research project on video games

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

The association between video gaming and psychological functioning.

$\r\nJuliane M. von der Heiden*$

1 Department of Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
2 Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, University Medical Center, Mainz, Germany

Video gaming is an extremely popular leisure-time activity with more than two billion users worldwide ( Newzoo, 2017 ). However, the media as well as professionals have underscored the potential dangers of excessive video gaming. With the present research, we aimed to shed light on the relation between video gaming and gamers’ psychological functioning. Questionnaires on personality and psychological health as well as video gaming habits were administered to 2,734 individuals (2,377 male, 357 female, M age = 23.06, SD age = 5.91). Results revealed a medium-sized negative correlation between problematic video gaming and psychological functioning with regard to psychological symptoms, affectivity, coping, and self-esteem. Moreover, gamers’ reasons for playing and their preferred game genres were differentially related to psychological functioning with the most notable findings for distraction-motivated players as well as action game players. Future studies are needed to examine whether these psychological health risks reflect the causes or consequences of video gaming.

Introduction

Video gaming is a very popular leisure activity among adults ( Pew Research Center, 2018 ). The amount of time spent playing video games has increased steadily, from 5.1 h/week in 2011 to 6.5 h/week in 2017 ( The Nielsen Company, 2017 ). Video gaming is known to have some benefits such as improving focus, multitasking, and working memory, but it may also come with costs when it is used heavily. By spending a predominant part of the day gaming, excessive video gamers are at risk of showing lower educational and career attainment, problems with peers, and lower social skills ( Mihara and Higuchi, 2017 ). On the one hand, video game use is widespread, and it may come with certain precursors as well as consequences. On the other hand, little is known about the relations between various video gaming habits and psychological functioning. This study aims to shed light on these important relations using a large sample.

A video game is defined as “a game which we play thanks to an audiovisual apparatus and which can be based on a story” ( Esposito, 2005 ). In the last few years, the amount of scientific research devoted to video game playing has increased (e.g., Ferguson, 2015 ; Calvert et al., 2017 ; Hamari and Keronen, 2017 ). Most scientific studies in this area of research have focused on the extent of video game play and its diverse correlates. While some researchers have emphasized the benefits of game playing and even suggested a therapeutic use of video games ( Primack et al., 2012 ; Granic et al., 2014 ; Colder Carras et al., 2018 ), others have been intrigued by its potential dangers ( Anderson et al., 2010 ; Müller and Wölfling, 2017 ).

Parents and professionals may be worried about their excessively playing children being “addicted.” However, problematic and potentially addictive video game use goes beyond the extent of playing (in hours per week; Skoric et al., 2009 ). It also includes such issues as craving, loss of control, and negative consequences of excessive gaming. While it is still a matter of debate whether problematic video game play should be considered a behavioral addiction , its status as a mental disorder has been clarified since the release of the DSM-5 in 2013. In the DSM-5, the American Psychiatric Association (2013) defined Internet Gaming Disorder with diagnostic criteria closely related to Gambling Disorder. Generally, this decision has been supported by many researchers (e.g., Petry et al., 2014 ) but has also caused controversies. Researchers have criticized the selection of diagnostic criteria and the vague definition of the Internet Gaming Disorder construct, which excludes offline games from being related to addictive use (e.g., Griffiths et al., 2016 ; Bean et al., 2017 ).

Several studies, literature reviews, and meta-analyses have focused on the correlates of problematic video gaming, usually assessed as a continuum with addiction marking the upper end of the scale (e.g., Ferguson et al., 2011 ; Kuss and Griffiths, 2012 ). The degree of addictive video game use has been found to be related to personality traits such as low self-esteem ( Ko et al., 2005 ) and low self-efficacy ( Jeong and Kim, 2011 ), anxiety, and aggression ( Mehroof and Griffiths, 2010 ), and even to clinical symptoms of depression and anxiety disorders ( Wang et al., 2018 ). Potential consequences of video game use have been identified as well, such as a lack of real-life friends ( Kowert et al., 2014a ), stress and maladaptive coping ( Milani et al., 2018 ), lower psychosocial well-being and loneliness ( Lemmens et al., 2011 ), psychosomatic problems ( Müller et al., 2015 ; Milani et al., 2018 ), and decreased academic achievement ( Chiu et al., 2004 ; Gentile, 2009 ). Effect sizes have varied widely across studies ( Ferguson et al., 2011 ). There seem to be sex and age differences with regard to video gaming behavior: potentially problematic video gaming was found to be more likely among males than females (e.g., Greenberg et al., 2010 ; Estévez et al., 2017 ), and among younger gamers ( Rehbein et al., 2016 ).

In addition to looking at problematic video game use and its relation to psychological functioning, it is relevant to also focus on why individuals play video games. Players use video games for very different reasons ( Ryan et al., 2006 ; Yee, 2006 ) such as to distract themselves from daily hassles or because they enjoy the social relationships they have developed in the virtual world. Potentially problematic video gaming has been found to be related to various reasons for playing such as coping and escape ( Hussain and Griffiths, 2009 ; Schneider et al., 2018 ), socialization ( Laconi et al., 2017 ), and personal satisfaction ( Ng and Wiemer-Hastings, 2005 ). Coping ( Laconi et al., 2017 ), social interaction, and competition were among the main reasons for gaming among males but not among females ( Lucas and Sherry, 2004 ). Mixed results emerged concerning age differences ( Greenberg et al., 2010 ), but especially younger gamers seemed to be motivated for video gaming by social interactions ( Hilgard et al., 2013 ). However, so far it remains unclear to what extent people’s various reasons for playing video games are differentially related to their psychological functioning.

Besides investigating the links between potentially problematic video game use and psychological functioning as well as between reasons for playing video games and psychological functioning, it is relevant to also look at which game genres individuals prefer. Correlates of preferences for certain game genres (e.g., simulation, strategy, action, role-playing) are cognitive enhancement ( Dobrowolski et al., 2015 ; Bediou et al., 2018 ), but also the amount of time spent playing ( Lemmens and Hendriks, 2016 ; Rehbein et al., 2016 ) and psychopathological symptoms ( Laconi et al., 2017 ). Males were shown to prefer action and strategy games, whereas females showed a preference for games of skill ( Scharkow et al., 2015 ; Rehbein et al., 2016 ). Younger gamers seemed to prefer action games, older players more so games of skill ( Scharkow et al., 2015 ). However, it is not yet understood to what extent preferences for certain video game genres are differentially related to psychological functioning.

Typically, research has focused merely on violent video games (e.g., Anderson and Bushman, 2001 ; Elson and Ferguson, 2014 ) or one specific game within one specific game genre (frequently World of Warcraft; Graham and Gosling, 2013 ; Visser et al., 2013 ; Herodotou et al., 2014 ), thereby neglecting the variety of possible gaming habits across various game genres.

In the present study, our objective was to examine the relation between video gaming and psychological functioning in a fine-grained manner. For this purpose, we examined psychological functioning by employing various variables such as psychological symptoms, coping strategies, and social support. Likewise, we assessed video gaming in a similarly detailed way, ranging from (a) problematic video game use, (b) the reasons for playing, to (c) the preferred game genres. This strategy prevented us from making potentially invalid generalizations about video gaming in general and allowed us to examine the spectrum of gaming habits and the respective relations between such habits and a diverse set of variables representing psychological functioning.

Playing video games excessively should be appealing to individuals with poor psychological functioning because games allow people to avoid their everyday problems and instead immerse themselves in another environment ( Taquet et al., 2017 ). Moreover, video games offer people a chance to connect with other people socially despite any more or less evident psychological problems they may have ( Kowert et al., 2014b ; Mazurek et al., 2015 ). On the other hand, potentially problematic video game use may also lead to psychological problems because it reduces the amount of time and the number of opportunities gamers have to practice real-life behavior ( Gentile, 2009 ). Thus, we expected to find a negative correlation between problematic video gaming and variables representing psychological functioning such that we expected more potentially problematic video game use to be related to dysfunctional coping strategies ( Wood and Griffith, 2007 ), negative affectivity ( Mathiak et al., 2011 ), and poor school performance ( Mihara and Higuchi, 2017 ). Moreover, we expected to find differential correlates of people’s reasons for playing video games and their psychological functioning: Playing for escape-oriented reasons such as distraction should go along with diverse indices of poor psychological functioning ( Király et al., 2015 ), whereas playing for gain-oriented reasons such as the storyline or the social connections in the game should be related to adequate psychological functioning ( Longman et al., 2009 ). Also, we expected to find people’s preferred game genres (e.g., strategy, action) to be differentially related to their psychological functioning ( Park et al., 2016 ). Finally, we aimed to shed light on the unique contribution of each measure of psychological functioning to the prediction of problematic video game use.

Materials and Methods

Participants 1.

A total of N = 2,891 individuals (2,421 male, 470 female) with a mean age of 23.17 years ( SD = 5.99, Range: 13–65) participated in our study. Of these participants, N = 2,734 (95%) confirmed their use of video games and were thus included in further analyses (2,377 male, 357 female, with a mean age of 23.06 years; SD = 5.91, Range: 13–65). The distribution of participants with regard to sex and age mirrors the findings of past research with males and younger individuals being more likely to play video games (e.g., Griffiths et al., 2004 ). Participants’ place of residence was Germany.

Procedure and Instruments 2

We posted links to our online questionnaire on various online forums as well as on popular online game sites. To achieve heterogeneity of the sample, no exclusion criteria other than having access to the Internet and understanding German were specified. As an incentive to participate in the study, four vouchers of 50€ were raffled.

Video Gaming

Potentially problematic video game use.

The AICA-S, the Scale for the Assessment of Internet and Computer game Addiction ( Wölfling et al., 2016 ), was used to assess participants’ gaming behavior with regard to potential problematic use. Based on the DSM criteria for Internet Gaming Disorder (tolerance, craving, loss of control, emotion regulation, withdrawal, and unsuccessful attempts to cut back), this standardized self-report scale consists of 15 items usually with a five-point scale ranging from 1 ( never ) to 5 ( very often ). The final score (Min = 0, Max = 27 points) is computed using weighted scoring (items with an item-total correlation > 0.55 in the norm sample are weighted double; Wölfling et al., 2011 ). The AICA-S score can be used to differentiate between regular (0–6.5 points) and problematic use of video games (7–13 points: abuse; 13.5–27 points: addiction). In our sample, N = 2,265 (83%) were identified as regular gamers, and N = 469 (17%) as problematic gamers. We used the AICA-S as a continuous variable for all further analyses ( M = 3.98, SD = 3.22, Range: 0–24). The instrument has been validated for different age groups in the general population and in clinical samples ( Müller et al., 2014a , 2019 , but note small sample size; Müller et al., 2014b ). Cronbach’s alpha was α = 0.70. As expected, the AICA-S score was correlated with male sex ( r = 0.17 ∗∗∗ ) and age ( r = –0.15 ∗∗∗ ). On average, participants played video games for M = 4.09 hours per weekday ( SD = 4.44, Range: 0–24), and M = 4.21 h per day at the weekend ( SD = 2.99, Range: 0–24).

Reasons for playing

Gamers indicated how often they played video games for certain reasons. They rated each of 10 reasons separately on Likert scales ranging from 1 ( never ) to 4 ( very often ). The most prevalent reasons were relaxation ( M = 2.96, SD = 0.91), amusement ( M = 2.94, SD = 0.85), and because of the storyline ( M = 2.67, SD = 1.10).

Game genres

Gamers were asked how often they usually played various video game subgenres such as first-person shooter, round-based strategy, massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), life simulations, and others. Ratings were made on Likert scales ranging from 1 ( never ) to 4 ( very often ). Using Apperley’s (2006) classification of game genres, we categorized the subgenres into the main genres action ( M = 2.54, SD = 0.84), strategy ( M = 2.13, SD = 0.80), role-playing ( M = 2.01, SD = 0.73), and simulation ( M = 1.58, SD = 0.44). A cluster for unclassified subgenres ( M = 1.54, SD = 0.39) was added to additionally account for such subgenres as jump’n’runs and games of skill. Descriptive statistics and intercorrelations for all measures (including sex and age) are presented in Supplementary Tables S1–S4 .

Psychological Functioning

Participants provided ratings of their psychological functioning on the following constructs:

General psychopathology

The SCL-K-9 ( Klaghofer and Brähler, 2001 ), a short version of the SCL-90-R ( Derogatis, 1975 ), was administered to assess participants’ subjective impairment regarding psychological symptoms (somatization, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism). The SCL-K-9 score is strongly correlated with the original score of the SCL-90-R ( r = 0.93). The 9 items were answered on 5-point Likert-type scales ranging from 1 ( do not agree at all ) to 5 ( agree completely ). Cronbach’s alpha was satisfactory (α = 0.77).

We assessed 10 coping strategies with the Brief COPE ( Carver, 1997 ; German version by Knoll et al., 2005 ), which is the shorter version of the COPE ( Carver et al., 1989 ): self-distraction, denial, substance use, venting, self-blame, behavioral disengagement, acceptance, active coping, planning, and positive reframing. The two items per subscale were administered on 5-point Likert-type scales ranging from 1 ( never ) to 5 ( very often ). Intercorrelations of the two items per subscale ranged from r = 0.32, p < 0.001 for positive reframing to r = 0.78, p < 0.001 for substance use (with one exception: r = -0.05, p = 0.01 for self-distraction).

We measured general affect as a trait and affect during video gaming as a state using the German version ( Krohne et al., 1996 ) of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS; Watson et al., 1988 ). On a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 ( not at all ) to 5 ( completely ), participants rated the intensity of 20 adjectives. Cronbach’s alpha was α = 0.78 for general positive affect, α = 0.83 for general negative affect, α = 0.85 for positive affect while playing, and α = 0.83 for negative affect while playing.

The measure for the assessment of shyness in adults ( Asendorpf, 1997 ) consists of 5 items that were answered on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 ( not at all ) to 5 ( completely ). Cronbach’s alpha was excellent (α = 0.86).

We administered the German version ( Elbing, 1991 ) of the NYU Loneliness Scale ( Rubenstein and Shaver, 1982 ). The 4 items were answered on 5- to 6-point Likert-type scales. Cronbach’s alpha was satisfactory (α = 0.79).

Preference for solitude

A 10-item measure of preference for solitude ( Nestler et al., 2011 ) was answered on a 6-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 ( not at all ) to 6 ( completely ). Cronbach’s alpha was excellent (α = 0.86).

Life satisfaction

Participants answered a one-item life satisfaction measure on a 4-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 ( not at all ) to 4 ( completely ).

Self-esteem

We administered the German version ( von Collani and Herzberg, 2003 ) of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES; Rosenberg, 1979 ). The 10 items were answered on a 4-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 ( not at all ) to 4 ( completely ). Cronbach’s alpha was excellent (α = 0.88).

Self-efficacy

We administered a 10-item generalized self-efficacy scale ( Schwarzer and Jerusalem, 1995 ), which was answered on a 4-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 ( not at all ) to 4 ( completely ). Cronbach’s alpha was excellent (α = 0.86).

Social support and friends

We administered the perceived available social support subscale from the Berlin Social Support Scales (BSSS; Schwarzer and Schulz, 2003 ). The 8 items were answered on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 ( not at all ) to 5 ( completely ). Cronbach’s alpha was excellent (α = 0.94). Participants indicated how many offline friends and offline acquaintances they had ( r = 0.44, p < 0.001) as well as how many online friends and online acquaintances they had ( r = 0.33, p < 0.001). Due to left-skewed distributions, we logarithmized the data before aggregation.

Participants reported their grade point average. German grades are assessed on a scale that ranges from 1 ( excellent ) to 6 ( insufficient ). Thus, higher scores indicate worse grades.

Participants further reported their sex and age. Both were used as control variables in further analyses.

In a first step, we computed zero-order correlations between the video gaming variables and the measures of psychological functioning. In a second step, we computed partial correlations in which we controlled for sex and age because past research has repeatedly shown that sex and age are correlated with both video gaming ( Homer et al., 2012 ; Mihara and Higuchi, 2017 ) and psychological functioning ( Kessler et al., 2007 ; Nolen-Hoeksema, 2012 ). Finally, we explored the unique contribution of each measure of psychological functioning to the prediction of potentially problematic video gaming. Therefore, we computed regressions with potentially problematic video gaming as the dependent variable and sex, age, and the measures of psychological functioning as predictors (entered simultaneously into the regression equation). By employing this procedure, we were able to determine the effect that each variable had over and above the other ones. For instance, we could identify whether general psychopathology was predictive of potentially problematic video game use when the influence of all other variables (e.g., shyness, loneliness, and others) was held constant.

Additionally, we included analyses regarding sex and age differences in the link between video gaming and psychological functioning. Since we collected a self-selected sample where different sexes and age groups were not represented equally, our findings are only preliminary, but may stimulate future research.

Potentially Problematic Video Game Use and Psychological Functioning

First, we examined whether potentially problematic video game use was related to various psychological functioning variables. As can be seen in Table 1 , the results for the zero-order correlations were similar to those for the partial correlations in which we controlled for sex and age. A medium-sized positive relation to the potentially problematic use of video games emerged for the presence of psychological symptoms including depression, anxiety, and hostility. Furthermore, several coping strategies were differentially associated with the potentially problematic use of video games: Self-blame and behavioral disengagement showed the strongest positive relations to potentially problematic video game use, followed by denial, acceptance, substance use, self-distraction, and venting. Planning, active coping, and, to a lesser extent, positive reframing were negatively associated with the potentially problematic use of video games. Moreover, the association with potentially problematic video game use was negative for general positive affect and positive and larger in size for general negative affect. However, potentially problematic video game use was clearly positively associated with the experience of both positive and negative affect while playing. Further, a preference for solitude, shyness, and loneliness were positively correlated with the potentially problematic use of video games. Lower self-esteem, lower life satisfaction, and, to a lesser extent, poorer perceived social support and lower self-efficacy went along with potentially problematic video game use. There was an association between fewer offline friends and acquaintances but more online connections with potentially problematic video gaming. Finally, poorer performance in school (i.e., higher grades) was related to the potentially problematic use of video games. These results suggest that potentially problematic video gaming goes along with poor psychological functioning and vice versa.

