Video game play is positively correlated with well being

People have never played more video games and many stakeholders are worried that this activity might be bad for players. So far, research has not had adequate data to test whether these worries are justified and if policymakers should act to regulate video game play time. We attempt to provide much-needed evidence with adequate data. Whereas previous research had to rely on self-reported play behaviour, we collaborated with two games companies, Electronic Arts and Nintendo of America, to obtain players’ actual play behaviour. We surveyed players of Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville and Animal Crossing: New Horizons for their well-being, motivations, and need satisfaction during play and merged their responses with telemetry data (i.e., logged game play). Contrary to many fears that excessive game time will lead to addiction and poor mental health, we found a small positive relation between game play and well-being. Need satisfaction and motivations during play did not interact with game time but were instead independently related to well-being. Our results advance the field in two important ways. First, we show that collaborations with industry partners can be done to high academic standards in an ethical and transparent fashion. Second, we deliver much-needed evidence to policymakers on the link between play and mental health.

人类从未如此广泛地参与电子游戏，众多利益相关者担忧此类活动可能对玩家产生不利影响。迄今为止，研究尚未获得充足的数据以验证这些担忧是否合理，以及政策制定者是否应采取行动以规范游戏时长。本研究旨在提供迫切需要的证据。与前人研究不得不依赖自我报告的游戏行为不同，我们与两家游戏公司——艺电（Electronic Arts）和任天堂美国分公司（Nintendo of America）——合作，获取玩家的实际游戏行为。我们对《植物大战僵尸：保卫邻村》和《动物之森：新地平线》的玩家进行了调查，了解他们在游戏过程中的身心健康、动机和需求满足度，并将他们的反馈与游戏行为数据（即游戏日志）相结合。与许多关于过度游戏时间会导致成瘾和心理健康状况恶化的担忧相反，我们发现游戏行为与身心健康之间存在微弱的正相关关系。游戏过程中的需求满足度和动机与游戏时长并无交互作用，而是独立地与身心健康相关。我们的研究结果在两个方面推动了该领域的发展。首先，我们展示了与行业合作伙伴的合作可以在道德和透明的框架下达到高学术标准。其次，我们为政策制定者提供了关于游戏与心理健康之间联系所必需的证据。