Suburban mothers and frustrated teachers have been carrying the negative effects of video games since its inception, but new research now suggests that these accusations may be just the result of bad science.
A team of researchers from Oxford University recently teamed up with Electronic Arts (EA) and Nintendo to investigate how video games Plants against Zombies: Battle for the Neighborhood and Animal Crossing: New Horizons really affect the mental health of your players. The results of this partnership were published Wednesday in the magazine. Royal Society Open Science.
Unlike previous research, which pointed to the negative effects of “gaming addiction”, these researchers found that these games could actually have a positive impact in someone’s well-being in certain settings.
Why does it matter – Previous research that assessed the effect of video games has often relied on data reported by users to draw conclusions about the ultimate impact of video games. These types of responses are notoriously unreliable, argue the authors of this new study.
Instead, his study represents one of the first times that Independent scientists partnered with video game companies use concrete game data, as well as self-reported survey responses to decipher the effect of these games.
This could be a step towards a new era of video game research.
Here’s the background – It is no secret that we play many video games. This trend is only increasing.
By 2020, the number of players worldwide was greater than ever (potentially as an antidote to pandemic boredom) and has grown to outshine the film industry in total revenue.
But for all the hours we spend chasing 1-ups, shooting enemies or collecting virtual fossils, researchers still know very little about how these games really affect our well-being. In extreme cases, scientists have pointed to excessive video game play as a form of addiction, but the researchers behind this new study say these conclusions may be unfounded.
“Unfortunately, almost three decades of research exploring the possible links between video games and negative outcomes, including aggression, addiction, well-being and cognitive functioning, has not brought us anywhere near an evidence-based consensus or policy,” write the authors. “[R]reliable, reproducible and ecologically valid studies are few and far between. “
Part of the problem is that video game companies keep their own game data (like real game time) well-kept and rarely allow independent scientists to take a look. As a result, many video game searches are done using self-reported survey data, which may be unreliable.
“The self-reported game is, therefore, a inadequate proxy of real video game games – but researchers and those who advise health agencies depend on self-reports for diagnosis and political decisions, “writes the team.
As a step towards changing this trend and potentially finding a more reliable data source, scientists have teamed up with EA and Nintendo of America to take a closer look at how gamers really react to their games. In this study, they focused on two popular games: Plants against Zombies: Battle for the Neighborhood and Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
What they did – The research team used two different data sources in their study. For both games, they partnered with the gaming company to submit a user survey to establish metrics based on scale, such as how players felt when playing (for example, “I experienced a lot of freedom [the game]”or” I played [the game] to escape “) and an estimate of how much time they spent playing.
These self-reported data were then paired with telemetry (or actual game data, such as start and end times) from the gaming companies themselves to make comparisons with the self-reported responses.
In total, the researchers were able to collect telemetry and user response data from 2,756 Cross between animals players (out of 342,825 players who received surveys) and 471 Plants versus zombies players (out of 250,000 who received surveys.) Surveys were sent to users in the U.S., UK and Canada.
What they found – Contrary to the negative narrative surrounding video games, the researchers noted a positive correlation between users’ gameplay and well-being – at least in certain settings. They write:
“If players experienced intrinsic motivations and need satisfaction during the game, we would expect a more positive relationship between playing time and well-being compared to players who experienced less intrinsic motivation and need satisfaction during the game.”
For example, if users felt external pressure to play, they may not experience the same positive benefits.
The researchers also noted that players overestimated their own gameplay by an average of two hours, although they found that positive well-being was independent of overall playing time.
What is the next – Even with these initial positive results, the researchers say that there are still a number of limitations that will need to be overcome in future studies to confirm these findings.
For example, future studies could use a longer longitudinal approach that would accompany users for an extended period (longer than the two-week period used in this study) and could also study the impact of different and more violent game genres. Expanding the sample size to include non-Western countries will also be important to generalize these results.
But for now, the researchers write that these findings may at least end (or slow down) exaggerated fears of video game addiction.
“Overall, our findings suggest that regulating video games, based on time, may not bring the benefits that many might expect.”
Summary: People have never played video games anymore, and many stakeholders are concerned that this activity could be bad for players. So far, the survey has lacked adequate data to test whether these concerns are justified and whether lawmakers should act to regulate playing time. We try to provide much-needed evidence with adequate data. While previous research relied on self-reported game behavior, we collaborated with two game companies, Electronic Arts and Nintendo of America, to obtain the actual game behavior of players. We research players from Plants Against Zombies: Battle for Neighborhood and Animal Crossing: New Horizons for your well-being, motivations and satisfaction of need during the game and merged your responses with telemetry data (ie registered game). Contrary to many fears that excessive time to play leads to addiction and poor mental health, we find a small positive relationship between gambling and emotional well-being. Satisfying needs and motivations during the game did not interact with playing time, but 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 in accordance with high academic standards in an ethical and transparent manner. Second, we provide much-needed evidence to policy makers about the link between play and mental health.