One Month(ish) Review

We started this game just over a month ago.  I wanted to take a moment and reflect on the progress and lessons learned, and where I would like to go from here.

Successes: This game has definitely helped me to not feel so isolated and powerless.  This is especially helpful when Matt is out of town, and I'm here alone.  It's made it easier for me to reach out and ask for help, and I think - correct me if I'm wrong, Allies - it's given people a way to do something for me. I also think a perhaps unintended side effect is that Allies are not just helping me, but they're helping each other.  The game has taken a disparate group of people, from seven different states ranging from Massachusetts to Colorado, some of whom have never met before (either in real life or online), and joined them together in common purpose.  Has all of this helped my healing? It's hard to say.  Has all of this helped my mindset? Absolutely.  I may be still sick, but I'm not suffering nearly as much as I was before we started SuperBetter.  Now when I encounter something painful or difficult, I think, "How can I create a gameful way of dealing with this?" instead of feeling overwhelmed, crushed, and desperate.  I have gained unexpected allies, such as my boss, the owner of our doggy daycare, and my cello teacher, who may not be formally playing the game but they are definitely contributing to my recovery.  Even the blog itself has been therapeutic, and things like posting my daily activities helps me to see just what I am doing to participate in my recovery - and in my own life - rather than just sitting around waiting to get better.

Challenges: I need to come up with some more power ups, and I need to be better about using them when I have a bad day instead of sitting around moping.  I also need to be better about developing missions and achievements.  We started off strong with that, but it kind of waned, which is to be expected.  Also, I need to more clearly communicate that the game, and the blog, are supposed to be fun for Allies too - several Allies privately brought up to me that they felt like they weren't doing enough, because they hadn't posted recently or hadn't done something else.  I want to state for the record that that doesn't matter to me.  What matters to me is that you're here, you volunteered to help me through an incredibly difficult time in my life, and you have done so much, all of you, to get me through this.  Any time you feel like you're not doing enough, just come read this post.  I also think we need to develop a little more structure in the game, to create back-ups for people, and to give people clearer ideas of what's going on.

Moving Forward: I'd like to work with you all to create a monthly structure to give out missions and achievements.  The reason I bring this up is that I know you all have your own lives, and more than anything I DO NOT want this game to become a burden or just "something else you have to do." If we have back-ups in place, it takes some pressure off and allows the game to keep moving without causing undue stress on anyone.  I'd love to hear your comments on how to work this.  I was thinking that at the start of each month, we assign one person and one back-up for each week to manage missions and achievements.  I'd also like your help in brainstorming what I need in terms of missions and power ups - I kind of really suck at evaluating what I need, and whenever I consciously try to think of power ups, my brain fails.  It would be really awesome to have some of these flushed out before I head into surgery (which is looking to be the week of April 4.)  Also, I'd love to develop some little character insights or fiction pieces or something so we can use these wonderful characters that you've all worked so hard to develop.  Additionally, I'm thinking of trying to actively blog more, not just about the game, but about chronic illness in general (this would be a great thing to structure as a mission and/or achievement.)

Be proud! I just wanted to let all of you know that there are people out there who found this blog, and it inspired and helped them to create their own SuperBetter games.  So you're not just helping me, you're helping strangers fight their own Evils as well.  You all are the best group of Allies a huntress could ever ask for, and I deeply, truly appreciate everything you have done.  We will conquer this, one Evil at a time!

I would love to hear your feedback on what you think are successes, challenges, and suggestions for moving forward!