform the player. One of the most challenging things about creating transformational games is knowing whether the intended transformation actually took place. Even without monetary rewards, though, there have long been cases of people playing games more than they should.