Table 1. Associations between potentially problematic video gaming and psychological functioning.

Reasons for Playing Video Games and Psychological Functioning

Second, we investigated whether players’ reasons for playing video games were differentially related to the psychological functioning variables. Table 2 presents the partial correlations, controlling for sex and age. Using video games to distract oneself from stress was clearly connected to a high level of psychological symptoms. Distraction-motivated gamers preferred coping strategies such as self-blame, behavioral disengagement, self-distraction, denial, substance use, venting, and acceptance, but they neglected active coping and planning. They showed less general positive affect and more negative affect both in general and while playing as well as more positive affect while playing. These gamers further reported low self-esteem and low life satisfaction, loneliness, a preference for solitude, shyness, a lack of self-efficacy and social support, and poor achievement in school. A similar but somewhat less extreme picture was revealed for gamers who played video games in order to have something to talk about . However, these gamers reported more online connections. Gamers who played video games to improve their real-life abilities also reported more online connections. In addition, these gamers showed higher levels of general positive affect. The strongest association with online friends and acquaintances emerged, as expected, for gamers who played because of the social relations in the virtual world. Although all reasons for playing video games were related to positive affect while playing, the strongest associations emerged for gamers who played because of the social relations , to stimulate their imagination , and for curiosity . It is interesting that, for gamers who played video games because of the storyline and for relaxation , there was a relation only to positive but not to negative affect while playing. Reasons for playing were only weakly related to sex and age (see Supplementary Table S2 ). In sum, several reasons for playing video games were differentially associated with psychological functioning.

Table 2. Associations between reasons for playing video games and psychological functioning.

Video Game Genre and Psychological Functioning

Third, we examined whether players’ preferences for different video game genres were differentially associated with the measures of psychological functioning. Table 3 shows the partial correlations in which we controlled for sex and age. There was a weak connection between general psychological symptoms and all of the video game genres we investigated except strategy. A preference for action games had the strongest association with affect while playing. Thus, action games seem to be both rewarding and a source of frustration. A preference for action games went along with poorer school performance. Gamers who preferred role-playing games scored higher on shyness and a preference for solitude and lower on self-esteem; they also reported fewer offline connections. By contrast, preferences for games of the unclassified category on average went along with a larger number of offline friends and more positive affect, both while playing and in general. Two game genres (i.e., role-playing and unclassified games) were related to the coping strategy of self-distraction. Because preferred game genre was related to participants’ sex (see Supplementary Table S3 ), we had a more detailed look at the correlations between preferred game genre and psychological functioning separately for both sexes: For males ( n = 2,377), the strongest correlation between general psychopathology and game genre emerged for action ( r = 0.08, p < 0.001), followed by role playing ( r = 0.07, p < 0.01), and unclassified ( r = 0.07, p < 0.01). For females ( n = 357), the strongest relation between general psychopathology and game genre emerged for simulation ( r = 0.17, p < 0.01). Differences were also found regarding the strength of the relation between number of friends online and the genre action: r = 0.06, p < 0.01 for males, and r = 0.27, p < 0.001 for females. Similarly, preferred game genre was related to participants’ age (see Supplementary Table S3 ). However, there were merely differences with regard to the relation of psychological functioning and game genre, when analyzed separately for different age groups (<19 years, n = 557; 19–30 years, n = 1916; >31 years, n = 261). In sum, our results speak to the idea that individuals with different levels of psychological functioning differ in their choices of game genres and vice versa.

Table 3. Associations between preferred video game genre and psychological functioning.

Predicting Potentially Problematic Video Game Use by Psychological Functioning Variables

In a final step, we entered all of the investigated psychological functioning variables as well as sex and age as predictors of the potentially problematic use of video games. By employing this procedure, we were able to determine the unique contribution of each psychological functioning variable when the influence of all other variables was held constant. As Table 4 shows, the number of online friends and acquaintances as well as positive affect while playing were most predictive of potentially problematic video game use over and above all other variables. General psychopathology, a lack of offline connections, and poor school performance were weaker but still relevant predictors of potentially problematic video game use.

Table 4. Prediction of potentially problematic video game use by psychological functioning variables.

With this study, we aimed to shed light on the association of diverse video gaming habits with gamers’ psychological functioning. Drawing on a large sample, our results revealed a medium-sized relation between potentially problematic video game use and poor psychological functioning with regard to general psychological symptoms, maladaptive coping strategies, negative affectivity, low self-esteem, and a preference for solitude as well as poor school performance. These findings are in line with those of prior work (e.g., Kuss and Griffiths, 2012 ; Milani et al., 2018 ). Also, reasons for playing video games were differentially related to psychological functioning with the most pronounced findings for escape-oriented in contrast to gain-oriented motives. Specifically, distraction-motivated gaming went along with higher symptom ratings, lower self-esteem, and more negative affectivity, whereas playing to establish social relationships in the virtual world was related to a larger number of online connections and more positive affect while playing. Furthermore, there were only weak relations between the preferred game genres and psychological functioning. The action games genre was associated with the strongest ratings of affect while playing. These results on reasons and genres may help to explain conflicting findings of former studies, because in our work we examined various reasons for playing, several game genres, and various aspects of psychological functioning simultaneously. Finally, positive affect while playing and a larger number of online friends were the strongest unique predictors of potentially problematic video game use, followed by psychological symptoms, a lack of offline connections, and poor school performance. These findings suggest that, on the one hand, independent of one’s psychological conditions, enjoying oneself during gaming (i.e., experiencing positive affect, connecting with online friends) may go along with potentially problematic use of video games. On the other hand, poor psychological functioning seems to be a unique risk factor for potentially problematic video gaming.

The presented results are generally in line with previous work that has identified a connection between video gaming and psychological health, academic problems, and social problems ( Ferguson et al., 2011 ; Müller et al., 2015 ). However, our study moved beyond prior research by providing in-depth analyses of both video gaming habits (including potentially problematic use, reasons for playing, and preferred game genre) and psychological functioning (including psychological symptoms, coping styles, affectivity, as well as variables that are related to individuals and their social environments). In addition, we identified unique predictors of potentially problematic video game use.

How can the findings on differential relations between video gaming and various indices of psychological functioning – ranging from beneficial results ( Latham et al., 2013 ) to unfavorable results ( Barlett et al., 2009 ; Möller and Krahé, 2009 ; Anderson et al., 2010 ) – be integrated? According to Kanfer and Phillips (1970) , problematic behavior (e.g., excessive video gaming) can be understood as a function of the situation (e.g., being rejected by a peer); the organism (e.g., low self-esteem); the person’s thoughts, physical reactions, and feelings (e.g., sadness, anger); and finally, the short- as well as long-term consequences of the behavior (termed SORKC model). In the short run, according to our results, playing video games may be a way to distract oneself from everyday hassles and may lead to positive affect while playing and a feeling of being connected to like-minded people, all of which are factors that have an immediate reinforcing value. In the long run, however, spending many hours per day in front of a computer screen may prevent a person from (a) developing and practicing functional coping strategies, (b) finding friends and support in the social environment, and (c) showing proper school achievement, factors that are potentially harmful to the person. Thus, differentiating between short- and long-term perspectives may help us understanding the differential correlates of intensive video gaming.

When is it appropriate to speak of video game addiction? More and more researchers have suggested a continuum between engagement ( Charlton and Danforth, 2007 ; Skoric et al., 2009 ) and pathological gaming/addiction, instead of a categorical perspective. In part, this recommendation has also been followed in the DSM-5 ( American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ) where Internet Gaming Disorder is classified with different degrees of severity, ranging from mild to moderate to severe, according to the functional impairment associated with it. The AICA-S also allows for a differential perspective on gaming behavior by providing ways to assess both the time spent playing video games and the main DSM criteria that indicate Internet Gaming Disorder. However, in our study we did not aim at making a diagnosis, but at having a closer look at potentially problematic gaming behavior and its correlates in a non-clinical sample.

In sum, it seems relevant to assess not only the extent of video game use but also the reasons behind this behavior (e.g., distraction) and the concrete rewards that come from playing (e.g., the experience of strong affect while playing action games) to fully understand the relation between video gaming and psychological functioning.

Limitations and Future Directions

With the present study, we aimed to uncover the association between video gaming and psychological functioning. Our approach was cross-sectional and warrants interpretative caution because correlations cannot determine the direction of causation. It remains unclear whether potentially problematic gaming is a factor that contributes to the development of psychological dysfunction or whether psychological dysfunction contributes to potentially problematic gaming. Also, a third factor (e.g., preexisting mental difficulties) may produce both psychological dysfunction and potentially problematic gaming. Thus, longitudinal studies that are designed to identify the causal pathway may provide a promising avenue for future research. Future studies may also answer the question whether the link between video gaming and psychological functioning is moderated by sex, age, the reasons for playing, or the preferred game genre. In addition, it is important not to forget that the present results are based on a self-selected sample in which potentially problematic video gamers were overrepresented (e.g., Festl et al., 2013 , for a representative sample). Thus, future research should replicate our findings in a representative sample. Further, we relied on self-reported data, which is a plausible method for assessing inner affairs such as people’s reasons for their behaviors, but it would be helpful to back up our findings with evidence derived from sources such as peers, caregivers, and health specialists. Our work reflects only a first approach to the topic, and future work may additionally collect in-game behavioral data from the players ( McCreery et al., 2012 ; Billieux et al., 2013 ) to objectively and more specifically investigate diverse patterns of use. Furthermore, one must not forget that the used taxonomy to classify video game genres is only one of various possible options and one should “think of each individual game as belonging to several genres at once” ( Apperley, 2006 , p. 19). Finally, some of the effects reported in our paper were rather modest in size. This is not surprising considering the complexity and multiple determinants of human behavior. In our analyses, we thoroughly controlled for the influence of sex and age and still found evidence that video gaming was differentially related to measures of psychological functioning.

The current study adds to the knowledge on gaming by uncovering the specific relations between video gaming and distinct measures of psychological functioning. Potentially problematic video gaming was found to be associated with positive affect and social relationships while playing but also with psychological symptoms, maladaptive coping strategies, negative affectivity, low self-esteem, a preference for solitude, and poor school performance. Including gamers’ reasons for playing video games and their preferred game genres helped deepen the understanding of the specific and differential associations between video gaming and psychological health. This knowledge might help developing adequate interventions that are applied prior to the occurrence of psychological impairments that may go along with potentially problematic video gaming.

Ethics Statement

In our online survey, participants were given information on voluntary participation, risks, confidentiality/anonymity, and right to withdraw. Whilst participants were not signing a separate consent form, consent was obtained by virtue of completion. We implemented agreed procedures to maintain the confidentiality of participant data.

Author Contributions

BB, BE, JH, and KM conceived and designed the study. BB, JH, and KM collected and prepared the data. JH analyzed the data. BE and JH wrote the manuscript.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01731/full#supplementary-material

^ The data were gathered as part of a larger project ( Stopfer et al., 2015 ; Braun et al., 2016 ). However, the analyses in the present article do not overlap with analyses from previous work.
^ Other measures were administered, but they were not relevant to the present research questions and are thus not mentioned in this paper. The data set and analysis script supporting the conclusions of this manuscript can be retrieved from https://osf.io/emrpw/?view_only=856491775efe4f99b407e258c2f2fa8d .

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Keywords : computer games, video gaming behavior, game genres, coping, psychological health

Citation: von der Heiden JM, Braun B, Müller KW and Egloff B (2019) The Association Between Video Gaming and Psychological Functioning. Front. Psychol. 10:1731. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01731

Received: 14 September 2018; Accepted: 11 July 2019; Published: 26 July 2019.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2019 von der Heiden, Braun, Müller and Egloff. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Juliane M. von der Heiden, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

SciStarter Blog

Covering the people, projects and phenomena of citizen science

Blog: Citizen Science Projects, People, and Perspectives

Gaming for Science: How Video Games Are Making Research Fun

By Nathaniel Scharping, Aug 15, 2022

While we might imagine a scientist as a chemist concocting substances in a lab, or a biologist diving with sea creatures, the reality is often far more mundane. Much of science involves collecting and analyzing data, and that process isn’t always very exciting. Think counting bacteria in a petri dish, or noting if two stars look alike in an image of the Milky Way.

But a number of research projects have found a way to buck that trend and turn the grinding work of data collection and analysis into something fun, even rewarding. By creating games that bake the process of data collection into their mechanics, players can contribute data and even uncover new insights just by playing along. Gamification, along with the growing movement known as citizen science, which invites volunteers to take part in real science research, is, in its own way, reshaping what it means to do science.

Gamifying Science

Games that pair citizen science with rewarding play are probing treatments for cancer, helping to cure Alzheimer’s, probing the foundations of language and more. Not only are the games made to be fun, but they address a prevailing issue among crowdsourcing projects: the dropoff rate. Citizen science games tackle the problem with game mechanics that allow players to uncover valuable data through the simple act of playing, keeping them engaged. The results can be striking: Volunteers with the citizen science game Stall Catchers were able to process 50 times as much data as scientists working alone. And research in The Lancet on citizen science volunteers playing the game Cell Slider found that the players were more than 90 percent accurate in classifying images of tumors, nearing the accuracy of trained pathologists.

“The concept is for the player, without actually knowing the background of the problem, without knowing the science of the problem, to be able to do something that helps solve the problem,” says Jay Halderman, the vice president of BALANCED Media|Technology , a video game company that’s created multiple citizen science video games.

The studio’s most recent game is a pattern-matching challenge called Rocks & Runes . Players place cartoon bombs on a board filled with brightly-colored runes, with the goal of destroying rocks and matching runes together. The game might feel familiar to anyone who’s ever played Candy Crush, and it takes all of five minutes to get the hang of.

But beneath the bursts of color and flurries of point multipliers, players’ decisions are actually sorting through data from FDA-approved drug compounds to identify those that might be useful against multiple-drug-resistant chemotherapy. By eliminating rocks with bombs, players are virtually eliminating the ineffective properties of existing drugs and pointing machine learning algorithms toward more useful compounds, helping to sift out promising candidates from thousands of drugs.

Still, a player doesn’t even need to know the potential scientific benefits to enjoy the game. Adding enough reward to the gameplay to keep players interested in the game itself is a fundamental goal when designing citizen science games, says Nathan Bowden, a senior game designer at BALANCED Media|Technology.

“Everything we do, we’re trying to look at it through the lens of ‘is this fun?’” he says.

The designers often draw from existing video game archetypes — pattern matching, first-person shooters and more — when looking for inspiration. Sometimes the real challenge is simply finding the right paradigm for a particular dataset or scientific problem, Bowden says. When designing Wiley Wizard , a game that works with the same dataset as Rocks & Runes, the designers played around with half a dozen different game ideas before settling on one, a spooky cartoon world where a wizard fights ghosts.

“There’s just so many different ways you can encapsulate one piece of research into a single mechanic,” Bowden says.

Games With an Open Canvas

Another citizen science game, Glyph , takes a different approach. Instead of creating rigid rules or a defined path of gameplay, the project, which studies and compares alphabets from around the world, instead offers players a nearly blank slate.

The simple game asks players to come up with a set of rules to differentiate letters from alphabets around the world. The goal, says Olivier Morin , one of the game’s creators and a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology in Jena, Germany, is to develop a kind of grammar of letter shapes that the researchers can use to study how letters have evolved and how the shapes of letters affect our cognition. The researchers could have paid participants to do the work, like other lab experiments often do, Morin says. But by gamifying the process of data collection, he hopes they’ll be able to reach people who are much more creatively involved in the process, and more likely to come up with unique solutions.

“We need creative players who want to push the boundaries of the game and create unique kinds of data we could never gather in an experiment,” Morin says.

Players get points for coming up with rules for classifying the shapes of letters (think: these are all round, these all have a vertical line), with extra points if they’re the first-ever person to propose a particular rule. The response so far has been encouraging, Morin says, with a few thousand players from around the world. That’s ideal for a small game like theirs, he says, where the real goal is to reach people who might be highly interested in the challenge. Their top player right now has more than 60,000 points, which represents weeks of gameplay.

“That person really spent weeks trying to devise the most elegant, intelligible but innovative classification she could think of to make sense of letter shapes,” Morin says. “There’s no way a paid participant would do that in a few hours.”

At Balanced Media, the designers have been exploring other ways to entice players to participate, including creating games that can be played inside live Twitch streams, which allow gamers to broadcast matches and interact. They created a new game styled like the classic “Asteroids” arcade game that can be played between matches right on Twitch. Players must separate matter from antimatter by drawing a straight line across the screen, a simple task that helps sort the same drug compound data as Rocks & Runes and Wiley Wizard.

Other citizen science games offer even more ways to get involved. The popular Stall Catchers game asks players to find “stalls,” or blocked blood vessels, in images of mouse brains to advance Alzheimer’s research. And in the iPad game NeMO-Net , players classify corals to help train an algorithm that’s watching over the health of coral reefs around the world.

There may be even more ways for gamers to do citizen science soon. Or, to put it another way, we may soon have even more fun citizen science games. The technology and infrastructure supporting the video game industry continues to grow, unlocking new capabilities and audiences as it does so.

“It’s giving us more and more opportunities for ways to present these things to a player,” Bowden says. “That’s incredibly exciting, the potential there.”

Want to try some for yourself? Find dozens of citizen science games on SciStarter .

Tags: games

About the Author

Nathaniel Scharping

View posts by Nathaniel Scharping

How Video Games Are Making Research Fun

Gamification and citizen science meet when research projects create video games to make data collection and analysis fun.

The SciStarter Blog

By Nathaniel Scharping

Gamifying Science

“The concept is for the player, without actually knowing the background of the problem, without knowing the science of the problem, to be able to do something that helps solve the problem,” says Jay Halderman, the vice president of BALANCED Media |Technology , a video game company that’s created multiple citizen science video games.

“Everything we do, we’re trying to look at it through the lens of ‘is this fun?’” he says.

“There’s just so many different ways you can encapsulate one piece of research into a single mechanic,” Bowden says.

Games With an Open Canvas

“We need creative players who want to push the boundaries of the game and create unique kinds of data we could never gather in an experiment,” Morin says.

