Letter to Doug Bowser

May 12th, 2020

Doug Bowser

President, Nintendo of America

4600 150th Ave NE Redmond, WA 98052

Dear Mr. Bowser,

My name is Rebecca Lin, and I am an avid Nintendo player. Since elementary school, my brother and I have played your company’s games, such as Pokémon and Kirby Air Ride, for fun. However, they became much more than a form of entertainment when my brother suffered from depression and struggled to find support in counseling. Through playing Nintendo games, he regained his self-esteem and became more talkative. Because he responded to Nintendo games in a way that he did not respond to counseling, I believe that Nintendo games have the potential to provide therapeutic benefits not only to its players but also to Americans of all socioeconomic classes.

Unfortunately, my brother’s story is one of many highlighting the lack of access to mental health care in the U.S. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, about 55% of American adults with treatable mental health disorders fail to receive treatment, while for American children, that percentage is about 49%. These rates are even higher for rural Americans because most live in areas with shortages of mental health providers and cannot afford insurance or travel to counselors. Left untreated, mental illnesses can have devastating effects like suicide, which has increased by 35% since 1999 despite many lost lives being preventable if mental health services were more accessible. Having worked in management, you may also know all too well about additional costs of this crisis, including billions of dollars spent to improve employee wellbeing and prevent decreased productivity. Although accessibility of care has slowly improved from efforts to lower these alarming numbers, more must be done to supplement traditional, face-to-face counseling where it is unavailable or ineffective.

It is imperative that every American can access mental health services regardless of their income level or location. As the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated, online alternatives to standard counseling like video games can fulfill these goals affordably and remotely; gaming has provided much-needed social connection, purpose, and consolation to people in isolation at little to no cost. Given that Nintendo is the most influential video game company in the world and the largest by revenue, I kindly ask you to leverage your power to do good by creating a free gaming app that improves Americans’ wellbeing.

Based on what has worked for SPARX and BraveMind—games that have been seamlessly incorporated into the toolbox to address mental health disorders ranging from depression to PTSD—I would also like to propose three specific gaming elements for Nintendo’s app. First, I suggest including avatars because when players see themselves reflected in-game, they feel more connected to their progress and take more initiative when learning coping skills to accelerate recovery. In a British Medical Journal study of 12-19 year-olds who played SPARX using avatars while learning to reframe self-deprecating thoughts as empowering ones, 44% recovered completely from their mild to moderate depression. Furthermore, a multi-level reward system like the virtual reality simulation BraveMind’s would significantly reduce anxiety by encouraging players to persist in completing missions that teach resilience, enabling them to focus on pursuing their happiness instead. Finally, you may consider a chat or call feature so that players can connect with counselors who can offer support to prevent internalization of suffering or misuse of this app for unhealthy periods of time.

The costs that Nintendo would incur by entering the specialty video game market as a means of assisting those with mental illnesses would be more than compensated for by the goodwill and recognition the company would achieve across global markets. In prioritizing your social responsibility to utilize your strengths to “put smiles on everyone Nintendo touches,” I also believe that you will find this experience very fulfilling.

Still, I acknowledge that undertaking such a major project is daunting. It requires investment in new resources and a significant time commitment. In addition, this effort calls for careful designs, which entail collaboration between counselors, individuals with mental illnesses, and game developers to avoid trivializing mental health. Nevertheless, I hope that Nintendo will be willing to accept this challenge. I am sure that as President of Nintendo America, you value your players’ wellbeing and equitable access to your games across all demographics. With your company’s widespread appeal and knack for innovation, you could make a real difference in increasing the quality and reach of mental health care for both gamers and non-gamers alike. Thank you for taking the time to read this proposal.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Lin

Public Remediation

Reflective Memo

Throughout the planning process for the public remediation project, my goal was to raise awareness of an underexplored issue and to inspire action. I specifically wanted to discuss the psychological benefits of playing video games, which could increase access to mental health care services if incorporated into a free, mobile app. While drafting my project proposal, I decided against writing to a local official because it would be less relevant to their political work; they would lack knowledge of gaming and eventually consult video game developers before passing legislation anyways. I also excluded genres catered towards the general public, such as PSAs or social media because they were much less targeted. Although these genres would promote awareness of my issue as I had intended my position paper to do, they would be less suitable for effecting change on a national scale.

However, I knew that directly addressing a powerful figure in the video game industry would be much more effective for this purpose because I could personalize the message and implore them to take specific action. Thus, I chose to write to Doug Bowser, the president of Nintendo America, as he determines the direction the company is headed in. Meanwhile, I targeted Nintendo because I knew that it was extremely influential, as it is the largest commercial video game company by revenue. I also recognized that Nintendo was successful due to their appealing and innovative games, so I took that into account in my letter to Bowser. Lastly, the American division was my ideal audience because statistics in my position paper pertained to mental health disparities in the U.S.

Once I decided to address Doug Bowser, I chose to mail him a letter rather than send an email. While the former was inefficient, it offered more personalization, which I prioritized because amid a pandemic, I was imploring Bowser to undertake a major project: creating a mental health gaming app. From there, I began to research his background and Nintendo’s values via LinkedIn and the company website, respectively. As I conducted this research, I found that the best way to persuade Bowser was to focus on logical appeals then pathos. Because he had worked at Nintendo in strategy and marketing prior to becoming president, he would require data and scientific studies to quantify the positive impacts that counseling video games could have on players. In addition, I discerned that Nintendo prioritized accessibility to its games based on the company’s support pages, so I emphasized that value to compel Bowser to be more receptive of my proposal.

Then, I consulted examples of letters to CEOs to plan how I would construct my own letter. In particular, I looked at BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s letter to other CEOs about climate change because he was able to balance exigency and empathy. Fink explained the broader implications of climate change while sympathizing with executives by sharing his own stake in the issue.

I tried to follow this model by first talking about my connection to Nintendo. Next, I discussed the coronavirus epidemic to show how people turn to video games like Nintendo’s hit Animal Crossing when they are distressed. I then gave a condensed narration of gamification elements to include in Nintendo’s app and the profound effects it could have on equitable access to mental health services. Finally, I expressed understanding of why Bowser might hesitate to accept my proposal given the time, money, and research commitment. Through employing this framework, I hope that I will at least convince Bowser to consider my proposal, bringing us one step closer to guaranteeing Americans mental health resources.

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