Video games could be good for your mental health after all – study

Frustrated suburban mothers and teachers have suffered the negative effects of video games since their inception, but new research now suggests that these accusations may only be the result of bad science.

A team of researchers from the University of Oxford recently joined forces with Electronic Arts (EA) and Nintendo to study how video games like Plants versus Zombies: Battle for the Neighborville and Animal Crossing: New horizons really affect the mental health of their players. The results of this partnership were published Wednesday in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

Unlike previous research that pointed to the negative effects of ‘gambling addiction’, these researchers found that such games may in fact have a negative impact. positive impact on someone’s well-being in certain scenarios.

Why is this important – Previous research evaluating the effect of video games has often relied on self-reported user data to draw conclusions about the ultimate impact of video games. These types of answers are notoriously unreliable, say the authors of this new study.

Instead, their study represents one of the first times that independent scientists have teamed up with video game companies to use concrete game data in addition to self-reported survey responses to elucidate the effect of these games.

It could be a step towards a whole new era of video game research.

Here is the background – It’s no secret that we play a lot of video games. This trend is only on the rise.

In 2020, the number of gamers worldwide was higher than ever before (potentially as an antidote to pandemic boredom) and has even increased to eclipse the film industry in terms of total revenue.

But during all the hours we spend hunting 1-ups, shooting enemies, or collecting virtual fossils, researchers still know very little about how these games actually affect our well-being. In extreme cases, scientists have pointed out that excessive video gaming is a form of addiction, but the researchers behind the new study say these findings may be unfounded.

“Sadly, nearly three decades of research exploring possible links between video games and negative outcomes, including aggression, addiction, well-being, and cognitive functioning, have brought us far from a consensus or d ‘an evidence-based policy,’ write the authors. “[R]eligible, reproducible and ecologically valid studies are rare. “

Part of the problem is that video game companies keep their own game data (such as actual game time) close to the chest and have rarely allowed independent scientists to peek. As a result, much of the research on video games is done using self-reported survey data, which may not be reliable.

“The self-declared video game is therefore a inappropriate proxy of the actual video game – yet researchers and those who advise healthcare organizations depend on self-assessments for diagnosis and policy decisions, ”the team writes.

In order to change this trend and potentially find a more reliable data source, scientists have teamed up with EA and Nintendo of America to take a closer look at how gamers actually respond to their games. In this study, they focused on two popular games: Plants versus Zombies: Battle for the Neighborville and Animal Crossing: New horizons.

What did they do – The research team used two different data sources in their study. For both games, they partnered with the game company to send out a user survey to establish scale-based metrics, such as how gamers felt while playing (eg, “J have experienced a lot of freedom [the game]”or” I played [the game] to escape ”) and an estimate of the time they spent playing the games.

This self-reported data was then paired with telemetry (or real game data such as start and stop times) from the gaming companies themselves to make comparisons with the self-reported responses.

In total, the researchers were able to collect telemetry and response data from 2756 users. Animal crossing players (out of 342,825 players who were surveyed) and 471 Plants vs. Zombies players (out of 250,000 respondents). The surveys were sent to users in the US, UK and Canada.

What they discovered – Unlike the negative narrative around video games, researchers have noticed a positive correlation between user gameplay and well-being – at least in some scenarios. They write:

“If players had intrinsic motivation and needed satisfaction during play, we would expect a more positive relationship between playing time and well-being compared to players who have less intrinsic motivation and need satisfaction. during the game. “

For example, if users feel outside pressure to play, they might not experience the same positive benefits.

The researchers also noticed that gamers overestimated their own play by an average of two hours, although they found that positive well-being was independent of overall play time.

And after – Even with these early positive results, the researchers say there are still a number of limitations that will need to be overcome in future studies to confirm these results.

For example, future studies might use a longer longitudinal approach that follows users for an extended period (more than the two-week period used in this study) and might also study the impact of different genres of more violent games. Expanding their sample size to include non-Western countries will also be important to generalize these results.

But for now, the researchers write that these findings could at least put an end (or slow down) to exaggerated fears of video game addiction.

“Overall, our results suggest that regulating video games, on a time basis, may not deliver the benefits that many might expect.”

Abstract: People have never played more video games and many commenters are concerned that this activity is bad for gamers. So far, research has not had sufficient data to test whether these concerns are justified and whether policymakers should act to regulate the playing time of video games. We try to provide vital evidence with adequate data. While previous research had to rely on self-reported gaming behavior, we worked with two game companies, Electronic Arts and Nintendo of America, to obtain actual gaming behavior of players. We interviewed players from Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville and Animal Crossing: New horizons for their well-being, motivations, and need for satisfaction during play and merged their responses with telemetry data (i.e. recorded play). Contrary to many concerns that excessive gambling time will lead to addiction and poor mental health, we have found a small, positive relationship between gambling and emotional well-being. The satisfaction of needs and motivations during play did not interact with play time, but rather were independently related to well-being. Our results advance the field in two important ways. First, we show that collaborations with industry partners can be done to high academic standards in an ethical and transparent manner. Second, we provide decision-makers with much-needed evidence on the link between gambling and mental health.