Interesting Psychological Study on Video Games
One of the new research says that “Video games fill
psychological need”
Gamers enjoy
experiences they can relate to the real world. Full Auto 2 by Toronto's Pseudo
Interactive puts players to the test. Gamers enjoy experiences they can relate
to the real world. Full Auto 2 by Toronto's Pseudo Interactive puts players to
the test.
If you're having a hard time convincing kids of all ages
to pull themselves away from their video games, there's a deep-rooted
psychological reason, a study by U.S. researchers suggests.
The survey by psychologists at the University of
Rochester in Rochester, N.Y., and virtual worlds researchers at Immersyve Inc.
indicates that people enjoy video games because they are satisfying at a fundamental
psychological level.
The research published Tuesday in the journal Motivation
and Emotion found that the driving force that draws people to games was not fun
— which doesn't keep players interested — but instead a sense of achievement,
freedom and even social connectedness.
"We think there's a deeper theory than the fun of
playing," University of Rochester motivational psychologist Richard Ryan
said in a written statement.
Gamers said they felt the best about their experience
when the games they played produced positive outcomes in scenarios related to
the real world.
"It's our contention that the psychological 'pull'
of games is largely due to their capacity to engender feelings of autonomy,
competence and relatedness," said Ryan, the lead investigator in four new
studies about gaming.
The draw of video games "also can be experienced as
enhancing psychological wellness, at least short-term," Ryan said.
The researchers asked 1,000 gamers what drives them to
keep playing video games, examining what drew and maintained their interest,
based on an area of the psychology of motivation known as self-determination
theory.
Previous studies have examined the game mechanics rather than
looking at the players.
The researchers evaluated players' motivations in virtual
worlds by asking four groups of people to play different games, including a
genre known as massively multiplayer online (MMO) games, which some industry
watchers regard as the future of video games.
MMOs let hundreds or even thousands of players interact
simultaneously in a persistent world where events continue even when a gamer is
not online.
The researchers found that for MMO gamers in particular,
interrelations among players provided "an important satisfaction that
promotes a sense of presence, game enjoyment and an intention for future
play."
The study was co-authored by Andrew Przybylski, a
graduate student at the University of Rochester, and Scott Rigby, president of
Immersyve who earned a doctorate in psychology at the school.
Image source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/705092
Post a Comment