Other citizen science games offer even more ways to get involved. The popular Stall Catchers game asks players to find “stalls,” or blocked blood vessels, in images of mouse brains to advance Alzheimer’s research. And in the iPad game NeMO- Net , players classify corals to help train an algorithm that’s watching over the health of coral reefs around the world.

“It’s giving us more and more opportunities for ways to present these things to a player,” Bowden says. “That’s incredibly exciting, the potential there.”

Want to try some for yourself? Find dozens of citizen science games on SciStarter .

Do video games affect your mood? Read more about Video Gaming Disorder and Mental Health .

About the Author

Nate is a science writer and editor who has reported everywhere from particle colliders to archaeological digs. He’s also a cofounder of Lunaris Creative, an agency focused on scientific storytelling for brands and nonprofits. You can find clips of his work at nathanielscharping.com.

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The MIT Game Lab has a long history of innovative research that spans game culture to design practice. Below are some highlights of our work. See specific pages in the pull down menu for more detailed information on some of them.

Games & Colonialism

2017-: mikael jakobsson (co-pi), mary flanagan (co-pi).

What does the history of colonialism-themed board games look like, and what can it tell us about the situation today? What does it mean to present these historical moments in such a lavish form and then let these artifacts serve as centerpieces to gather around for social interaction at board game cafes, meetups, and conventions? This greater project includes Playing Oppression , a forthcoming book to be published by MIT Press; Orderly Adventures, in which we play and analyze games with colonialist themes; and Creating Counter-Colonial Games, a series of workshops to prototype games through cultural engagement with people affected by the colonialist endeavor.

Diversity and Inclusion in Esports and Gaming

2015-: t.l. taylor.

Launched in 2015, AnyKey was co-founded by Dr. T.L. Taylor and Dr. Morgan Romine (with support from Intel and ESL) with the goal of building a more inclusive and accessible esports world for all. Since that inception, AnyKey has become the leading advocacy organization for inclusion and diversity in competitive gaming & live streaming. It now operates as a non-profit and Dr. Taylor has transitioned from being the Director of Research to Chair of the Advisory Board.

Playful Augmented Reality Audio Design Exploration

2018-2019: mikael jakobsson & philip tan.

The focus of this project was to explore the potential of audio augmented reality (AR) technology through design research methodology, particularly exploratory prototyping. Going into this, we understood that location-based audio AR allows the potential for telling stories using the players lived world, through innovative use of the affordances of mobile phone devices, particularly GPS. We also considered audio AR as a means of playing with sound and music. Utilizing the accelerometers of the Bose AR glasses and connected mobile device, body movement can be linked to the players’ own music collection or a music generation engine.

Our work culminated in the discovery of what we are calling locomotion-based gameplay, a modification to the assumptions that occur when considering location- based gameplay. From our explorative work, locomotion-based gameplay arises from the affordances and limitations of current audio AR technology. It considers a person’s movement through space as important, more so than their precise location. Locomotion also implies whole body movement through gestures including the nod of a head and the tap of a toe, not just the vector of movement on a map. These gestures are ephemeral and contain multiple meanings dependent on context and mood. We believe more work in discovering this style of gameplay would be fruitful, for purposes of art and entertainment, for education and tourism, and other currently unforeseen use cases.

Intimate Worlds: Reading for Intimate Affects in Contemporary Video Games

2016-2018: kaelan doyle-myerscough (s.m., comparative media studies, 2018).

When we think of pleasures to be found in video games, we often talk about power, control, agency, and fun. But to center these pleasures is to privilege certain stories, players, actions and possibility spaces. This thesis uses the framework of intimacy to closely examine three games for their capacity to create pleasure in vulnerability, the loss of control, dependence on others, and precarity.

Drawing from Deleuzian affect theory and feminist, queer and posthuman theorists, I read for intimate affects in the formal, aesthetic, proprioceptive and structural elements of Overwatch , The Last Guardian and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild . Ultimately, I argue two points: that video games have a unique capacity to generate intimate affects, and that my games of choice push us to rethink our assumptions about what constitutes intimacy more broadly.

When All You Have is a Banhammer: The Social and Communicative Work of Volunteer Moderators

2016-2018: claudia lo (s.m., comparative media studies, 2018).

The popular understanding of moderation online is that moderation is inherently reactive, where moderators see and then react to content generated by users, typically by removing it; in order to understand the work already being performed by moderators, we need to expand our understanding of what that work entails. Drawing upon interviews, participant observation, and my own experiences as a volunteer community moderator on Reddit, I propose that a significant portion of work performed by volunteer moderators is social and communicative in nature. Even the chosen case studies of large-scale esports events on Twitch, where the most visible and intense tasks given to volunteer moderators consists of reacting and removing user-generated chat messages, exposes faults in the reactive model of moderation. A better appreciation of the full scope of moderation work will be vital in guiding future research, design, and development efforts in this field.

Recasting Player Two

2016-2017: mikael jakobsson, claudia lo, kaelan doyle myerscough, richard eberhardt & dozens of game designers from near and far.

The game development industry is currently on a mission to include “non-gamers” in local co-op games. Within the development community and among players, these games are said to have a “girlfriend mode.” Developers often cast player one as an expert player in their own image, while player two is a projection of antiquated gender stereotypes who has less agency and control over their play experience. This type of interaction would be better described as mansplaining in motion. This project consists of a series of workshops with participants from the game development community, where we not just discuss and spread awareness of what is problematic with current games and development practices, but work together in creating better alternatives.

OpenRelativity

2012-2016: gerd kortemeyer, philip tan, zach sherin, ryan cheu, & steven schirra.

OpenRelativity is an open-source toolkit to simulate effects of special relativity by varying the speed of light, developed to help people create, test, and share experiments to explore the effects of special relativity. Developed by the MIT Game Lab, it contains open-source code for public use with the free and paid versions of the Unity engine. The toolkit was developed during the creation of the game A Slower Speed of Light.

Gender and Systems of Warm Interaction in Digital Games

2014-2016: kyrie caldwell (s.m., comparative media studies, 2016).

This thesis considers the ways in which digital game mechanics (interactive inputs) contribute to games’ worldbuilding. In particular, this work is concerned with the replication and reinforcement of problematic gender roles through game mechanics that express positive (“warm”) interactions between characters, namely healing, protection, and building relationships. Characters who are women and girls are often associated with physical weakness, nature-based magic, and nurturing (or absent) personalities, whereas characters who are men and boys often protect women through physical combat, heal through medical means, and keep an emotional distance from others. Relationships built through game mechanics rely on one-sided agency and potential that renders lovers and friends as characters who exist to support the player character in achieving the primary goals of the game. Even warm interactions in games carry negative, even potentially violent and oppressive, representations and that there is thusly a need for design interventions on the mechanical level to mitigate violence in game worlds and the reinforcement of negative real world stereotypes.

E-sports Broadcasting

2014-2015: jesse sell (s.m., comparative media studies, 2015).

Situating e-sports broadcasting within the larger sports media industrial complex, discussing e-sportscasters, and investigating the economics behind the growing e-sports industry. E-sports, often referred to as competitive or professional gaming, stands as a prime example of the merger of work and play. A growing body of literature has started focusing on this pastime turned profession. As more professionals enter the scene and audiences continue to grow, e-sports broadcasters look towards older models of broadcasting to inform their own style. This reapplication of former conventions stands in contrast to the trends in the larger sports media trajectory. E-sports broadcasting is largely informed by traditional sports broadcasting, yet remains unable to fully capture the success of the global sports industry. On-air talent, once informed solely by traditional sportscasters are now looking to their fellow e-sportscasters to create something new. Revenue streams which form the foundation of the sports industry are making their way into e-sports but not in the way that one might expect.

MIT Overseer: Improving Observer Experience in Starcraft 2

2013-2015: philip tan & nick mohr.

The MIT Overseer project aims to provide casters with real-time graphics to help them tell the story of a game while it is in progress. We are trying out several different ways of displaying what happened in the past of a single game and anticipating what might happen in the near future.

Subversive Game Design and Meaningful Conflict

2012-2013: konstantin mitgutsch & steven schirra.

Movers & Shakers is used as a research tool to explore how a social component influences experiences in serious games. In addition subversive game design elements are implemented in the game to foster the players’ thinking process and to get them out of unquestioned routines. In the game the players are challenged to give up their prior egoistic goals to reach their common goal – to save the world. In a nutshell, the game shifts from a competitive to a collaborational gameplay – once the players start communicating.

Playstyle Motivation Explorations

2012-2013: todd harper.

Across game genres and communities, there are as many styles of play as there are players, from the highly competitive “powergamer” to the MMO fan who’s content to just take in the scenery and everything in between. Fugue is a game that asks: what are some of the motivations behind these styles? Do players reflect themselves — or a desired projection of the self — through playstyle? Or does the shape and context of the game itself direct such decisions? In order to explore these questions, we created a small, controlled gamespace that gives players an opportunity to express themselves via play.

Procedural Puzzles as a Design Tool for Games

2011-2013: alec thomson, clara fernández-vara.

Puzzledice is a set of tools and programming libraries for procedurally generating puzzles for a wide variety of games. These tools, developed by Alec Thomson at the MIT Game Lab from 2011-2013, are the result of multiple iterations of research and were used to develop Stranded in Singapore during the 2011 summer session of the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab. Puzzledice is the result of research into how general purpose procedural puzzles can be used as a tool by game designers. These tools were designed to meet the following three goals: Solvability, Generality, and Usability.

Televisual Sports Videogames

2012-2013: abe stein (s.m., comparative media studies, 2013).

Over the three decade long history of sports videogame development, design conventions have lead to the emergence of a new sports game genre: the televisual sports videogames. These games, which usually simulate major professional or college sports, look and sound like television, and they use televised sports as a reference point for players. This thesis takes a critical look at how these televisual sports videogames are situated in the broader sports media industrial complex of North America, while also considering how the televisual design of these games is meaningful for fans of sports. Specifically, the text looks at how sports videogames reflect or reinforce dominant ideologies of hegemonic sports culture. Building on critical theories in sports studies, and through critical close readings of videogame texts, this thesis explores the relationship between sports television production, and sports videogames, with a focus on features that are found in both. Features such as introductory sequences, audio commentary, in-game advertising, news tickers, and instant replay are all commonly found in both sports television and sports videogames.

Purposeful Games for Social Change

2011-2012: konstantin mitgutsch & narda alvarado.

“ Purposeful Games for Social Change ” is a list of serious games designed to foster social change/justice or to raise awareness. This list was created in order to create the Purposeful Games Framework , a tool used to assess the cohesiveness in design of serious games.

Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab

The Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab was a six-year research initiative that addressed important challenges faced by the global digital game research community and industry, with a core focus on identifying and solving research problems using a multi-disciplinary approach that can be applied by Singapore’s digital game industry. The Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab focused on building collaborations between Singapore institutions of higher learning and several MIT departments to accomplish both research and development.

Research topics explored included artificial intelligence, game design, computer graphics and animation, character design, procedurally generated content, interactive fiction, narrative design, and video game production. Game prototypes were made for these research topics during the GAMBIT summer internship program, many of which won international recognition at festivals like IndieCade and the Independent Games Festivals held at GDC and GDC China, as well as academic conferences such as Meaningful Play and Foundations of Digital Games.

College & Research Libraries ( C&RL ) is the official, bi-monthly, online-only scholarly research journal of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association.

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Shannon L. Farrell is Natural Resources Librarian in the Natural Resources Library at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities; e-mail: [email protected] . Amy E. Neeser is Assistant Librarian, Library Research—Science and Engineering in the University Library at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; e-mail: [email protected] . Carolyn Bishoff is Physics, Astronomy, and Earth Sciences Librarian in the Walter Library at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities; e-mail: [email protected] ).

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Academic Uses of Video Games: A Qualitative Assessment of Research and Teaching Needs at a Large Research University

Shannon L. Farrell, Amy E. Neeser, and Carolyn Bishoff *

Academic libraries develop collections and services for scholars who use video games in teaching and research. However, there are no assessments of related information and technology needs. The authors conducted 30 semistructured interviews to gather data about these needs and understand how the University of Minnesota Libraries can facilitate access to games and technology. A total of 28 interviewees used games in research, and 23 used games in teaching. We identified a variety of information and technology needs; many showed strong disciplinary trends. The findings can inform needs-based multidisciplinary strategies to develop video game services and collections relevant to unique academic communities.

Introduction

Recent studies show that video games are ingrained in American culture and, increasingly, higher education. A 2015 Pew Research Center survey found that 49 percent of American adults and 67 percent of adults ages 18–29 play video games. 1 The New Media Consortium reported that games and gamification have several applications in higher education, as educational technology and components of blended learning. 2 A search for “video games” in major article indices finds game technology used in diverse research areas.

College and research libraries share a vision of exceptional services to motivate and facilitate cutting-edge research and student learning 3 and have proactively supported scholars using and experimenting with video games. Librarians frequently collaborate with faculty and students to create game collections and interactive spaces for research, teaching, game development, and play. Despite this, there are currently no multidisciplinary assessments that provide an overview of the information and technology needs required by scholars working with video games. Some disciplinary-specific needs are understood, such as the needs of game design programs and curricula, but most information on needs is based on anecdotal evidence.

The University of Minnesota (UMN) is a large, doctoral-granting research university. The Twin Cities campus includes more than 4,000 faculty and 52,000 students, 16 colleges, and more than 300 research, education, and outreach centers and institutes. There is no video game design program or department, but there are a number of research faculty, teaching faculty, and students who use video games for academic purposes. To understand the diverse uses of video games across disciplines, we conducted semistructured narrative interviews of faculty, staff, and graduate students who use games or gaming technology in their work. This paper explores the information and technology needs of scholars who use video games on the UMN campus, similarities and differences by discipline, and how college and research libraries can incorporate disciplinary needs into a strategic approach to video game services and collections.

Literature Review

Many academic libraries recognize that scholars using video games for research and instruction have unique information and technology needs. In 2008, Smith 4 called for a better understanding of game scholars’ information needs, research methods, and types of materials they require, but there are three challenges to understanding those needs on a large scale: lack of information on conducting a comprehensive needs assessment of academic video game users, scarce information about research and teaching needs related to video games, and little information about how unique disciplinary or institutional needs affect a game-related collection or service.

Most library literature on games focuses on recommended genres and equipment 5 or the specifics of acquiring, cataloging, and circulating games. 6 Descriptions of video game collections and services often include a process to gather input; but none of these articles go into detail about the methods or findings, nor do they share a specific plan for how faculty and students would be consulted as technology, research, and classroom needs change.

Laskowski and Ward provide the most thorough overview of classroom and research needs and areas the library can support. 7 They note three primary needs for game-related classes at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC): access to labs with high-powered PCs, availability of course reserves, and access to discontinued games. They propose a variety of needs for game design classes and surmise that those classes would benefit from close liaison partnerships. The research needs they identify all relate to analyses of gameplay, and they propose archiving gameplay videos with player commentary. Since then, game technology has evolved and these recommendations are worth updating.

Many academic libraries have new game collections since the publication of these foundational articles, and descriptions of these collections provide the most up-to-date understanding of the evolving academic uses of video games. It is well recognized that researchers and instructors who use games come from many different disciplines, including education, economics, and the humanities. 8 Some libraries developed partnerships with one department or discipline, such as education 9 or the arts. 10 Librarians managing the game collection at the University of Chicago (UChicago) intend to serve a wide population, from music to media studies to computer science. 11 UChicago also has strong faculty advocates who identified many potential users on campus. 12 Game collections at the University of Michigan 13 and Carleton University 14 likewise support a range of courses and research interests from the sciences to the humanities.

Despite the variety of potential users, there is less documentation about how a library game collection reflects the disciplinary or departmental information and technology needs at a particular institution. The information available shows a surprising amount of consistency across academic game collections: most libraries collect commercially successful games to play on consoles, such as the Playstation 3 or XBox 360. UIUC, 15 the University of Michigan, 16 and the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) 17 have vintage games and game systems available. Though personal computer (PC) games are recognized as an important genre to collect, 18 it was difficult to determine if any academic libraries collected PC games or provided hardware to play them. Carleton University is one of the few that does. 19

There are similarities among the themes of many game collections. Collections at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), 20 UChicago, 21 and the University of Michigan 22 all represent the history of video game development and the evolution of games through time. Many academic game collections also focus on acquiring current releases. 23

Some libraries have unique aspects to their collections. For example, VCU collects games specifically for users in the arts. The arts librarian looks for “games that have certain aesthetics … have significant artistic direction, unique narrative or cerebral gameplay.” 24 Some libraries plan to expand beyond console games, including UChicago; a faculty member from English hopes that “computer and mobile games” are eventually added to the collection. 25 At least two libraries make game development software available: the University of Calgary game resources include “six high performance (liquid cooled) gaming PCs” with software packages including Unity and several Autodesk products; 26 and Carleton University had requests for software including Poser Pro. 27

As affordable game technology evolves, libraries take steps to stay up-to-date with new research and teaching applications. Commonly, academic libraries rely on subject librarians to stay aware of research and instruction trends, and that is no different when video games are involved. 28 Another strategy involves direct faculty and student input, which often happens during the initial development of video game collections. 29 However, some collections are built from donations and gifts like at the University of Calgary; 30 a for those, the relationship between the collection and local research and teaching needs is less clear. Some collections accept donations for a particular purpose: the University of Michigan Computer and Video Game Archive (CVGA) accepts donations and purchases games to create the most comprehensive collection possible, while also collecting in targeted ways to support faculty and student activities. 31

No literature to date provides a comprehensive overview of the information and technology needs of academic video game users. Many universities rely on a handful of faculty advisors to understand needs on campus; UIUC consulted a faculty member and hosted a game night for students to gather input; 32 Carleton University similarly “crowd-sourced” input for their game collection from faculty, students, and library staff, though they did not describe their methods. 33 At UChicago, faculty advocates assisted directly with the development of the collection. 34 The University of Michigan LibGuide for the CVGA provides the most comprehensive list of courses, research, and faculty who have used the CVGA on their campus, but the list is intended to inform students and potential users, not provide an overview of trends about research and teaching needs or inform collection and service development. 35

This paper explores the information and technology needs of games scholars at UMN Twin Cities and how libraries can accommodate disciplinary needs and help overcome barriers to academic work related to video games.

