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Nov 16, 2020 · Key findings include: • Actual amount of time spent playing was a small but significant positive factor in people’s well-being. • A player’s subjective experiences during play might be a bigger factor for well-being than mere play time.
Only 11% of older adults report playing video games frequently, compared to nearly 30% of those from 18-29 years of age (Figure 1).
Nov 18, 2020 · The results, then, cast further doubt on the idea that spending more time playing video games is detrimental to our mental health. In fact, the study suggests that there is some kind of link between playing video games for longer and greater wellbeing.
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By Callum Bains
published 28 July 2022
Stick it to the man
(Image credit: Nintendo)
The number of hours a person spends playing video games doesn’t affect their well-being, but their motivation for playing is likely to have an influence, a new study has found.
Alongside recording participants’ emotional states, the study asked players to reflect on their experienced sense of autonomy, competence, relatedness to others, and intrinsic motivation for playing over the two-week period. The idea was to ascertain whether they were playing because they wanted to, or because they felt they had some obligation to do so.
“We found it really does not matter how much gamers played [in terms of their sense of well-being],” researcher Andrew Przybylski said in a press release.
“It wasn’t the quantity of gaming, but the quality that counted… if they felt they had to play, they felt worse. If they played because they loved it, then the data did not suggest it affected their mental health. It seemed to give them a strong positive feeling.”
However, that relationship may not hold for longer playtimes. The study excluded all gaming sessions below zero and above 10 hours to mitigate logging errors. It’s unclear how a person’s well-being may interact with extended gaming periods.
Seven games were used in the study, including Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Apex Legends, Eve Online, Forza Horizon 4, Gran Turismo Sport, Outriders, and The Crew 2. By collaborating with the games' publishers, the research team was able to record the duration of the participants’ gaming sessions directly, rather than rely on players' own estimates.
While those titles span a range of genres, from racing sim to MMORPG, the study suggests more research is needed: “to truly understand why people play [video games] and to what effect, we need to study a broader variety of games, genres and players”.
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Nov 11, 2020 · With better access and ease of use, older adults are using video games to reduce stress, maintain mental sharpness, connect, and to have fun. According to a survey conducted by the AARP, which included 3737 people aged 50 or older, 47 percent of respondents reported playing video games every day.
Dec 6, 2017 · Playing 3D-platform video games on a regular basis may improve cognitive functions in seniors and increase grey matter in a brain structure called the hippocampus, a new study suggests.
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Jul 27, 2022 · Across six weeks, seven games and 38 935 players, our results suggest that the most pronounced hopes and fears surrounding video games may be unfounded: time spent playing video games had limited if any impact on well-being. Similarly, well-being had little to no effect on time spent playing.
