Suburban moms and frustrated teachers since the emergence of the negative effects of video games, but new research now suggests that these accusations may be just the due to bad science.
A team of researchers from Oxford University recently teamed up with Electronic Arts (EA) and Nintendo to investigate what video games look 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 in the magazine on Wednesday Royal Society Open Science.
In contrast to previous research that pointed to the negative effects of ‘game addiction’, these researchers found that these games were a positive impact on someone’s well-being in certain scenarios.
Why it matters – Previous research evaluating the effect of video games has often used self-reports on users to draw conclusions about the ultimate impact of video games. These kinds of answers are notoriously unreliable, the authors of this new study argue.
Instead, their study suggests one of the first times independent scientists have partnered with video game companies to use concrete game data, in addition to self-reported answers, to capture the effect of these games.
It could be a step towards a 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 increasing.
By 2020, the number of gamers worldwide was higher than it ever was (possibly as an antidote to the boredom of pandemics) and it even overshadowed the film industry in total revenue.
But all the hours we spend chasing 1-ups, shooting enemies, or collecting virtual fossils, researchers still know little about how these games affect our well-being. In extreme cases, scientists have pointed to excessive video games as a form of addiction, but the researchers behind this new study say the conclusions may be unfounded.
“Unfortunately, nearly three decades of research into the possible links between video games and negative outcomes, including aggression, addiction, well-being and cognitive functioning, have brought us nowhere near a consensus or evidence-based policy,” the authors write. “[R]feasible, reproducible and ecologically valid studies are little and far between. “
Part of the problem was that video game companies kept their own data in the game (like real playing time) close to the chest and rarely let independent scientists watch it. As a result, much research is done on video games using self-reported data, which can be unreliable.
“Self-reported video games are therefore a invalid power of attorney real video games – yet researchers and those who advise health institutions are dependent on self-reports for diagnosis and policy decisions, ”the team writes.
As a step towards reversing this trend and possibly finding a more reliable data source, scientists, along with EA and Nintendo of America, looked at how players really respond to their games. In this study, they focus on two popular games: Plants versus Zombies: Battle for the Neighborville 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 game company to send out a user survey to determine scale, such as how players felt during the game (e.g. “I experienced a lot of freedom [the game]’or’ I played [the game] to escape “) and an estimate of how long they played the games.
This self-reported data was then combined with telemetry (or true game data such as start and stop times) of the gaming companies themselves to make comparisons with the self-reported responses.
In total, the researchers were able to collect data from 2756 of telemetry and user response Animal transition players (from 342 825 players sent recordings) and 471 Plants vs zombies players (out of 250,000 sent to recordings.) The recordings were sent to users in the US, UK and Canada.
What they discovered – Unlike the negative story surrounding video games, the researchers noticed a positive link between users’ play and well-being – at least in certain scenarios. They write:
“If players experience 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 experience less intrinsic motivation and need satisfaction during the game.”
For example, if users feel pressured to play, they may not experience the same positive benefits.
The researchers also noted that players overestimated their own game for an average of two hours, although they found that positive well-being was independent of the overall playing time.
What’s next – Even with these initial positive results, the researchers say, there are still a number of limitations that need to be overcome in future studies to confirm these findings.
Future studies could, for example, use a longer longitudinal approach that users would follow for a long period of time (more than the two-week period used in this study) and also study the impact of different, more violent genres of games. Extending their sample size to non-Western countries will also be important in generalizing these results.
But for now, the researchers write that these findings could at least put an end to (or delay) overwhelming fears of video game addiction.
“Overall, our findings suggest that regulating video games over time may not deliver the benefits that many might expect.”
Summary: People have never played video games before, and many stakeholders are concerned that this activity may be 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 strive to provide much-needed evidence with sufficient data. While previous research had to rely on self-reported gaming behavior, we collaborated with two gaming companies, Electronic Arts and Nintendo of America, to obtain the actual gaming behavior of players. We have players from Plants versus Zombies: Battle for Neighborville and Animal crossing: new horizons for their well-being, motivations and need satisfaction during play and combined their answers with telemetry data (i.e. logged play). Contrary to many fears that excessive playing time will lead to addiction and poor mental health, there is little positive link between play and affective well-being. Need and motivation during play did not speak to the playing time, but were independent of well-being. Our results advance the field in two important ways. First, we show that collaboration with industry partners can be done in an ethical and transparent manner according to high academic standards. Second, we provide much-needed evidence to policymakers about the link between gambling and mental health.