We formulated the following research questions:

Which disciplines are represented among UMN scholars who use video games?
Do UMN scholars who use video games collaborate outside their disciplines?
What are the information and technology needs for game-related research and teaching at UMN?
Are there similarities in the information and technology needs of researchers and instructors using video games, despite disciplinary differences?
If obstacles are identified, how can libraries help researchers and instructors overcome them and enhance their work?

To answer these questions, we identified scholars at UMN who work with video games or video game technology. This was defined broadly and ranged from using games as an object of study to using the technology to study a separate problem. We excluded researchers studying “game theory” (a mathematical concept) or studying analog games such as board games or logic puzzles because our interest was in needs related to video game technology.

We used a number of methods to identify a population of faculty, staff, and students. SciVal Experts, a research profile system used at UMN, identified 62 people who had published on video games. The SciVal Experts system does not include all UMN scholars, and the database best represents disciplines that use journal articles as their primary means of scholarly communication, so we also conducted searches of the UMN website to find mentions of video games in biographies, research statements, or classes. Word-of-mouth also played an important role: we asked librarians at the UMN for recommendations and used snowball sampling to find additional names from those we interviewed. Through these combined methods, we obtained 92 total names, which we considered an exhaustive list.

A qualitative approach was most appropriate, as opposed to a survey, since it allowed participants to drive the conversation and focus on topics important to them. Since we did not have personal connections to those doing video game–related work at UMN, interviews had the additional advantage of building new relationships. We sent invitations to conduct hour-long, semistructured interviews to our sample of faculty, staff, and graduate students. Those who responded were interviewed at a location of their choice. Those who did not respond were sent a follow-up invitation two weeks later. Of the 92 names in the original population, 30 people agreed to be interviewed, 20 declined, and 42 did not respond.

Each interview was attended by two members of the research team and was audio recorded with the interviewee’s permission. We asked guiding questions, but the interviewee led the conversation. Instead of transcribing each interview, we used a Google form to code data from the audio (see appendix for codes and definitions). We used a controlled vocabulary to code most topics and captured quotes and observations with free-text responses. To make sure that different coders maintained a level of consistency, we reviewed the audio from the first 15 interviews in tandem and resolved disputes with the codes and analysis methodology. We then assigned a single reviewer to the final 15 subjects.

We took measures to ensure participants’ anonymity by assigning each participant a random number, coding participants by discipline instead of department, and using generic titles (such as untenured faculty) in place of official positions. These methods were approved by the UMN Institutional Review Board on October 17, 2014.

We identified 92 people from four broad disciplinary groups: arts and humanities, social sciences, science/technology/engineering/math (STEM), and health sciences (see table 1). We interviewed 30 people from this population, an overall response rate of 33 percent. The interview sample overrepresented the STEM population, which had a 52 percent response rate, and underrepresented health sciences, which had a 19 percent response rate (see figure 1). It also overrepresented graduate students, who had a 46 percent response rate overall. Participants were split almost evenly between graduate students (13) and faculty/staff (17). It was also noteworthy that the largest number of interviewed graduate students (in both frequency and percentage of total) occurred in arts and humanities (5).

Table 1: Demographics of Interview Subjects (Sample) and Subject Population by
Discipline and Academic Status

Interdepartmental collaboration was defined as a relationship, formal or informal, between an interview participant and a member of another department. Both formal and informal collaboration were considered: formal collaboration was defined as a relationship based on an externally recognized partnership, such as a project, grant, coauthorship on a manuscript, or serving as an academic advisor or dissertation committee member; informal collaboration was defined as unofficial or casual partnerships based on consultations, conversations, and friendships that contribute to academic work. These data were used to determine whether an interviewee’s work was confined to a single department or discipline or whether he or she had potential connections outside the interviewee’s home department. We found high levels of interdepartmental collaboration in all disciplines (see figure 2). One third of interview participants (10) reported three or more interdepartmental relationships, including an untenured instructor in arts and humanities who collaborated with faculty and students across five different departments in arts and humanities, STEM, and social sciences. A total of 20 percent of participants (6) reported no collaboration or no collaboration outside their departments, including an untenured instructor in STEM who only collaborated with graduate teaching assistants in his department. Interviewees from arts and humanities were the only group where all interviewees reported collaborative partnerships.

The majority (21/30) of interview participants used video games in both research and teaching (see figure 3). Most participants conducted research with video games (28/30). About a quarter of interviewees (7), most from STEM and health sciences, used games solely in research, including a graduate student in STEM who received funding for research and did not teach. Five categories of game-related research emerged from the interviews (see figure 4). Interviewees who conducted research on the development of games or technology typically produced software or algorithms that could be used in games or developed games based on existing technology. Researchers who used games as instrumentation modified game technology to collect quantitative data or used video games as a cheaper alternative to another analogous instrument they could have purchased. When games were used as an object of study, researchers often applied critical analysis or theory to a video game as they would another text or primary source. When games were used to study influences on people or society, the researcher typically used qualitative methods to examine some societal impact of games. Finally, games were studied by some for their educational applications and impact on student outcomes. Some interviewees used games in more than one way, such as a graduate student in arts and humanities who studied video games as both a cultural object and a cultural influence. Similarly, an untenured faculty in STEM researched video games as an educational technology while also examining their social influence. Each discipline was represented in 3–4 research application categories. At the same time, strong disciplinary research trends were present and each category was dominated by a single discipline, with the exception of educational technology. Educational technology applications primarily included testing games and game-based learning principles in the classroom.

Fewer people used video games in teaching (23/30) than in research, but interviewees who taught with games most often used them in research as well. For example, a tenured faculty researched the effectiveness of a mobile game to create and grade assignments and used the same game in several of his courses. Only two individuals used video games solely in a teaching capacity, including an instructor in STEM who had no research responsibilities. Four categories of teaching applications emerged from the interviews (see figure 5). Some instructors designed games from scratch for students to use in the classroom. Other instructors taught game design principles sometimes using commercial games and sometimes requiring students to create their own games. Games were also used as course material, analogous to texts or other primary sources: instructors assigned games in the syllabus or had students watch videos of others playing through a game. Finally, instructors discussed games, game mechanics, or their own research on games in the classroom but may not have assigned games to students to play in the course. Similar to research applications, some interviewees used games in the classroom multiple ways, like an untenured faculty in STEM who taught game design and also used video games as course material. Every disciplinary group used video games as course material and as a discussion piece in class. Some teaching applications were more common in particular disciplines; 4 of 8 STEM interviewees designed a game for their classes and 5 of 6 from the social sciences used games as course material. Overall, disciplinary trends were far less distinct. Table 2 summarizes the data from figures 3–5.

Table 2: Academic Use of Video Games/Technology by Discipline. Combines Data from Figures 3–5 and Adds Percentage of Use by Total Sample of Each Discipline

Among the interviewees, 18 types of information were used (see table 3). Arts and humanities participants used the most information sources (13), while STEM participants used the least (6). Video games were used as primary sources by interviewees in arts and humanities and social sciences, including a tenured faculty in the social sciences who studies game symbology. Interviewees from all disciplines used colleagues, web sources, journals and Google Scholar. Dominant information sources emerged from each discipline: arts and humanities, journals and web sources (see figure 6); social sciences, journals (see figure 7); STEM, colleagues, journals, and Google Scholar (see figure 8); and health sciences, colleagues (see figure 9).

Table 3: Information Sources Used in Game-Related Research/Teaching (n=30).

Participants identified 17 unique technology needs (see table 4). The following technology categories emerged: equipment, games, programming languages, servers, software, and web applications. Equipment included any type of hardware, from game consoles like Xbox or PlayStations, to mobile phones or personal computers (PCs). PCs were the most common piece of equipment identified as required by the whole sample, but peripherals (accessories such as game controllers) were the predominant type of equipment mentioned by participants in the health sciences. For example, a Wii balance board was used to study involuntary bodily movements. Only five interviewees used console system equipment (see figure 10).

Games referred to all types of playable software, and four categories of video games emerged: PC games, played on a computer and often accessed through a platform like Steam, were the most common, followed by console games (played on a console) and web games (played through an Internet browser); mobile games (played on a phone) were the least common. Arts and humanities and social sciences participants had the strongest need for games, and they use the widest variety of platforms. For example, a graduate student in arts and humanities uses PC, console, and mobile games to study music, and a graduate student in the social sciences uses web, PC, and console games to study representations of bodies. Social sciences have the largest use of web-based games, used by 3 of 4 interviewees. Only 1 of 11 STEM participants used video games in his or her academic activities (see figure 11), a graduate student studying a prominent massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG).

Table 4: Technology Requirements for Game-Related Research/Teaching (N=30)

Software as a category excluded video games but included almost any other type of digital application that a researcher or instructor identified as necessary to his or her work. The subcategories were chosen with collection development needs in mind; proprietary software would likely come at a cost and include access restrictions, while open source software would be more accessible for any library or user to install. Other categories of interest included custom software, which was usually designed by the researcher or instructor and might not be widely shared or available, and game design software. Game design software might overlap with one of the other categories: some interviewees used Unity, an open source game design software; some used the Unreal engine, which at the time of the interviews cost money to download and was not open source; and some built custom game design software of their own. STEM participants had the most software needs overall; and, as a group, both STEM and health sciences interviewees reported using some type of software from every category (see figure 12). However, the needs were diverse among individuals: a graduate student in STEM used proprietary robotics software and a tenured faculty member in STEM used open source software to teach programming. Arts and humanities interviewees overall did not report many software needs; only 1 of 7 interviewees described any software needs at all. However, members of every disciplinary grouping did report a need for proprietary software.

Some technology used by the interviewees in this study was free or provided by the university, like a personal computer, but many technology needs required some financial resources to fulfill. To determine how interviewees currently met their technology needs, we asked about the specific methods they used to acquire technology. We split the results on technology acquisition into two categories: graduate students and faculty/staff (see figures 13 and 14). Tenured and untenured faculty and staff were combined because the methods of technology acquisition were very similar for both groups. Graduate students used many strategies to acquire technology, including borrowing from others or using their own personal property. For example, one graduate student in the social sciences used free technology, borrowed games from others, made purchases, and still did not have all the technology he needed. On the other hand, faculty and staff primarily purchase technology. One faculty member in health sciences said, “I usually have a couple thousand bucks in my ICR [indirect cost recovery] account… that’s more than enough to pay for the kinds of things we’ve been talking about [plasma screen, Xbox 360, games].” This trend holds true regardless of tenure status. Faculty and staff in STEM are using more freely available technology when compared to the other disciplinary groups. If the faculty, staff, or students had not yet acquired the technology they planned to use, those responses appear as “other.” Faculty planned to either create the technology themselves or hire someone to create it, while graduate students were still considering their options.

Funding sources differed significantly by status, and untenured faculty and staff are shown separately from tenured faculty and graduate students (see figures 15–17). In general, graduate students and untenured faculty and staff relied on a variety of methods for funding compared to tenured faculty. In arts and humanities and social sciences, many graduate students paid out-of-pocket, such as a graduate student in arts and humanities who was unable to get funding for game skins (armor, clothing, and the like), which were required for his dissertation research. In STEM, graduate students received some funding from grants, but that was not the case for graduate students from other disciplines (see figure 15). Tenured faculty mostly got their funding from grants (10 out of 11 in our sample), with some additional support from ICR funds, departmental funds (funding providing by a researcher’s or instructor’s department), and new technology funds (funds provided by the department, college, or university to acquire technology) (see figure 16). Unlike graduate students, tenured faculty did not pay out-of-pocket costs. Health sciences’ tenured faculty illustrated a depth of funding sources. Although there were only three participants in our sample, they had six sources of funding. One example is a tenured faculty member who had both an external grant and used department funding. Untenured faculty and staff appear to be seeking multiple sources of funding (see figure 17). For example, in arts and humanities, an untenured instructor was funding his work with a grant, departmental funds, and his own money. Figures 18–21 summarize the data from figures 13–17 and organize it by discipline.

Research Limitations

This research had several limitations. If an eligible participant did not mention his or her work with video games on a staff profile page or in publications, or if the participant was not located through recommendations or snowball sampling, he or she was not included among the population of 92 UMN game scholars. The interview data was more limited in scope because some eligible participants were away on sabbatical, did not respond to invitations, or declined an interview.

The exploratory nature of this study limits the generalizability of the findings. However, despite being limited to this one research context, the size of the institution and broad range of disciplines and activities covered in this study provide a rich starting point for future research and the development of library services aimed at these types of researchers. Librarians serving game design or game development programs may observe different needs from those identified in this study because UMN does not have a dedicated game design program.

The open-ended, semistructured nature of the interviews resulted in rich and diverse data that posed some problems when categorizing findings and ensuring anonymity. We used broad codes and categories to capture as much data as possible while also maintaining anonymity, resulting in some loss in the granularity of the data. Additionally, determining how to assign disciplines to interviewees to maintain anonymity was challenging. For example, depending on the context, History can be considered a social science or part of the humanities as it is “multifaceted and diffuse.” 36 We chose to place it in arts and humanities because the researchers interviewed were primarily studying video games as cultural objects instead of the impact on society or human behavior.

Finally, some of the subjects discussed were sensitive (for example, institutional barriers to completing work or acquisition of funding) and some participants felt apprehensive about sharing information. Therefore, the data only represents what interviewees shared “on the record.” Occasionally, the interview location could have inhibited participants (for example, one interview occurred in a public location and two interviews occurred where interviewees’ colleagues were present). However, we have no reason to believe that interviewees concealed information or provided untruthful answers; in the cases where subjects spoke “off the record,” they were candid and honest about challenges with their work.

Demographics and Collaboration

Four disciplines were represented in both the larger population of game scholars and our sample of 30 interviewees. All but one interviewee identified strongly with a single area of study, usually the person’s department or area of research. No single department or discipline dominated; video games were used institutionwide.

Most interviewees had strong disciplinary ties and also had strong patterns of collaboration outside their departments. Collaboration was common for those we interviewed regardless of discipline. We anticipated a higher frequency of collaboration in STEM and health sciences because previous studies showed high levels of formal collaboration in these disciplines, 37 but this did not bear out in the interview sample. Collaborative partnerships took the form of coauthorships, collaborative conference presentations, and participation on doctoral committees, as well as many informal collaborations. Informal collaborations were also commonly described by interviewees and included professional friendships, relationships with advisors and committee members, pilot projects, and interest groups.

These data on collaboration are useful to keep in mind while discussing disciplinary trends around information and technology needs. Widespread collaboration on game-related projects and other projects suggests a need for cross-departmental and cross-disciplinary collaboration among librarians on collection development and the creation of services. Some libraries that invested in game technology do serve a range of users and disciplines, 38 but other prominent collections of games and game technology in academic libraries were driven by the needs of only one or two departments. 39 Awareness of the collaborative partnerships that exist could help libraries go beyond serving one student, class, or researcher at a time, and investments in game technology have the potential to support the work of whole networks of researchers and instructors. Explicit library support of collaborative work with video games could even give fringe projects and new collaborations a space to intersect and thrive. At UMN there is the potential for many departments and subject librarians to guide the development of a possible video game collection, and this would require a very collaborative approach to collection development.

Academic Use of Video Games: Research and Teaching

Video games were commonly used in research across all four disciplines represented in our sample. This confirmed a need for the collection development practices of universities such as UChicago, 40 University of Michigan, 41 and Carleton University, 42 which accommodated users from multiple disciplines.

We did not anticipate how common video games are in classrooms, since published information about game-related courses only identified a handful of classes at any comparable institution, unless they were focused on game design. Additionally, very few course descriptions in the UMN course catalog mentioned video games, and, of the game-related courses we found during our initial searching, most were in the social sciences or arts and humanities. We did not expect so many STEM and health science classes to integrate games as well. In fact, the use of video games in classes was present within all the disciplines, especially in introductory undergraduate courses and upper level seminars. The course descriptions were often vague enough to give the instructor leeway in how to develop his or her individual section, and those who wished to incorporate games could do so. Some departments even encouraged game-related classes due to consistently high enrollment.

Most people in our sample incorporated games into both their research and teaching. We suspect that having a research interest in games may make it more likely for them to incorporate video games into the classroom as well. This may explain why only two people in our sample were using video games exclusively in the classroom.

Overall, knowing how scholars are using video games and gaming technology on campus formed the backbone of this needs assessment. Any effort to provide library support for video game–related work will impact both research and classroom/student needs. Since we know that most scholars are using games in both research and teaching capacities, the support of this work may have double the impact.

Role of Video Games in Research and Teaching

There were clear disciplinary trends in the types of research done with video game technology. The development of video games primarily occurred in STEM, while video games were most often used as a text or an object of study in arts and humanities research. There were also some strong similarities among the disciplinary groups. At least one interviewee in every discipline conducted research that studies “educational technology” or “the influences on people and society.” Since video games were used by different disciplines in different ways, the type of support the library offers should not be done through the lens of a single department or discipline, and a variety of materials need to be available for many different applications including development, study, and experimental design.

Disciplinary differences were more difficult to discern when examining the role of games in teaching. Many classes were new or were only offered once; even so, teaching game design or designing games from scratch occurred not only in STEM but also in social science and arts and humanities classrooms. Incorporating game technology as course material was common, and interviewees identified a number of different ways in which games were used: readings, storytelling devices, and technology in labs. Students were impacted by these course requirements as well. Many interviewees described accommodations for students who did not own a console or a computer equipped to run graphics-intensive games, but some required students to figure out how to access the games on their own (such as via a personal account on the Steam game distribution system). 43

Game design was taught in four classes from three disciplines, which was unexpected because there is no game design program or certificate at UMN. Supporting classes that incorporate game design would be easier if they were all in one area of study, but a subject liaison might only be aware of the one class in his or her discipline. Regular environmental scans might be needed to uncover common technology and material requirements for classes across disciplines for courses that use video games and other emerging technologies.

