Slashdot Mirror
Videogames Fill Psychological Needs for Players
codegen writes "The CBC (among others) is reporting that researchers at the University of Rochester and Immersyve Inc. have released a study indicating that people enjoy video games because they satisfy a psychological need. The study showed that the interrelations between players in MMOGs were particularly important. From the article: 'Gamers said they felt the best about their experience when the games they played produced positive outcomes in scenarios related to the real world ... The researchers evaluated players' motivations in virtual worlds by asking four groups of people to play different games, including a genre known as massively multiplayer online (MMO) games, which some industry watchers regard as the future of video games.'"
I don't know about anyone else, but I play to escape, not to feel fulfilled about anything of the real world.
The need is called entertainment.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
... indicates that people enjoy video games because they are satisfying at a fundamental psychological level.
... but instead a sense of achievement, freedom and even social connectedness. The draw of video games "also can be experienced as enhancing psychological wellness, at least short-term,"ilex paraguariensis for all
How come when I sign up for trials I never get to play MMOGs. All they ever want to do is feed me something that might kill me or put things where there not supposed to go.
People also enjoy sunshine, sexual activity, and singing in the rain. Some of these are also enjoyed in a massively multiplayer environment.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
...well, for a few reasons I suppose.
1. They can be damned fun.
2. They continually make my brain keep working, continually trying out new tactics.
3. Many a LAN party are included in my top 10 favorite memories of my entire life.
4. There are parts of the gaming community that are fantastic and allow for great friendships to come about.
5. They provide a fun alternative to the daily grind (much like drugs)
6. They have the ABILITY to be educational
7. They provide a safe place for the dark desires that dwell within all of us to be satiated. Afterall, would you rather someone be killing people on screen, or people on the street?
As far as fulfilling some psychological need, I wouldn't put myself in that group...however, I don't dispute it either; I know many people who are anti-social, have anxiety, are overly shy, have aspergers, or various other things that prevent them from interacting properly face to face. Put them behind a WoW toon though, and suddenly they become open and talkative and friendly.
Video games to me are a fantastic form of entertainment. They are similar to reading, the difference being instead of working your imagination, they work your reasoning and reaction. They require you to part with "daily reality", however, and embrace a different world. This is most definately not a bad thing when used in moderation.
Last but not least, it serves for a way for me and my fiance to bond...granted, there are many lonely gamers out there, but for geeks and nerds who are lucky enough to have a spouse who is just as geeky and nerdy...well, playing video games with a spouse who not only wants to but EXPECTS to brings about some amazingly fun times.
Living With a Nerd
We like videogames (and films and TV drama series) simply because we lead exceedingly boring lives, whether we realize it or not.
Just take this simple test: would the last 24 hours of your life make for a good season of "24"? Would anyone watch it?
So if I play the GTA games, that means that deep down I really want to steal cars, drive fast, hire a prostitute and then kill her to get my money back when I'm finished with her?
Wouldn't that assertion seem to blow away Jack Thompson's little argument, by neatly reversing cause and effect?
On top of putting in 60+ hours a week, I try to fit in 4 or 5 hours of WoW. The problem I've noticed, though, is I grind all day at work (estimate this, meet this deadline, get this much money, get promoted), then go home and grind in the WoW (sell in the AH, complete this quest, get this much gold, gain a level). I wish someone would use all this MMOG press hype to find out how to make me like work more. Maybe they could call me an Undead Mage instead of an Idustrial Planner. And I could wear a mohawk.
...fill the psychological needs of bored housewives.
;)
That is, all of them that haven't yet gotten addicted to WoW.
Really, how much of this stuff comes as a surprise to anyone?
Based on my own experiences, I would say that single player games offer escapes from reality, and multi-player games fulfill psychological needs.
Reasoning? Pacman and space invaders are immersive escapes from reality. When you're sitting there controlling some pixels (or vectors if you're really old school) on a screen without interacting with anyone else around you, you have escaped our reality to enter another one for a time.
But in Counter-Strike, you can fulfill your basic psychological need to shoot annoying teenagers in the face. When the game is multi-player, it's just a disguise, an extension of the reality we live in. You interact with other real people, and kill them, or sell them blue items for gold, or zerg their base and capture their flags. It's still reality, but minus the consequences one usually faces for equivalent actions.
That's my take on it, at least.
"Justin, make sure you play your first person shooter game for at least two hours before you do your homework!"
"Aw, mom...."
That's because your Boss is either not a gamer, or you might have to meet clients.
In other news people drink water to stop being thirsty.
I'm a gamer.
I could be an alcoholic. I could be abusive. I could be a prick. I could be an asshole. I could be any combination of the aforementioned, or even more that I haven't mentioned.
All that said, I come home after work, turn in Counterstrike: Source (don't give me shit about 1.6!), and play for about an hour. After this my mind is at ease. I'm relaxed. I make dinner, clean the house, and a lot of the crap that I deal with during the day disappears.
