The therapeutic stage encounters the virtual world

Clinical research in expressive therapies, psychodrama in particular, offer education researchers and software designers descriptive analyses and evidence-based impact studies on attitudinal shifts and enhanced problem solving abilities for patients and students who participate in psychodrama role-play. Gaming environments and virtual worlds that use purposeful role-play as a central activity of their milieu are in need of additional evaluative frameworks to assess their efficacy as an educational medium. The dynamic quality and complexity of these interactive informal learning environments defy measurement and analysis using single research paradigms. Clinical research on psychodrama practice as a therapeutic activity that considers both cognitive and emotional outcomes of role-play as change agent and a process that contributes to personal growth is discussed. The article summarizes psychodrama research, includes a discussion of its application to the evaluation of role-play in gaming and virtual worlds, and offers a bibliography for exploring this subject in more depth.