Information Needs

The most commonly used information sources were Google Scholar, journals, and web sources. The interviewees in the social sciences and arts and humanities were the strongest users of “traditional” library materials such as books and journals. Several interviewees described having to acquire the majority of their texts through interlibrary loan (ILL) because their library did not have the journals or books they needed. Libraries need to review collections in this and other emerging areas to minimize the need for backchannels and shortcuts.

Colleagues were the single most common source of information for interviewees, especially in STEM and health sciences. In one case, a project in health sciences was developed entirely with information and skills contributed from existing relationships. The frequency with which interviewees in this sample collaborate outside their department emphasizes the importance of colleague networks in new and emerging areas. Libraries cross departmental and disciplinary borders and can cultivate a role as a connector for scholars doing similar work in different subject areas with events, experimental technology space, or other strategies.

Libraries should pursue partnerships with existing video game archives and other libraries or investigate shared collection development efforts to help researchers and the public overcome barriers to accessing game-related information sources. Interview participants identified video games as both a kind of technology and a type of information. Games are available in some academic libraries and public libraries, but it is unclear how accessible they are outside their immediate communities or institutions through ILL. Game manuals and trade magazines like Nintendo Power were also used by several interviewees. Public libraries typically collect trade magazines but, according to Worldcat, many often only keep the last 1–2 years. Locating game manuals is even more difficult, as they typically lie only in the hands of hobbyists and collectors. A search on Worldcat shows that relatively few libraries have holdings for either game magazines or manuals, raising the question of how libraries can facilitate access to these materials.

The depth and variety of sources used makes it clear that libraries cannot be the sole gatekeepers of information on this subject. The people in our sample used subscription journals but also ephemeral, noncurated materials (such as game manuals, gaming websites, and streaming games). Other library resources like subscription databases were not as valuable for most interviewees, possibly because they are too narrow in scope or interviewees are simply not aware of them. Rather than collect all of the sources scholars need, libraries can create guides to help scholars locate these materials elsewhere, akin to the University of Michigan CVGA LibGuide. 44

Technology Needs

Interviewees’ needs for devices, displays, and peripherals show no disciplinary trends. Investing in a range of equipment would benefit the largest range of users at UMN. Arts and humanities and social science scholars had a greater need for video games, while those in STEM and health sciences had more software needs. In fact, only one person in STEM identified games as a need, and only one interviewee in arts and humanities used software of any kind.

Disciplinary trends ought to factor into decisions related to purchasing and marketing game technology. For example, at UMN, subject librarians and users in the arts and humanities and social sciences disciplines might be primarily responsible for selecting game titles. Subject librarians for STEM and health sciences should weigh in on video game software selection, since usage would be most expected from STEM and health sciences disciplines.

Among our interviewees, the PC was the most common technology necessary to research and teaching. PCs are necessary to academic work, but there was some nuance to how interviewees used them. PC games are used almost as much as nearly all other types of games combined (console, mobile, and web-based). Mobile games are a growing industry, 45 but they are not used heavily on this campus for academic purposes. Other technology needs are tied to PC games as well; PC accessories, most often graphics cards, were the third highest need in the equipment category. PC games do not require much additional technology besides a computer (unless a powerful game requires faster processing or graphics cards), so they may be more attractive to the researchers and instructors from arts and humanities and social science, who make up the majority of game users. Guidance on collecting PC games is limited, since few academic libraries currently collect them. Most libraries with game collections and services collect console games almost exclusively, likely because console games do not have restrictive digital rights management (DRM) or require an account to play and are easier to collect and lend.

Peripherals were a common technology need, especially in health sciences. Interviewees shared a diverse range of applications for peripherals that have nothing to do with consoles: to control robotics, play PC games, and modify to use as instrumentation. Interviewees also preferred them for their low cost and ability to interface with a number of technologies. Since they are flexible and relatively cheap, libraries and makerspaces could provide a variety of peripherals (with or without consoles) for on-site use or rental.

Acquisition of and Funding for Games and Gaming Technology

In general, interviewees found they could purchase games or technology at stores or online but did not always have funding to do so. The acquisition of games and video game technology was intrinsically tied to funding, which was mentioned as the largest barrier to acquiring technology.

Graduate students used a variety of creative strategies to acquire technology (such as using their personal game collection, borrowing from friends, and other means), whereas faculty and staff simply purchased technology with grants or other funds as needed or used freely available games and technologies, such as online emulators. Graduate students may have less funding available, or they do not know how to access existing funding. The majority of graduate students, all from the social sciences and arts and humanities, were paying out-of-pocket.

Graduate students had the same technology needs as faculty and staff and conduct their own research, often independent of their faculty advisors and any associated funding. STEM graduate students were the only ones receiving grants or new technology funds. We argue that graduate students would be the primary beneficiaries of having video games and technology available, as this would break down disciplinary acquisition and funding barriers. Underfunded graduate students are probably not unique to UMN; and, if libraries made these games and technologies available, graduate students would have much more flexibility in their research. The arts and humanities students who purchased video games out-of-pocket likely used the games as primary research materials, analogous to texts. Since many libraries purchase books for research, it should be easy to purchase games for analogous reasons.

Libraries can also help connect graduate students with funding. Many academic units at UMN provide grants to fund graduate research, and the UMN Libraries subscribe to grant databases and offer workshops on locating grant funding. Since graduate student research is highly valued, it makes sense to assist them in their efforts to acquire game technology by building their grant-seeking skills.

Even though faculty and staff theoretically have the same opportunities for funding, untenured faculty and staff seek more sources of funding to meet their needs, whereas tenured faculty receive most of their funding from grants. Startup packages supported three untenured faculty from STEM and the health sciences, and one staff member reported having to pay out-of-pocket to buy games for classroom use. Faculty and staff for the most part were successful in finding funding to purchase the required technology, but making materials available at the library would put less pressure on faculty and staff to acquire them in other ways and would give them an option to use their funding for other purposes.

Collections in the UMN Libraries are focused primarily on meeting faculty research and teaching needs, as faculty tend to stay at the university longer than students. We recognize that these data could suggest that faculty and staff do not have many barriers to accessing technology and that it is neither necessary nor urgent to include video games and video game technology in library collections. It could also be argued that grants and other funding sources already pay for research and classroom needs and that libraries are not in the business of directly funding research costs like instrumentation, experimental design, or technology development. However, many faculty we spoke to welcomed a chance to collaborate with librarians whether or not the library could directly support their research. Some faculty incorporate games into their outreach service, and many have classes that would benefit from the availability of game materials. We also argue that libraries have a great opportunity to engage with graduate and undergraduate students who want to experiment with games before personally investing in the technology.

By focusing our study on researchers and instructors, we have missed the opportunity to explore implications for students taking classes that incorporate games and gaming technology. What we know came solely from the instructors’ viewpoints; therefore, we do not have a comprehensive picture of how these technologies were made available to students or if they encountered barriers to accessing them. In some classes the game technology was provided, like a health sciences class where Wii balance boards were available to take measurements; but, in another case, students were expected to purchase World of Warcraft and install it on their PCs. Some instructors did note that requiring students to purchase video games may be prohibitive and not directly analogous to purchasing textbooks, as it requires students to own consoles or a high-powered PC that supports gaming. Some attempted to find alternative solutions such as asking the UMN Libraries to install games on library computers and investigating Steam licensing for computer labs. It would be worthwhile to interview students from some of these classes to uncover if they encountered any barriers in attempting to access these technologies.

There is little data available about the information and technology needs of researchers and instructors who use video games in higher education. This study attempted to fill that gap with interviews with faculty, staff, and graduate students from UMN. Scholars from all disciplinary groups were represented and demonstrated both a high level of collaborative activity and use of video games in both research and teaching. As libraries build new video game collections or expand existing collections, they should consider the following findings:

Information used in game-related research and teaching includes nontraditional material such as trade magazines and game manuals. Journals were the most common source of information identified overall, but some essential titles may not be collected or indexed in library catalogs.
Video games are most often researched as an influence on society and having a role in educational technology. This research is diverse and may have vastly different needs.
Video games are commonly used as course material in courses from all disciplines, but console games may not be used as frequently as PC games.
All of the interviewees needed game-related technology, though there was much variation among the disciplines: arts and humanities and social sciences required video games; STEM required software; health sciences required peripherals.
Graduate students, especially those from arts and humanities, are at a major funding disadvantage compared to colleagues in the sciences. This impedes access to game technology required for research and teaching and often requires them to pay out-of-pocket.

This study found some consistency in video game applications between disciplines but even more differences, especially in technology and information use. This suggests that the support libraries provide should be done collaboratively through a multidisciplinary lens. We propose a strategic approach to video game services and collections focused on disciplinary needs. For UMN, this would mean building a collection focused on PC games, a few console games, cutting-edge equipment with game design software, and a collection of peripherals with or without consoles, perhaps associated with a makerspace. Each academic game collection should reflect its institution, based on an evaluation of the unique needs of its population.

Since this study was limited to the UMN campus, we would like to see similar studies undertaken at various institutions that look at how students use and acquire games for classroom use, as well as a large-scale multi-institution look at the use of games in higher education. As technology changes and moves away from physical media, academic institutions will benefit from studies looking at the impact of DRM on scholarship and libraries. Very few video game companies have partnerships with higher education, and more exploration of this issue is needed. These studies would provide a more complete understanding of scholarly video games–related work and scholars’ information and technology needs.

APPENDIX. Interview Themes, Codes, and Definitions

Graduate student: both master’s and doctoral students
Untenured faculty and staff: assistant professor, instructor, postdoc
Tenured faculty: associate professor, full professor
Arts and Humanities: includes any field where the human experience and expressions or explanations thereof are the primary objects of study. History is included here because the interviewees study video games and texts and consider the games as the object of study
Health Sciences: medical, kinesiology, and related disciplines
Social Sciences: includes any field where humans are the primary object of study
STEM: includes disciplines from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
Formal collaborations: working on a project, publishing a paper, working on a grant together, serving as an academic advisor or member of a thesis or dissertation committee
Informal collaborations: talking to/with people, sharing ideas
Both: a combination of both formal and informal collaborations
Intradepartmental: work alone or only collaborate within their own department
Interdepartmental (1–2): between 1–2 collaborations outside their own department
Interdepartmental (3+): 3+ collaborations outside their own department or split positions between departments
Development of games/technology: researcher has created the video game or associated technology
Instrumentation: using video games to gather quantitative data
Object of study: using critical analysis or thematic study of video games
Influences on people or society: researcher is examining the societal impact of video games
Educational technology: using video games to facilitate learning and improve student outcomes
Undergraduate: lower-level classes, primarily for those pursuing their bachelor’s (1xxx–4xxx)
Graduate: upper level classes, marketed toward master’s and doctoral students (5xxx–8xxx)
Instructor designed a game: instructor created a video game for use in the classroom
Taught game design: instructor taught students how to design their own games
Used games as course material: video games were studied in the classroom, as primary sources
Discussed games: video games were used in the classroom as secondary sources
Other: any other response that did not fall within the above categories
Borrowed/given: the material was owned by someone else and the researcher or instructor acquired from them
Purchased: the material had to be purchased by the researcher or instructor either out-of-pocket or with other funds
Already owned: the instructor or researcher previously owned the material
Freely available: available at no cost to consumers
Grant (general): acquired funding via another organization to pursue their research or teaching projects
New technology funds: funds provided for the explicit purpose of acquiring new technologies
Seed grant: initial capital to start a project
Department funds: funding provided by researcher’s or instructor’s department
Dissertation fund: funding provided by graduate student’s department or graduate school to support dissertation research
Startup package: new professor was provided with funding to set up a lab
Indirect cost recovery (ICR) funds: funds that the university collects to cover overhead costs when grants are written. A portion is returned back to departments
Out-of-pocket: the instructor or researcher had to use personal money to cover the cost
MNDrive grant: grant allocated via partnership between the UMN and the state of Minnesota that provides funding in areas of interdisciplinary research that align with specific industries
Not required: no funding was required for this research or teaching
Equipment, console: consoles, such as Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, Wii, WiiU, or any other
Equipment, controllers, and peripherals: secondary equipment for the gaming systems listed above, including controllers, Wiimotes, headsets, Xbox Kinects, Wii balance boards, steering wheels, and the like
Equipment, mobile: smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices, including iPhones, iPads, and such
Equipment, display: equipment used to view video games, including television screens, computer monitors, or any other display equipment
Equipment, personal computer: includes Mac, Windows, and Linux systems
Equipment, personal computer accessories: secondary equipment for PC gaming, including joysticks, controllers, headsets, webcams, and other equipment
Games, web: games that are available through a browser or browser-based emulator, or for download online
Games, PC: games purchased to play on personal computers
Games, console: games purchased to play on consoles
Games, mobile: games that are available on smartphones or tablets
Programming languages: computer language used to communicate instructions to a machine, including C, C++, Java, Javascript, Python, and other languages
Servers: computers or programs that manages access to a network resource
Software, proprietary: software that must be purchased from the individual or company that developed it; often includes major restrictions for adaptation and use
Software, free or open source: software that is available for free, typically on the web; often allows users to modify or adapt as needed
Software, custom: software written by the researcher or instructor from scratch
Software, game design: software developed for the specific purpose to design video games
Web applications: software application that is available and runs on the web, such as streaming video
Archives: historical documents or records
Books: written or printed works
Colleagues: talking to people in their discipline
Conferences: formal meetings for people in related disciplines
Course readings: resources that were provided while taking a class
Datasets: collection of related sets of information
Game manuals: instructions on how to play video games
Game reviews: evaluations of video games
Games: console, PC, mobile, or web video games
Google Scholar: freely accessible web search engine that indexes scholarly literature
Interviews: information obtained by interviewing appropriate people
Journals: collections of articles about specific subjects or disciplines
Library databases: catalog of both full-text resources and indexed citations that are accessible electronically
Newsletters: bulletins that are issued periodically
News sources: includes both print and website-based news
Students: people enrolled in either undergraduate or graduate programs
Trade magazines: periodicals that contain news and items about a particular topic
Web sources: materials found on the open web

1. Meave Duggan, “Gaming and Gamers” (Report, Pew Research Center, 2015), available online at www.pewinternet.org/2015/12/15/gaming-and-gamers/ [accessed 18 December 2015].

2. Laurence F. Johnson et al., “NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Higher Education Edition,” Horizon Report (Austin, Tex.: The New Media Consortium, 2015), 22, 35, available online at www.nmc.org/publication/nmc-horizon-report-2015-higher-education-edition/ [accessed 18 December 2015].

3. Association of College and Research Libraries, “ACRL Plan for Excellence,” 2015, available online at www.ala.org/acrl/aboutacrl/strategicplan/stratplan [accessed 11 January 2016].

4. Brena Smith, “Twenty-First Century Game Studies in the Academy: Libraries and an Emerging Discipline,” Reference Services Review 36, no. 2 (2008): 205–20, doi:10.1108/00907320810873066.

5. Examples include Mary Laskowski and David Ward, “Building Next Generation Video Game Collections in Academic Libraries,” Journal of Academic Librarianship 35, no. 3 (May 2009): 267–73, doi: 10.1016/j.acalib.2009.03.005 ; Kristen Mastel and Dave Huston, “Using Video Games to Teach Game Design: A Gaming Collection for Libraries,” Computers in Libraries 29, no. 3 (2009): 41–44, available online at http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ831241 [accessed 18 December 2015]; and Diane Robson and Patrick Durkee, “New Directions for Academic Video Game Collections: Strategies for Acquiring, Supporting, and Managing Online Materials,” Journal of Academic Librarianship 38, no. 2 (Mar. 2012): 79–84, doi: 10.1016/j.acalib.2012.01.003 .

6. Examples include Natalie Gick, “Making Book: Gaming in the Library: A Case Study,” in Gaming in Academic Libraries: Collections, Marketing, and Information Literacy (Chicago: American Library Association, 2008), 1–25; David Baker et al., “Lessons Learned from Starting a Circulating Videogame Collection at an Academic Library,” in Gaming in Academic Libraries: Collections, Marketing, and Information Literacy (Chicago: American Library Association, 2008), 26–38; Danielle Kane, Catherine Soehner, and Wei Wei, “Building a Collection of Video Games in Support of a Newly Created Degree Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz,” Science & Technology Libraries 27, no. 4 (Aug. 20, 2007): 77–87, doi:10.1300/J122v27n04_06; and Emma Cross, David Mould, and Robert Smith, “The Protean Challenge of Game Collections at Academic Libraries,” New Review of Academic Librarianship 21, no. 2 (May 4, 2015): 129–45, doi:10.1080/13614533.2015.1043467.

7. Mary Laskowski and David Ward, “Building Next Generation Video Game Collections in Academic Libraries,” Journal of Academic Librarianship 35, no. 3 (May 2009): 267–73, doi: 10.1016/j.acalib.2009.03.005 .

8. Andy Burkhardt, “Taking Games in Libraries Seriously,” The Academic Commons (blog), available online at www.academiccommons.org/2014/07/24/taking-games-in-libraries-seriously/ [accessed 5 November 2015].

9. Chris Nelson, “Gaming Reaches into Far Corners of Academic World as U of C Builds Huge Collection,” Calgary Herald (Mar. 16, 2015), available online at http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/gaming-reaches-into-far-corners-of-academic-world-as-u-of-c-builds-huge-collection [accessed 4 November 2015].

10. Brian McNeill, “VCU Libraries Launches Collection of Critically Acclaimed Video Games,” VCU News (blog) (Nov. 6, 2014), available online at http://news.vcu.edu/article/VCU_Libraries_launches_collection_of_critically_acclaimed_video [accessed 4 November 2015].

11. Sarah G. Wenzel, “New Library Videogame Collection,” The University of Chicago Library News (blog) (May 25, 2012), available online at http://news.lib.uchicago.edu/blog/2012/05/25/new-library-videogame-collection/ [accessed 30 November 2015].

12. Patrick Jagoda, “Videogame Collection Supports Scholarly Study,” The University of Chicago Library News (blog) (May 25, 2012), available online at http://news.lib.uchicago.edu/blog/2012/05/25/videogame -collection-supports-scholarly-study/ [accessed 30 November 2015].