There is an obvious escape from reality, and the bonus is that when you are done playing, the reality you HAD is put in the back of your mind. You're fresh off a high from 20 kills straight, or you got the high score. Your mind is happy, and happy thoughts ensue.
And the only thing I did was burn a little electricity and time. And I'm still not an asshole. Yet.
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
... produced positive outcomes in scenarios related to the real world ...
It's better to be the sniper than the snipee. Less discouraging that way.
I quit EQ2 when I realized I was getting a buzz not off of the fun gameplay, the fun community, and the fun world to explore, but rather from the Virtual Accomplishements that got dispensed to me at regular intervals like a fish biscuit for the clever caged bear.
;-}
;-}
I'll go back to the genuinely fun game once I am no longer deficient in REAL accomplishments.
I think it's definately safe to say that while there would be a market for MMORPGS if they didn't tap into people's psychological deficiencies for enjoyment, they definately are built around doing just that. So many people play it like work or out of a sense of obligation or investment long after the fun has been tapped out. Just check out the forums for ANY MMO.
I imagine jobs that have more "bite sized" achievements are better. For example, some doctors get the satisfaction of treating multiple patients each day. Of course, then other things kick in. For example, if you screw up in WoW, you can just restart the quest or dungeon. If you screw up at work, it can cost you your job.
-- jchenx
I think it is because a good game leaves little time to think of anything else but the game at hand.
Games provide:
Escape from reality.
False sense of accomplishment
False sense of friends
ARE FUN
The thing is, video games are TOO fun.
I wonder what the following number would be?
"Select sum(GameHours) From WowGamingHours" (The query might not be this simple:)
Can we think of this as potential lost productivity? Can you think of a better use for these peoples time?
"Along with this FREE trial CD comes a sample trial dose of Xanax (tm). Our quality AMA-approved representatives are standing by to take your subscription order!"
Ever since I met my S.O., my gaming habits have slipped through the cracks in favor of her. I've just lost the desire to play games. I'm not sure what psychological need there was before that she might be filling, but I've wondered for a while if the events are related. Of course, I met her in my first semester of college, so starting college might be responsible, too. But I didn't cease gaming entirely until my second semester...
I love NetHack.
I can pay $50 for a game that I can play for hundreds and even thousands of hours over years. Most of which I will enjoy... except for "teh h4X0rZ".
or...
I can pay $50 to go see a couple movies at the theatre.
or...
Buy 3 or 4 new CD's, most of which will be shite music anyways.
No brainer!
There are only 10 kinds of people in the world. Those that understand binary and those that don't.
Let's face it, they are not the most well-adjusted people. Most gamers I've met exhibit all sorts of anti-social behavior in public. Games provide a means to escape reality and to retreat into their own little fantasy world, where they feel safe. Not too different from the drug culture, just with different means to the same end. I think it speaks to a larger problem of alienation in modern "post-industrial" society, which seems to be creating more people who "drop out" to "the fringe" of that society. That alienation is justified, since the "official" corporatist consumerist culture is truly revolting. Going to boring dead-end jobs, whether it's flipping burgers or sitting in a life-negating cubicle, dealing with moronic Lumberg-like bosses, then coming home and turning on the TV to be bombarded with junk culture...that's enough to make anyone want to escape!
Actually, the gaming phenomenon taps into the very same consumeristic culture that people feel alienated by, where everything (e.g. music, fashion, games) is just a product that someone is trying to convince you that you need. When the new version of a game comes out, the gamers rush out to buy it, just like the good little consumers they are supposed to be. Just look at those ridiculous lines outside stores for the PS3 launch. That was truly a sad commentary on the mentality that's becoming alarmingly pervasive. Gamers are a sad reflection of that.
Retreating into fantasy worlds is not going to make things better for society. By it's anti-social nature, it's just going to make it harder to organize the kind of collective action that's required to change things. No one's ever going to change things from their living room.
GTA & rest of the kill-'em-all games give you the possibility to safely exercise your desire to destroy. In those games, you only develop in terms of becoming a more proficient killer. In those games, being a good killer means you are good.
Games like Tetris, Civilization, Monkey Island, exercise your desire to construct / create. In those games, creating things or solutions means you are good.
Which type of games is more popular, and why? Read the newspapers, watch the evening news, and think about it.
It's not just MMOGs that have this fulfillment/achievement mechanic. Platformers, for years, have had "collect all 100 widgets in this level" goals. RPGs have tons of various side quests and extra missions you can do. Action and adventure games have completion scores, and the ability to replay the game under various difficulty settings.
Every gamer I know becomes obsessed with at least one of mechanics, primarily for the genre they prefer. Just beating the game often isn't enough anymore.
-- jchenx
1) greatly improved ability to "chit chat"
2) greatly improved ability to flirt casually.
3) managing a guild of 90 members made managing a team of 22 people at work easy.
4) managing the logistics of a large guild's advancement made managing the logistics of large projects easier.
5) greatly increased confidence
6) greatly increased ability to let everyone bitch and stay above it (a "rare" quality commented on by senior management to me recently).