13. An overview of classes and disciplinary uses is discussed in Mary Claire Morris, “Computer & Video Game Archive Celebrating Five Years of Growth,” The University Record (blog) (Nov. 5, 2013), available online at http://record.umich.edu //articles/computer-video-game-archive-celebrating-five-years-growth [accessed 2 December 2015]. A list of classes and research applications can be found in Valerie Waldron, “Computer & Video Game Archive: CVGA,” University of Michigan Research Guides (2015), available online at http://guides.lib.umich.edu/c.php?g=282987 [accessed 2 December 2015].

14. Emma Cross, David Mould, and Robert Smith, “The Protean Challenge of Game Collections at Academic Libraries,” New Review of Academic Librarianship 21, no. 2 (May 4, 2015): 135–37, doi: 10.1080/13614533.2015.1043467 .

15. David Ward, “Vintage Gaming Collection Development Policy and Description” (Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2014), available online at www.library.illinois.edu/gaming/gamearchives.html [accessed 20 December 2015].

16. Valerie Waldron, “Computer & Video Game Archive: CVGA,” University of Michigan Research Guides (2015), available online at http://guides.lib.umich.edu/c.php?g=282987 [accessed 2 December 2015]

17. University of California Santa Cruz Library, “Video Games” (2015), available online at https://library.ucsc.edu/collections/video-games [accessed 18 December 2015].

18. Diane Robson and Patrick Durkee, “New Directions for Academic Video Game Collections: Strategies for Acquiring, Supporting, and Managing Online Materials,” Journal of Academic Librarianship 38, no. 2 (Mar. 2012): 82, doi: 10.1016/j.acalib.2012.01.003 .

19. Cross, Mould, and Smith, “The Protean Challenge of Game Collections,” 134.

20. McNeill, “VCU Libraries Launches Collection.”

21. Jagoda, “Videogame Collection Supports Scholarly Study.”

22. Adam DePollo, “Play On: Changing Gamer Culture at the ‘U,’” Michigan Daily (Oct. 22, 2014), available online at https://www.michigandaily.com/arts/10computer-video-game-archive22 [accessed 2 December 2015].

23. Laskowski and Ward, “Building next Generation Video Game Collections,” 268.

24. McNeill, “VCU Libraries Launches Collection.”

25. Jagoda, “Videogame Collection Supports Scholarly Study.”

26. University of Calgary Libraries and Cultural Resources, “Video Games,” available online at http://library.ucalgary.ca/dmc/video-games [accessed 4 November 2015].

27. Emma Cross and Robert Smith, “The Evolution of Gaming at Academic Libraries,” Canadian Library Association Conference (Winnepeg, Manitoba, 2013), available online at https://prezi.com/supsungb2uil/the-evolution-of-gaming-at-academic-libraries/ [accessed 4 November 2015].

28. Burkhardt, “Taking Games in Libraries Seriously.”

29. Three examples of soliciting direct feedback from faculty and students are found in Kane, Soehner, and Wei, “Building a Collection of Video Games”; Laskowski and Ward, “Building Next Generation Video Game Collections”; and Cross, Mould, and Smith, “The Protean Challenge of Game Collections.”

30. Nelson, “Gaming Reaches into Far Corners of Academic World.”

31. DePollo, “Play On: Changing Gamer Culture at the ‘U.’”

32. Laskowski and Ward, “Building Next Generation Video Game Collections,” 268.

33. Cross, Mould, and Smith, “The Protean Challenge of Game Collections,” 133.

34. Jagoda, “Videogame Collection Supports Scholarly Study.”

35. Waldron, “Computer & Video Game Archive.”

36. Mark T. Gilderhus, History and Historians : A Historiographical Introduction , 7th ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2010), 41.

37. Vincent Larivière, Yves Gingras, and Éric Archambault, “Canadian Collaboration Networks: A Comparative Analysis of the Natural Sciences, Social Sciences and the Humanities,” Scientometrics 68, no. 3 (2006): 519–33, doi:10.1007/s11192-006-0127-8.

38. Nelson, “Gaming Reaches into Far Corners of Academic World.”

39. Kane, Soehner, and Wei, “Building a Collection of Video Games.”

40. Wenzel, “New Library Videogame Collection.”

41. Mary Claire Morris, “Computer & Video Game Archive Celebrating Five Years of Growth,” The University Record (blog) (Nov. 5, 2013), available online at http://record.umich.edu //articles/computer-video-game-archive-celebrating-five-years-growth [accessed 2 December 2015].

42. Cross, Mould, and Smith, “The Protean Challenge of Game Collections,” 144.

43. For more information, see http://store.steampowered.com/about /.

44. Waldron, “Computer & Video Game Archive.”

45. John Gaudiosi, “Mobile Game Revenues Set to Overtake Console Games in 2015,” Fortune , (Jan. 15, 2015), available online at http://fortune.com/2015/01/15/mobile -console-game-revenues-2015/ [accessed 15 January 2016].

* Shannon L. Farrell is Natural Resources Librarian in the Natural Resources Library at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities; e-mail: [email protected] . Amy E. Neeser is Assistant Librarian, Library Research—Science and Engineering in the University Library at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; e-mail: [email protected] . Carolyn Bishoff is Physics, Astronomy, and Earth Sciences Librarian in the Walter Library at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities; e-mail: [email protected] ). ©2017 Shannon L. Farrell, Amy E. Neeser, and Carolyn Bishoff, Attribution-NonCommercial ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ ) CC BY-NC.

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110 Video Game Topic Ideas for Essays & Examples

🔝 top 10 video game topics for 2024, 🏆 best video game topic ideas & essay examples, 🎮 good video game research topics, 🕹️ interesting gaming topics to write about, ❓ video game research questions, ✅ simple & easy video game essay topics.

Looking for video game topics for your project? Look no further! Here, we’ve collected excellent essay topics for true gaming enthusiasts. Whether you’re looking for argumentative essay ideas on video games, research topics, or questions for debate, you will find them here.

History of Video Game Consoles
Myths of Video Game Violence
The Global Phenomenon of Esports
VR Gaming and Its Future Possibilities
How Video Games Influence Cognitive Skills
Therapeutic Mental Health Benefits of Video Games
Diversity and Gender Representation in Video Games
How Multiplayer Games Impact Social Interaction
Healthy Gaming Habits Against Video Game Addiction
Aesthetic and Narrative Qualities of Artistic Video Games
Product Life Cycle & Marketing of Video Game Industry One of the most important advantages of the concept of life cycle can be seen in the sphere of marketing, where if used as a tool it allows adjusting the strategies, including marketing, based on […]
Sony and Nintendo in the Video Game Industry The firm has manufactured several generations of the home console since the 1980s, beginning with the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System released in the early 1990s, and the Nintendo 64 that was […]
Video Game Effects: Good or Bad? Given the fact that there is indeed a logically sound rationale to such a suggestion, throughout the course of conducting my study, I remained thoroughly observant of the article’s classification-related suggestions, in regards to the […]
Video Game Industry Analysis In 1950, Yamauchi assumed the position of the president in the firm and got on a variety of strategies with the purpose of rationalizing and modernizing the way the firm was controlled.
The Monopoly Tycoon Video Game Review The game is stylistically similar to the board game Monopoly, and it can be played both online and offline. It is important to note that the game has a multiplayer feature, which can be played […]
The Video Game Industry Evolution The first mention of the creation of such games dates back to the 1940s, but it was in 1952 that Alexander Shafto “Sandy” Douglas officially presented his dissertation at the University of Cambridge. One of […]
The NASCAR Video Game Project Management Plan The plan attempts to draw the features and gameplay mechanics by replicating the thought process of a potential player. At this stage, the game should be well-advertised and ready for release.
The Motivation of the Video Game Player For instance, the project gave its players the dynamic and fast pace of the game, a vast and detailed map, various locations, several different weapons, and character skins, and this is not all the possibilities.
The “Medal of Honor” Video Game Analysis The game is set to depict the Afghanistan invention in 2002 and the battle between the U.S.military and the Taliban. Due to the close resemblance of the game to the Afghanistan war, the game has […]
Human Life: Video Game, Simulation, or Reality? Drawing parallels between the real and the virtual world, one can admit the unreality of the existence of the planet and people and compare everything that happens with the simulation in which we are.
Does Video Game Violence Lead to Aggression in Children? Among the gaming community, children participate vigorously in absorbing the plethora of entertaining content, including age-restricted ones where the scenes of violence are abundant.
A Role-Playing Video Game Ayiti: The Cost of Life This strategy worked but not to the topmost level simply because the burden of the living cost was gradually weighing down the overall income of my family.
BioWare Video Game Project Management For example, Dragon Age: Inquisition, the third installment of the company’s flagship series, switched to the Frostbite engine used by most of the EA games and succeeded in delivering the product despite the technical difficulties […]
Video Game History: Overview From the 1990s to Nowadays In addition to arcade car behavior, the game was also famous for its beautiful graphics at the time, with each game in the series being a launch title showing the capabilities of the console.
FIFA 10 Football Simulation Video Game A lack of consistency is evident in the various versions of this game as FIFA 10 played on a PC lacks the realism that is exhibited when the game is played on XBOX 360 and […]
Video Game Delivery Project: Strategic Marketing To initiate strategies in marketing of Video Game, the company will decide to develop a web based application by ABC CORP and this application is customized to meet the requirements of the project. The purpose […]
A Video Game Store’s Business Plan The projected cash flow of the cash in the balance sheet will appear positive for the next five years and will show that the company’s profitability in will be good enough pay for operating expenses […]
The U.S. Video Game Industry This was also based on the views of the company’s developers who assumed that the technological advantages of the the16-bit system were extremely less than that of the 8-bit system.
Video Game Company Against Online Piracy The purpose of the said DRM software is to protect the intellectual rights of the company. The fourth major issue is the encompassing goal of the VGC to end all types of piracy.
Video Game Addiction and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs As to me, I was interested in video games when I was a child because this industry was at its beginning and almost every pupil was involved in it.
Twitch.tv and Video Game Streaming Career From this point, in spite of the fact that the Twitch.tv platform can be viewed as belonging to the live-streaming industry, the careers of streamers develop according to the traditional principles of the entertainment business.
Nintendo in the Video Game Industry Previously, Atari was a major power to reckon with in the industry but was later toppled by Nintendo. Part of Yamauchi’s vision was to introduce new and cheaper video games in the market than the […]
Game designers have the responsibility to design less video game Secondly, the outcome of the video game is unpredictable as compared to movie in which the audience can predict the point at which the story would end thus making the video games more interesting to […]
Striving for the Ultimate Knowledge: Eli’s Mission. Video Game Owing to the peculiarities of the movie plot, the game can be shaped in a most intriguing way, with a lot of turns of the plot which lead to the most effective denouement.
Analysis of the Counter-Strike Video Game Phenomenon in Computer Gaming
Comparison of Three Companies in Video Game Industry; Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft
Analysis of Free Will in The Stanley Parable Video Game
Analysis of the Effects of Playing a Video Game Used in Computer Science
Analysis of the Characteristics and Player Statistics of Bungie’s Video Game Destiny
Are Video Games Truly a Game or a Reality?
Analysis of the Topic of the Releases in the Video-Game Industry and the Issues of the Violence
Analysis of the Rise of the Video Game Empire in Modern Society
Two Aspects of Creating a Video Game
Analysis of the Third-Person, Console-Based Video Game, The Last of Us
Are Users The Next Entrepreneurs? A Case Study On The Video Game Industry
Combating Video Game Addiction : A Global Problem
Does Playing Video Game Consoles Bring About Plenty of Advantages?
Analysis of the Field Work Project and the Topic of a Video Game Community
Does Video Game Violence Affect Children?
Do Video Games Contribute For Video Game Violence?
Is The Video Game Industry an Oligopoly?
Is Video Game Violence the Cause of Juvenile Delinquency?
Psychological Effects of Video Game Violence on Children
What Is the Defining Business and Economic Characteristics of the Video Game Console Industry?
Why Play Station 4 and the Xbox One Are the Kings of the Next Generation Video Game Console?
What Makes A Video Game Addictive?
Competition Among 3 Main Video Game Companies: Nintendo, Sega, And Sony
Brief Note On Video Gaming And The Video Game Industry
Effects of Television and Video Game Violence on Children and Teenagers
Analysis of the Different Genres of Video Game Systems for Children
Overview of the Process and Career in Video Game Design
Development of the Elder Scrolls Video Game Series
Breaking Gender Stereotypes in Traditionally Masculine Sports: The Inclusion of Women in FIFA 16 Video Game
Cancer: Video Game and Playing Violent Video
Fighting the Online Video Game Wars in China
Government Regulation Of Video Game Violence Is Unconstitutional And Unnecessary
Japanese video game industry
History of the Video Game Industry
Microsoft Xbox Entering the World of Video Game
The Merchant of Video Games: Adapting the Merchant of Venice into an Adventure Game
What Are Some Revolutionary Breakthroughs in the Video Game Industry?
What Does It Take To Make It in the Video Games Industry?
Why Has the Video Game Industry Exploded Recently?
What Is Wrong With the Video Game Industry in This Generation?
Is the Video Game Industry Going Downhill?
Who Is the Best Voice Actor in the Video Game Industry?
What Will Be the Next Breakthrough or “Big Thing” in the Video Game Industry?
Is the Video Game Industry in Trouble Right Now?
Who Makes More Money: Hollywood or the Video Game Industry?
How Has the Coronavirus Impacted the Video Game Industry?
What Is the Biggest Missed Opportunity Yet in the Video Game Industry?
Does Video Game Violence Induce Negative Affects on Our Youth?
What Are the Changes the Video Game Industry Needs?
How Large Is the Video Game Industry?
Why Is the Video Game Industry in China Dominated by MMOs?
Is There a Bubble Forming in the Video Game Industry?
What Do Video Game Players Understand That Most People Don’t?
How Easy Is It to Make a Video Game?
What’s the Best Advice You’ve Received From a Video Game?
What Was the First Video Game?
What Is the Most Inappropriate Video Game You Know?
What Are the Elements of a Good Video Game?
How Much Does It Cost to Develop a Video Game?
What Can Video Game Consoles Offer You?
Why Video Game Addiction Is One of the Urgent Problems Today?
How Does Science Create Video Game?
How the 1970s Sparked the Video Game Industry?
Why Do Video Game Movies Always Fail?
What’s the Most Popular Video Game Genre?
The Science Behind Brain-Boosting Games
How Gaming Reflects and Influences Society
How Video Games Participate in Social Justice
Pros and Cons of Gamified Fitness and Wellness Apps
Gamification, Its Benefits, and Learning Outcomes
Virtual Goods in Video Games and Their Real-World Value
What Factors Influence Immersion and Player Engagement?
Cloud Gaming and the Potential of Streaming Technology
Market Trends and Revenue Models of the Video Game Industry
Violence, Microtransactions, and Other Ethical Issues in Video Game Development
Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

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Home > MASTERS_PAPERS > School of Professional Studies > 54

The Practical Applications of Video Games Beyond Entertainment

Jack Martin , Clark University

Date of Award

Degree type, degree name.

Master of Science in Professional Communication (MSPC)

School of Professional Studies

Chief Instructor

Mary Piecewicz

MSPC, video games, entertainment, education, social, accessible technology

Much of the attention directed toward video games is focused on their role as entertainment. However, researchers have found that video games can have other, more practical uses for society. This thesis is designed to examine three specific examples of the practical applications of video games: video games in education, video games as accessible technology, and the social uses of video games. This project is based on pre-existing research conducted by professionals studying the aforementioned subtopics. Anecdotal stories from educators, people with disabilities, and developers are also discussed. The thesis explores specific examples of video games being used practically, and the researcher suggests several opportunities for further research on the topic.

Recommended Citation

Martin, Jack, "The Practical Applications of Video Games Beyond Entertainment" (2020). School of Professional Studies . 54. https://commons.clarku.edu/sps_masters_papers/54

Since January 08, 2021

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Games and Gaming

Fletcher Game Collection
Downtown Game Collection
Hayden Game Collection
Polytechnic Game Collection
Classic Games
Card & Dice Games
Role Playing Games
Researching Games: Books
Researching Games: Other Resources

ASU Programs and Courses

Internet arcade, conferences, video game archives, internet resources, game studies faculty @ asu, professional associations.

Although the library is an excellent place to start, researching Game Studies isn't just limited to ASU Library, there is a myriad of other resources from archives to open access journals that you can consult.

Computer Gaming, Certificate
IAP 294- Introduction to Game Studies
IAP 462/MAS 598- Games and Play

On this website, courtesy of the Internet Archive, visitors can explore and play a number of these classic games from the comfort of their personal computer. As of this write up, the collection includes over 600 games, complete with their signature arcade music. Each game is accompanied by information about its creator and original release date, and gamers are invited to add their own reviews. Visitors can browse games by creator (e.g. Sega, Atari), by title, or by publication date. Visitors with a certain favorite game in mind can also conduct a quick search of the collection.

Games Studies @ PCA/ACA National Conference
International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology ACE 2009
8th International Conference on Entertainment Computing (ICEC 2009)
Future Play
SIGGRAPH Games Focus
SIGGRAPH Sandbox 2008
DiGRA 2009: Breaking new ground
Fourth Philosophy of Computer Games Conference
Culture-Generative Function of Games (Kulturotwórcza funkcja gier)
Distributed Simulation and Online gaming (DISIO 2010)
Carolina Games Summit
Defense Game Tech Users' Conference
D.I.C.E Summit

Information about institutions that archive video games-related materials can be found here:

Learning Games Initiative Research Archive (LGIRA)

Designed around the concept of "preservation through use," LGIRA makes accessible to researchers all over the world and of all ages, a constantly expanding collection of computer games, systems, peripherals, memorabilia, scholarship, and a plethora of other game-related materials.

Cabrinety Videogame Collection, Stanford University (Stanford, CA)

The Stephen M. Cabrinety Collection in the History of Microcomputing at Stanford University consists contains software, computer hardware, peripheral devices, hand-held games, and computer industry literature documenting the microcomputing gaming industry during its formative years.

Computerspiele (Computer Game) Museum (Berlin, Germany)

The world's first permanent exhibition of interactive digital entertainment culture.

How They Got Game Research Project, Stanford University (Stanford, CA)

The aim of the How They Got Game research project is to explore the history and cultural impact of a crucial segment of New Media: interactive simulations and video games...

Library of Congress Video Game Collection (Washington, DC)

LOC receives a copy of video games as they are released, and works to preserve them, as well as strategy guides, video samples of game play, and related works.

MADE (Museum of Art & Digital Entertainment) Museum (Oakland, CA)

The MADE is a center and museum dedicated to activities that engage participants with all forms of digital art and entertainment.

Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines (Moscow, Russia)

Forgotten and broken down Soviet-era arcade games are now being restored for Moscow’s newest museum and now it is possible to play and feel atmosphere of the passed epoch.

Museum of the Moving Image (Astoria, NY)

Holdings include licensed merchandise, technical apparatus, still photographs, design materials, costumes, games, fan magazines, marketing materials of all kinds, video and computer games, and movie theater furnishings.

The National Videogame Archive (UK)

This Archive is working to preserve, analyse and display the products of the global videogame industry...

Strong's National Museum of Play (Rochester, NY)

This museum archives all aspects of play, including games.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Gaming Initiative (Urbana, IL)

The UIUC Gaming collection was created to support a wide variety of campus interdisciplinary programs, scholarly research, and student needs involving video games.

The UT Videogame Archive (Austin, TX)

The UT Videogame Archive is a collection component of The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History that seeks to preserve and protect the records of videogame developers, publishers, and artists for use by a wide array of researchers.

Video Game Archive Project at Ritsumeikan University (Japan)

Professor Hosoi’s archive is the only archive in the world that aims to collect and preserve the entire gaming experience, including hardware, software, and visuals.

Entertainment Software Association

U.S. association serving the business and public affairs needs of companies that publish computer and video games for video game consoles, personal computers, and the Internet.

Game Studies

Open access, international journal of computer game research. Focuses on aesthetic, cultural, and communicative aspects of computer games.

International Game Developers Association

A non-profit membership organization serving individuals that create video games by connecting members with their peers, promoting professional development, and advocating on issues that affect the developer community.

Kill Screen

Website (and print magazine) that examines the intersection between games and other forms of culture, including art, music, and design.

Daedalus Project

The Daedalus Project was a long-running survey study of MMO players.

Journal of Games Criticism

The Journal of Games Criticism (JGC) is a non-profit, peer-reviewed, open-access journal which aims to respond to these cultural artifacts by extending the range of authors to include both traditional academics and popular bloggers. The journal strives to be a producer of feed-forward approaches to video games criticism with a focus on influencing gamer culture, the design and writing of video games, and the social understanding of video games and video games criticism.

Gameology.org presents commentary and resources related to videogame studies. We produce commentary and analysis of videogames and related game culture as well as longer essays. We also host a database of images and maintain a bibliography (or gameography?) of the works that we have written about or referenced throughout the site.

DiGRA is a non-profit, academic association dedicated to the study of games and associated phenomena.

Game Research: The art, business, and science of video games

Game Research attempts to bring together knowledge on computer games from the areas of art, business, and science. Traditionally such cross-communication has been sparse to the detriment of all involved.

SIREN (Social games for conflIct REsolution based on natural iNteraction) Project

The key aim of the Siren project is to create an intelligent interactive software system, specifically a serious game, which supports teachers’ role to educate young people on how to resolve conflicts.

Theresa Devine
Judd Ruggill
Elisabeth Gee
Sasha Barab
Barbara Kinach
Steven Zuiker
Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA)
Canadian Games Studies Association
Spilforskning - The Danish network of game researchers
JoinGame Nasjonalt ressursnettverk for dataspill (Norwegian)
IEEE Game Engineering SIG and IEEE PSM Task Force
IGDA Game Education SIG
Polskie Towarzystwo Badania Gier (Games Research Association of Poland)
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Last updated: Mar 1, 2024 12:38 PM
URL: https://libguides.asu.edu/games

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127 excellent video game research topics for 2023.

Are you looking for the best video game research topics for 2023? We are proud to say that you have arrived at the right place. Our experienced ENL writers and professional editors have just finished creating our brand new list of 127 awesome video game topics for high school and college students. You can use any of our ideas for free – no credits required.

Best Way To Write A Video Game Essay

Before we get to the list of topics, we want to make sure you know how to write a great essay. After all, finding a great topic is just part of the writing process of any custom term papers . Here are some pointers that should help you do a better job on your research paper:

Structure your paper properly and always start with an outline. We recommend you use the 5 paragraph essay structure, as it’s extremely versatile.
Make sure your grammar and vocabulary are spot-on. Edit your work and polish your writing to make sure you get a top grade.
Be careful with quotes and citations. Remember to include all your sources in the References chapter.
Always start your paper with a great thesis statement. Dedicate some time to crafting the best one possible.
Keep in mind that each body paragraph should start with a clear statement and then support it. Don’t tackle more than one important idea in a paragraph.
Make sure you research the topic thoroughly and get accurate data from reputable sources. This is, after all, a research paper.
Last, but not least, write in a clean and concise manner. Express your ideas clearly and avoid unnecessary information that would just confuse or bore your readers.

Now that you know what to do and what to avoid when writing the video game research paper, it’s time to take a look at our list of original video game research topics:

Easy Video Game Topics

We will start our list with a selection of easy video game topics that are perfect for students who don’t want to spend too much time on their papers:

Talk about your favorite video game
What do you like about modern video games?
The process behind the creation of a new game
Why do you want to become a video game developer?
What is a MMORPG video game?
Differences between FPS and RPG games
Analyze the gaming industry in a country of your choice
An in-depth look at cyber sports and video game championships
Can playing video games be considered a sport?
What makes League of Legends so popular?
Research gun violence in modern video games
Are the games you play bad for you?
Talk about the impact of video games on small children
Do video games have any positive effects on you?

Video Games Topic For Every Student

Below, you will find a selection of topics for every student from high school to college. Check out our video games topic for every student list:

The psychology behind modern video games
Analyze the launch of a popular game
How are video games priced?
The history of online gaming
Games as learning tools
Controlling video game addiction
Shooters or strategy games?
Why you shouldn’t play video games
Physical benefits of games

Interesting Video Game Topics To Write About

We know; you want a topic that is both interesting and easy to write about. Take a look at these interesting video game topics to write about:

Do violent video games make teens violent?
What is the effect of video games on children?
What changed my view on video games?
Skills that can be improved by playing games
Do adults play video games?
Research the increase in demand for video games
Compare video games in the US and the UK
Ethical responsibility in the gaming industry
How addictive are role playing video games?

Fun Gaming Topics

Yes, writing a research paper can be fun – if you choose a great topic. Pick any of our fun gaming topics and start writing your paper right away:

The entire history of video games
Positive effects of video games
Android games vs iOS games
The Candy Crush popularity
Gaming industry careers
Genres of video games
The technology behind the Xbox 4
What causes addiction when it comes to video games?
How do games improve learning skills?

Latest News On Video Games

If you want to write about something new, we recommend you take a look at the latest news in video games:

Talk about the use of augmented reality in video games in 2023
What are incremental console upgrades?
An in-depth look at inclusivity in video games
Which games are trending in 2023?
Most anticipated video games of 2023
Latest advances in 3D and SFX effects
Talk about the remastered cinematics of Diablo 2 Resurrected
Halo Infinite: everything we know so far
The clan system in Call of Duty: Vanguard

Informative Gaming Topics To Talk About

Do you want to write an informative paper? No problem, we have a long list of informative gaming topics to talk about right here:

Why do people love video games so much?
Can video game addiction be treated like substance addiction?
Case study: The Elder Scrolls of Oblivion
Discuss government regulation of video games in the US
Compare and contrast the Xbox and the PlayStation
A closer look at the Japanese gaming industry
What does it take to become a video game creator?
The rise of Android video games
Do we really need computer games nowadays?

Video Game Research Paper Topics For High School

Our list of video game research paper topics for high school is unique, so you can safely pick any one of our ideas and write your essay on it:

What do modern video games promote?
How much time should you spend playing video games?
Are video games good or bad for our youth?
Talk about how gaming will look 20 years from now
Does playing video games make you think more strategic?
How important are video games for our society?
The importance of video games in treating depression
Are games a good way to treat anxiety?
Why do people spend so much money on video games?

Best Video Game Research Questions

A question is usually enough to spark your creativity. This is why we have an entire list of the best video game research questions right here:

Are video games good for teens?
How does video game violence affect children?
How will games look 50 years from now?
How do games improve our collaborative skills?
Why do we love looking at other play video games?
How damaging is piracy for the video game industry?
Which are more popular, RPGs or FPSs?

Video Games Debate Topics

Are you preparing for a debate and need a great topic? Don’t worry about it; we’ve got your back. Check out these great video games debate topics:

Discuss sexism in modern video games
Talk about social problems related to video games
Virtual reality in future games
The important of augmented reality
Can a game be educational?
What makes games so fun and addictive?
Gaming in the classroom in 2023
Interesting online gaming experiences
Important of games in special education settings

Good Video Game Writing Prompts

Are you looking for some good video game writing prompts that can help you write an intriguing research paper? Here are some of our best ideas:

Compare and contrast the top 3 games in the United Kingdom in 2023
What are some problems with modern video games?
An in-depth look at advanced SFX effects
3D game rendering technologies
Discuss online piracy related to video games
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: Modern video games
How realistic are modern games in 2023?
Tackle the violence theme in video games
Sony vs. Microsoft: gaming giants battle
The link between gaming and violence in teenagers
Discuss the addictiveness of video games

Video Games Research Paper Topics For College

Of course, we have a list of video games research paper topics for college students. These are a bit more difficult than the others in our list:

Linking video game addiction to substance abuse
The use of first person shooter games in military training programs
Flight simulation games and their real world applications
Games that improve critical thinking skills
The minimum age for playing video games
Games that improve reaction times
Pros and cons of playing assassin video games
Debunking the most popular myths about video games
Should parents prevent their children from playing video games?
The link between video games and cognitive skill improvements

Engaging Video Games Topics

Want to engage your audience right from the start? If you are looking to impress your professor, you might want to give these engaging video games topics a try:

The role of a developer in the video game industry
How is testing being carried out on video games?
Talk about the latest and most advanced video game effects
An analysis of the video game industry in 2023
Compare the 3 most popular games in the United States in 2023
Are online video games more addictive than single-player ones?
Discuss about the psychological effects of video games
Compare and contrast 3 first person shooter games
Improving reaction time in FPS games
The effect of video games on education

Video Games Of The Future

Last, but not least, we have a nice compilation of ideas related to video games of the future. Take a look at our innovative ideas and pick the one you like:

A closer look at Battlefield 2042
Talk about how rendering graphics works in games
Advances in graphics planned for games to be released in 2023
Innovative graphics in Halo Infinite
Discuss 3D game rendering technologies of the future
What makes Pragmata a game of the future?
The use of artificial intelligence in games in 2023
Research the use of virtual reality in future games
Discuss real-time rendering in future 3D games
An in-depth look at Hytale (to be released in 2023)

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Library Resources for Doing Scholarly Research on Video Games

woman looking at screen of laptop computer

So you are writing a research paper about video games but aren't sure where to begin? Since video games are a new medium of art that requires an interdisciplinary approach to conducting research, databases that draw on many different publications can equip students and scholars with the tools they need to succeed.

Before you begin exploring databases, here are a few useful tips:

For quick, targeted results, search by abstract instead of by keyword or by title. In an academic paper, the abstract is a brief summary of what the paper or study is about. Searching by abstract will give you a list of all the articles that discuss video games in the summary, so it will help you narrow down more quickly whether or not the article will be useful to you.
Use full-text filters to only get results where the entire article is available for you to read.
For the most scholarly results, use peer-reviewed filters to find only articles vetted by experts in the field.

Recommended Databases

Note that some of these databases are accessible from home with a library card while others can only be used onsite at an NYPL location.

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For those new to academia/scholarly research, EBSCO's Academic Search is a staple in libraries nearly everywhere to conduct general research. It is a good starting point to see the current literature out there for any paper, in this case, gaming scholarship. However, just typing in "video games" alone in the search will lead you to over 300,000 results; how do you narrow it down? As mentioned above, use limiters such as peer-reviewed/full text enabled for high-quality articles that you can read fully. Other available search limiters are "magazines" (think video game magazines) and "company" (e.g. if you want to research a specific video game company such as Capcom or Square Enix). Academic Search is good if you want to study video games in terms of education, how to utilize them in a teaching setting, in the workplace, and more.

Business Source Complete

If you are interested in researching video games from a business point of view, then EBSCO's Business Source Complete is the database for you. Here you will find SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) analyses of gaming companies, research about NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), virtual and augmented reality, video games, and more.

JSTOR (accessible from home with a library card)

Similar to Academic Search, JSTOR is a staple in many libraries and is a good area to conduct initial research while trying to figure out what you want your paper to be about. Typing "video games" alone in the search bar will net you more than 50,000+ scholarly articles about the popular entertainment medium. You can narrow your research to video games in Military Studies, Library Science, Political Science, and much more.

"Can video games help alleviate seasonal depression?"

"Do violent video games cause behavioral problems in adolescents?"

"Does Cognitive Dissonance explain the Console Wars?"

"Does causing chaos in Grand Theft Auto correlate to causing chaos in real life?"

EBSCO's PsycINFO is useful if you are interested in studying video games in terms of the realm of psychology, and have ever pondered one of the above questions. You can find articles about video game addiction, aggression in players, mental health, personality development, and more.

Project Muse

This resource is a general favorite for anything art or media related, with tons of scholarly, peer-reviewed articles about video games including articles on diversity in video games, video games and the ecosystem, video games and civic development, and more. When starting research on video games, this database is highly recommended to be your number one starting point when trying to figure out what your paper is going to be about.

Sage Knowledge

Sage is a good starting point if you want to read reference/textbook material about video games and gamification. In Sage you will find authoritative encyclopedias and handbooks that will help any gaming scholar in the beginning stages of their research. Some interesting encyclopedias that feature a chapter in video games are Death and the Human Experience, Out-of-School Learning, Communication Research Methods, and many more.

Additional resources:

Our LibGuides page will point you to themed research guides of Library resources. For example, if you wanted to create a video game about a time-traveling librarian that takes place in New York City in the 1800s, looking at local history and newspapers may be something you want to do. If you know the research you want to do requires in-depth assistance, it's encouraged to make an appointment with a librarian .
This list of Fellowships around the city and at NYPL may be of interest to scholars.
Our Interlibrary Services and Documents is also a service for scholars to utilize if you need an article or not owned by the Library. You can also use interlibrary loan for video games as well.
Flipster is a magazine database accessible with your library card that includes video game magazines.
Finally, an external resource, the Internet Archive , has all kinds of old-school video games you can play, as well as gaming manuals and much more. Anyone who needs primary sources will find this very useful.

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PRESS CENTRE

Search UNICEF

Video games can have a positive impact on children – if they are designed right, says new study

New research shows games can be good for children

Press centre

FLORENCE, ITALY, 30 APRIL 2024 – Video games can potentially contribute to and support the well-being of children if they are designed with the needs of children in mind, according to new research from UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight.

This research was produced as part of the Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (RITEC) project, an international collaboration between organizations that believe the design and development of digital technology should support the rights and well-being of children. The project was co-founded by UNICEF and the LEGO Group and is funded by the LEGO Foundation.

The study found that digital games, when designed well, can allow children to experience a sense of control, have freedom of choice, experience mastery and feelings of achievement, experience and regulate emotions, feel connected to others and manage those social connections, imagine different possibilities, act on original ideas, make things, and explore, construct and express facets of themselves and others. These experiences are all important for children’s well-being and can support their development.

This new research – which was produced in partnership with the University of Sheffield, New York University, City University New York and the Queensland University of Technology – establishes that digital games companies and games designers can and should support the well-being of children through the games they produce, convincingly demonstrating that digital play has a particularly positive impact on children’s well-being when it responds to their deep interests, needs and desires.

“For decades, people have often assumed that playing video games is somehow bad for children, undermining their well-being. But our new study paints a far more complex picture – one in which these games can actually contribute to children’s well-being and positively support them as they grow up,” said Bo Viktor Nylund, Director of UNICEF Innocenti.

“But not all children are impacted positively by video games, and – crucially – not all games are having a positive impact on children. In fact, for games to support the well-being of children, game designers must take the needs of children into account and design games that support those needs,” Nylund said.

Anna Rafferty, Senior Vice President of Digital Consumer Engagement, the LEGO Group, said: “This exciting research from UNICEF and leading academics shows that safe and inclusive digital play can have a profoundly positive impact on children’s lives. We’re proud to be partnering with like-minded organisations to understand how digital experiences can be designed in a way that puts children’s well-being first. These findings will empower responsible businesses to create a digital future where children are safe, nurtured and equipped to thrive.”

The study found that games can support children’s senses of autonomy, competence, creativity and identity, as well as help them regulate emotions and build relationships. But in order to support one or more of these aspects of well-being, games need to contain certain features. For example, to support children’s sense of autonomy, a game could put them in control, allow them to make decisions about gameplay and encourage them to develop their own strategies to progress. Or to support creativity, a game could allow children to freely explore and solve problems or create their own characters or narratives.

Said Nylund: “This research helps us understand not only how video games can impact the well-being of children, but also helps the producers and designers of these games understand what elements they can include to support children. We hope they will consider these findings as they design the games our children will be playing in the future.”

And while safety and security of children playing digital games – a vital topic which is already the subject of much research – were not as strong a focus in this study, it was still found to be of fundamental importance to protect the well-being of children.

Also included in the RITEC project is the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, the Young & Resilient Research Centre at Western Sydney University; the CREATE Lab at New York University; the Graduate Center, City University of New York; the University of Sheffield and the Australian Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child.

Today’s release of a report (link) on the research and its findings will be followed later this year by the launch of a guide to assist businesses to incorporate these findings into the games they design.

The study comprised three research initiatives: experimental research through a multi-week digital play intervention involving 255 children aged between eight and 12 in the US, Chile and South Africa; observational research in the homes of 50 families over a 14-month period with children aged between six and 12 in Australia, Cyprus, South Africa and the UK; and lab-based research measuring heart rate, eye tracking, facial expressions and galvanic skin response of 69 children playing digital games, aged between seven and 13 in Australia.

Research partners in Chile, Cyprus, South Africa, United Kingdom and the United States, including those associated with the Centre for Creative Education, the University of Cape Town, Curtin University, Universidad de Chile, University of Cyprus and University of Oulu, helped conduct this research and contributed their expert knowledge and understanding of local contexts.

Notes to editors:

Read the report here .

UNICEF does not endorse any company, brand, product or service.

For more information, please contact:

Adam Cathro, UNICEF Innocenti, Florence, Italy, Tel: +39 344 491 4695, [email protected]

About RITEC

The RITEC (Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children) project was co-founded by UNICEF and the LEGO Group and is funded by the LEGO Foundation. The project is being delivered in partnership with the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, the Young & Resilient Research Centre at Western Sydney University; the CREATE Lab at New York University; the Graduate Center, City University of New York; the University of Sheffield and the Australian Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child.

About UNICEF INNOCENTI

UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight tackles the questions of greatest importance for children, both current and emerging. It drives change through research and foresight on a wide range of child rights issues, sparking global discourse and actively engaging young people in its work.

UNICEF Innocenti equips thought leaders and decision-makers with the evidence they need to build a better, safer world for children. The office undertakes research on unresolved and emerging issues, using primary and secondary data that represents the voices of children and families themselves. It uses foresight to set the agenda for children, including horizon scanning, trends analysis and scenario development. The office produces a diverse and dynamic library of high-level reports, analyses and policy papers, and provides a platform for debate and advocacy on a wide range of child rights issues.

UNICEF Innocenti provides, for every child, answers to their most pressing concerns.

About UNICEF

UNICEF works in the world’s toughest places to reach the most disadvantaged children and adolescents – and to protect the rights of every child, everywhere. Across more than 190 countries and territories, we do whatever it takes to help children survive, thrive and fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

About the LEGO Group

The LEGO Group’s mission is to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow through the power of play. The LEGO System in Play, with its foundation in LEGO bricks, allows children and fans to build and rebuild anything they can imagine. The LEGO Group was founded in Billund, Denmark in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen, its name derived from the two Danish words LEg GOdt, which mean “Play Well”. Today, the LEGO Group remains a family-owned company headquartered in Billund. However, its products are now sold in more than 120 countries worldwide.

For more news from the LEGO Group, information about our financial performance and responsibility engagement, please visit www.LEGO.com/aboutus .

About the LEGO Foundation

The LEGO Foundation aims to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow; a mission that it shares with the LEGO Group. The LEGO Foundation is dedicated to building a future where learning through play empowers children to become creative, engaged, lifelong learners. Its work is about re-defining play and re-imagining learning. In collaboration with thought leaders, influencers, educators and parents the LEGO Foundation aims to equip, inspire and activate champions for play. www.learningthroughplay.com .

Media contacts

About unicef innocenti.

UNICEF Innocenti is UNICEF’s dedicated research centre. It undertakes research on emerging or current issues in order to inform the strategic directions, policies and programmes of UNICEF and its partners, shape global debates on child rights and development, and inform the global research and policy agenda for all children, and particularly for the most vulnerable.

Follow UNICEF Innocenti on Twitter and Facebook

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. Across more than 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, to build a better world for everyone.

Follow UNICEF on Twitter , Facebook , Instagram and YouTube

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New Group Joins the Political Fight Over Disinformation Online

The group intends to fight what its leader, Nina Jankowicz, and others have described as a coordinated campaign by conservatives and their allies to undermine researchers who study disinformation.

Nina Jankowicz sits at long white table with framed photographs of the U.S. Capitol and the Supreme Court building on the wall behind her.

By Steven Lee Myers and Jim Rutenberg

Two years ago, Nina Jankowicz briefly led an agency at the Department of Homeland Security created to fight disinformation — the establishment of which provoked a political and legal battle over the government’s role in policing lies and other harmful content online that continues to reverberate.

Now she has re-entered the fray with a new nonprofit organization intended to fight what she and others have described as a coordinated campaign by conservatives and others to undermine researchers, like her, who study the sources of disinformation.

Already a lightning rod for critics of her work on the subject, Ms. Jankowicz inaugurated the organization with a letter accusing three Republican committee chairmen in the House of Representatives of abusing their subpoena powers to silence think tanks and universities that expose the sources of disinformation.

“These tactics echo the dark days of McCarthyism, but with a frightening 21st-century twist,” she wrote in the letter on Monday with the organization’s co-founder Carlos Álvarez-Aranyos, a public-relations consultant who in 2020 was involved in efforts to defend the integrity of the American voting system.

The inception of the group, the American Sunlight Project, reflects how divisive the issue of identifying and combating disinformation has become as the 2024 presidential election approaches. It also represents a tacit admission that the informal networks formed at major universities and research organizations to address the explosion of disinformation online have failed to mount a substantial defense against a campaign, waged largely on the right, depicting their work as part of an effort to silence conservatives.

Taking place in the courts, in conservative media and on the Republican-led House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, the campaign has largely succeeded in eviscerating efforts to monitor disinformation, especially around the integrity of the American election system.

Many of the nation’s most prominent researchers, facing lawsuits, subpoenas and physical threats, have pulled back.

“More and more researchers were getting swept up by this, and their institutions weren’t either allowing them to respond or responding in a way that really just was not rising to meet the moment,” Ms. Jankowicz said in an interview. “And the problem with that, obviously, is that if we don’t push back on these campaigns, then that’s the prevailing narrative.”

That narrative is prevailing at a time when social media companies have abandoned or cut back efforts to enforce their own policies against certain types of content.

Many experts have warned that the problem of false or misleading content is only going to increase with the advent of artificial intelligence.

“Disinformation will remain an issue as long as the strategic gains of engaging in it, promoting it and profiting from it outweigh consequences for spreading it,” Common Cause, the nonpartisan public interest group, wrote in a report published last week that warned of a new wave of disinformation around this year’s vote.

Ms. Jankowicz said her group would run advertisements about the broad threats and effects of disinformation and produce investigative reports on the backgrounds and financing of groups conducting disinformation campaigns — including those targeting the researchers.

She has joined with two veteran political strategists: Mr. Álvarez-Aranyos, formerly a communications strategist for Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan group that seeks to counter domestic authoritarian threats, and Eddie Vale, formerly of American Bridge, a liberal group devoted to gathering opposition research into Republicans.

The organization’s advisory board includes Katie Harbath, a former Facebook executive who was previously a top digital strategist for Senate Republicans; Ineke Mushovic, a founder of the Movement Advancement Project , a think tank that tracks threats to democracy and gay, lesbian and transgender issues; and Benjamin Wittes, a national security legal expert at the Brookings Institution and editor in chief of Lawfare .

“We need to be a little bit more aggressive about how we think about defending the research community,” Mr. Wittes said in an interview, portraying the attacks against it as part of “a coordinated assault on those who have sought to counter disinformation and election interference.”

In the letter to congressional Republicans, Ms. Jankowicz noted the appearance of a fake robocall in President Biden’s voice discouraging voters in New Hampshire from voting in the state’s primary and artificially generated images of former President Donald J. Trump with Black supporters, as well as renewed efforts by China and Russia to spread disinformation to American audiences.

The American Sunlight Project has been established as a nonprofit under the section of the Internal Revenue Code that allows it greater leeway to lobby than tax-exempt charities known as 501(c)(3)s. It also does not have to disclose its donors, which Ms. Jankowicz declined to do, though she said the project had initial commitments of $1 million in donations.

The budget pales in comparison with those behind the counteroffensive like America First Legal, the Trump-aligned group that, with a war chest in the tens of millions of dollars, has sued researchers at Stanford and the University of Washington over their collaboration with government officials to combat misinformation about voting and Covid-19.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule soon in a federal lawsuit filed by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana accusing government agencies of using the researchers as proxies to pressure social media platforms to take down or restrict the reach of accounts.

The idea for the American Sunlight Project grew out of Ms. Jankowicz’s experience in 2022 when she was appointed executive director of a newly created Disinformation Governance Board at the Department of Homeland Security.

From the instant the board became public, it faced fierce criticism portraying it as an Orwellian Ministry of Truth that would censor dissenting voices in violation of the First Amendment, though in reality it had only an advisory role and no enforcement authority.

Ms. Jankowicz, an expert on Russian disinformation who once served as an adviser to Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stepped down shortly after her appointment. Even then, she faced such a torrent of personal threats online that she hired a security consultant. The board was suspended and then, after a short review, abolished.

“I think we’re existing in an information environment where it is very easy to weaponize information and to make it seem sinister,” Mr. Álvarez-Aranyos said. “And I think we’re looking for transparency. I mean, this is sunlight in the very literal sense.”

Ms. Jankowicz said that she was aware that her involvement with the new group would draw out her critics, but that she was well positioned to lead it because she had already “gone through the worst of it.”

Steven Lee Myers covers misinformation and disinformation from San Francisco. Since joining The Times in 1989, he has reported from around the world, including Moscow, Baghdad, Beijing and Seoul. More about Steven Lee Myers

Jim Rutenberg is a writer at large for The Times and The New York Times Magazine and writes most often about media and politics. More about Jim Rutenberg

IMAGES

Database for Video Game Metadata Project for the GAMER Research Group
(PDF) Game Research Methods: An Overview
The Game of Research: [Board] Gamification of Library Instruction
"How To Do Research" Game
(PDF) Research Methodology in Gaming An Overview
Effects Of Online Games To The Study Habits Of Students

VIDEO

Enjoy the Game
"User research for games"
How can video games affect the society
Capsim Capstone- R&D (Step by step) strategy- for all rounds- 2023
New study about video game effects is a win for game lovers
Video Games Sales Analysis

COMMENTS

Does Video Gaming Have Impacts on the Brain: Evidence from a Systematic Review
The game genres examined were 3D adventure, first-person shooting (FPS), puzzle, rhythm dance, and strategy. The total training durations were 16-90 h. Results of this systematic review demonstrated that video gaming can be beneficial to the brain. However, the beneficial effects vary among video game types.
(PDF) Using Strategy Video Games to Improve Problem Solving and
PDF | On Oct 8, 2022, Alvin Lie and others published Using Strategy Video Games to Improve Problem Solving and Communication Skills: A Systematic Literature Review | Find, read and cite all the ...
Frontiers
Introduction. Video gaming is a very popular leisure activity among adults (Pew Research Center, 2018).The amount of time spent playing video games has increased steadily, from 5.1 h/week in 2011 to 6.5 h/week in 2017 (The Nielsen Company, 2017).Video gaming is known to have some benefits such as improving focus, multitasking, and working memory, but it may also come with costs when it is used ...
Neuro-Gaming: How Video Games Shape the Brain's ...
Abstract. Neuro-Gaming: How Video Games Shape the Brain's Cognitive Landscape is a comprehensive research survey that investigates the impact of video games on cognitive processes and the brain's ...
Gaming for Science: How Video Games Are Making Research Fun
Games that pair citizen science with rewarding play are probing treatments for cancer, helping to cure Alzheimer's, probing the foundations of language and more. Not only are the games made to be fun, but they address a prevailing issue among crowdsourcing projects: the dropoff rate. Citizen science games tackle the problem with game ...
The Cultural Impact of Video Games: A Systematic Review of the ...
The growing relevance of video games in the social landscape requires an in-depth evaluation of the bidirectional influences of these adjacent contexts, among which the educational and cultural contexts stand out. This permeability allows the study of the cultural aspects surrounding the production and use of video games as tools for cultural dissemination. Our research enunciates, recognises ...
Video Game Addiction and Emotional States: Possible Confusion Between
In total 105 VG players participated in this survey, out of which 61 filled all the questionnaires required for the design of the "Pleasure and/or Happiness and VG" questionnaire. The mean age of these 61 participants was 24.28 and the standard deviation 5.48. There were 33 males (54.1%) and 28 females (45.9%).
How Video Games Are Making Research Fun
Gamification and citizen science meet when research projects create video games to make data collection and analysis fun. The SciStarter Blog. By Nathaniel Scharping. While we might imagine a scientist as a chemist concocting substances in a lab, or a biologist diving with sea creatures, the reality is often far more mundane.
Video game play is positively correlated with well-being
1. Introduction. Video games are an immensely popular and profitable leisure activity. Last year, the revenues of the games industry were larger than the film industry's [] and the number of people who report playing games has never been higher [].Across the globe, the rise of games as a dominant form of recreation and socializing has raised important questions about the potential effect of ...
On the use of participatory methodologies for video game research
Video game scholars examining the shortcomings of previous video game research reference the need for new and innovative methodologies. Existing video game research seemingly inhibits organic learning experiences by setting specific research targets or providing players with gameplay instructions, hence utilising methodological approaches that study the learning process from the outside.
Neurogaming in Virtual Reality: A Review of Video Game Genres and
This work marks a significant advancement in the field of cognitive science and gaming technology. It offers an in-depth analysis of the effects of various video game genres on brainwave patterns and concentration levels in virtual reality (VR) settings. The study is groundbreaking in its approach, employing electroencephalograms (EEGs) to explore the neural correlates of gaming, thus bridging ...
Research
2007-2012. The Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab was a six-year research initiative that addressed important challenges faced by the global digital game research community and industry, with a core focus on identifying and solving research problems using a multi-disciplinary approach that can be applied by Singapore's digital game industry.
The impact of video games on Students' educational outcomes
The first group of students with the weakest results ( Mdn = 2.25, n = 4) spent 4.63 h learning and 2.13 h playing video games. The second group ( Mdn = 2.75, n = 4) spent 50% more time on learning, and 33% less time on playing games, and achieved better results. The surprise came with the third group ( Mdn = 3.25, n = 4 ).
Academic Uses of Video Games: A Qualitative Assessment of Research and
A 2015 Pew Research Center survey found that 49 percent of American adults and 67 percent of adults ages 18-29 play video games. 1 The New Media Consortium reported that games and gamification have several applications in higher education, as educational technology and components of blended learning. 2 A search for "video games" in major ...
Clark University Clark Digital Commons
The hypothesis of this project is that using video games for practical purposes will result in mostly beneficial outcomes. Rationale for Research Project . This project is designed to analyze video games as potential tools for use in today's society. The researcher presumes that video games can be thought of as a toolbox. Certain games
PDF Video Game Research in Cognitive and Educational Sciences
Gentile (2005) defined four independent dimensions: amount, content, form and mechanics. The amount refers to the time spent playing video games and the habits of play. This leads to considerations about video game addiction. Content, refers to effects of the messages carried by the video games as a media.
110 Video Game Topic Ideas for Essays & Examples
Here, we've collected excellent essay topics for true gaming enthusiasts. Whether you're looking for argumentative essay ideas on video games, research topics, or questions for debate, you will find them here. We will write. a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts. 809 writers online.
The Practical Applications of Video Games Beyond Entertainment
This thesis is designed to examine three specific examples of the practical applications of video games: video games in education, video games as accessible technology, and the social uses of video games. This project is based on pre-existing research conducted by professionals studying the aforementioned subtopics.
The Association Between Video Gaming and Psychological Functioning
Introduction. Video gaming is a very popular leisure activity among adults (Pew Research Center, 2018).The amount of time spent playing video games has increased steadily, from 5.1 h/week in 2011 to 6.5 h/week in 2017 (The Nielsen Company, 2017).Video gaming is known to have some benefits such as improving focus, multitasking, and working memory, but it may also come with costs when it is used ...
Games and Gaming
DiGRA is a non-profit, academic association dedicated to the study of games and associated phenomena. Game Research: The art, business, and science of video games. Game Research attempts to bring together knowledge on computer games from the areas of art, business, and science. Traditionally such cross-communication has been sparse to the ...
Violent Video Game Exposure and Problem Behaviors among Children and
1.1. Violent Video Game Exposure and Problem Behavior. Most studies show that violent video games significantly increase PB in players. Regarding violent content, some meta-analyses have found that violent video games increase players' aggressive cognition, emotion, and behavior and decrease players' empathy, which negatively impacts players' social behavior [17,18].
127 Latest Video Game Research Topics You Will Love
Video Games Research Paper Topics For College. Of course, we have a list of video games research paper topics for college students. These are a bit more difficult than the others in our list: Linking video game addiction to substance abuse. The use of first person shooter games in military training programs.
Library Resources for Doing Scholarly Research on Video Games
Project Muse . This resource is a general favorite for anything art or media related, with tons of scholarly, peer-reviewed articles about video games including articles on diversity in video games, video games and the ecosystem, video games and civic development, and more. ... When starting research on video games, this database is highly ...
Video games can have a positive impact on children
FLORENCE, ITALY, 30 APRIL 2024 - Video games can potentially contribute to and support the well-being of children if they are designed with the needs of children in mind, according to new research from UNICEF Innocenti - Global Office of Research and Foresight.. This research was produced as part of the Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (RITEC) project, an international ...
Video Games
Research: Overview Great ideas meet expert analysis, making discoveries every day. Learn More; Research Archive Summaries with links. Research Faculty Professors and lecturers. From 'The Brink' BU's research publication. Communication Research Center; Center for Mobile Communication Studies
Nina Jankowicz Forms New Group to Defend Disinformation Research
Nina Jankowicz of the American Sunlight Project, a new advocacy group in Washington, D.C., that aims to push back against disinformation online.
The contagious impact of playing violent video games on aggression
Meta‐analyses have shown that violent video game play increases aggression in the player. The present research suggests that violent video game play also affects individuals with whom the player is connected. A longitudinal study ( N = 980) asked participants to report on their amount of violent video game play and level of aggression as well ...
The Army's New M10 Booker Looks, Rolls, and Fires Like a Tank. But
The Army officially took delivery of the first M10 Booker Combat Vehicle. The Booker is designed to give extra punch to lightly armed brigade combat teams. The first guns are headed to the 82nd ...