7) greatly increased skill with alcohol that has lead to being able to hold interesting conversations about Port and other fine drinks with afficianados. (it was a drinking guild and we get together for annual boozy fun parties and that lead to my fall from near teetotaler status).
8) led to RL buds that has led to two extra RL skiing trips (one in whistler) which lead to two 22 year old pretty blond australian girls dancing and flirting with me because I was a texan cowboy. which is funny since I'm in my 40's.
There may be more.
There were downsides.
At the height of my addiction, I let my real personal life go to hell for about 24 months. It was pretty much - work 8 hours, play 8 hours, sleep/bathe/eat in the other 8 hours. It was a magical world that did fill all my needs and then one day in 2002ish I finally got full and got back on with life. I still play 7 to 15 hours a week.
It definitely contributed to carpal tunnel (tho my job does that anyway).
It lead me to be much less idealistic and much more realistic about how many people (80%) out there are users (some purposely- more subconciously).\
It lead me to appreciate those people who are real (i'd say about 20%?).
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
It's a lot more difficult to level up at work. You usually need an enormous amount of experience to level up. Some poor saps never level up at all, not even after 20 years of grinding. Others level up quickly, not because they have the necessary experience, but because they're good buddies with the guild leader. That makes it much more frustrating than WoW.
If I got a pay raise after a week of grinding, I'd sure enjoy work a lot more.
When a friend of mine failed to get into any of the grad schools he applied to, his Warcraft play time went waaaay up, like to 8 hrs a day. "It's terrible because it makes you feel like you're really accomplishing something." It's been my substitute for accomplishment at some sad times, too. As for the social aspect, did they have the subjects dungeon crawl for six hours with 2 kids whose conversation consists entirely of "lawlz" and 2 farmers who don't speak at all before having [Giant Wah-Wah of Power] ninjaed? Just wonderin. And, yeah, I AM playing Warcraft in another window- just a mana break, gotta go!
...but I enjoy games that put me in scenarios I could never see in the real world, and most of which I would never want to. Scenarios that test my ability to think quickly and make complex tactical decisions.
In other words, RTS (CoH is my current favorite) and tactical FPS.
120 characters for a sig? That's bloody useless.
But I do understand the 'tron' in your nick.
For the most part I find video games to be an excellent escape from reality, and even an increasingly rewarding social activity (xbox live), but there were two times in my life that video games began to take a negative psychological effect on me. The first was in middle school winning Metroid, and the second was a few years ago winning the original Halo in "legendary" mode. In both instances I began to dream as though I was in the game rather than playing it, which crossed a line for me. What is interesting is that metroid, with its 2d scrolling action and 8-bit graphics was able to envelope me the same way that the obviously superior 3d environment of Halo was able to do.
This may have nothing to do with video games, and if I had been doing crossword puzzles for 6 hours a day for over a month I may have begun to dream in some kind of bizarre crossword puzzle reality, which would have been just as disturbing.
while [ 1 ]; do echo -n -e "\xe2\x95\xb$((($RANDOM&1)+1))"; done
Is that all you can think of doing for that amount of time with that amount of money?
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8559768703 059919910
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
This is the reason I stopped playing WoW after a while, most players were simply interested in achieving higher levels or bigger stats, not actually role playing. Playing WoW I got the feeling that, after a while, all I was doing was hitting an addition button for hours on end. With paper RPG'ing I get social interaction with my peers, a rich story that I am a part of (rather than a bit player of) and we can play once a month without eating up too much time.
Some players tell me that the real content is in the raids & PVP. Well, I can jump into Team Fortress, Unreal or even Tribes to get that experience and I don't have to pay a subscription fee or hit a feed button for days and days.
The challenge I make for the WOW team (or any MMO maker) is to develop a game where players only get a single shot at an instanced zone to foreward their own adventuring. I mean, defeating a mighty dragon is an amazing feat, doing it 10 times in a row against the same dragon is very pointless and cheapens the experience.
crazy dynamite monkey
"(MMO) games, which some industry watchers regard as the future of video games."
If that's the case, the industry will lose this gamer. I don't have the time, energy or interest to even look at a MMOG. I played several MUDS while attending highschool and college, but they simply do note appeal to me any more. I think there will always be a place for MMOGs, but I doubt that they are the future. Maybe that's my inner geezer speaking.
We're all a bunch of gun toting serial killers at heart? May be they're right? If your twelve year old son is playing a Barbie dress up video game I wouldn't count on grand kids.
Give me the blue pill.
I play the game to be able to do things that I'd never be able to do in real life since they... practically never happen.
You save some random schmoe in the game and get a reward.
You can't do stuff like that reliably in real life.
I don't play games to emulate what my life is - I play games to escape from the tedium of getting up at 7 to go to work or class. Is that too much to ask?
If you were offended by anything I said... No, I'm not sorry. Please lighten up.
I wouldn't have thought a video game could have a need, although for a player I guess is something a game might need. The question is (perhaps I should have RTFA): how do they fill it? Some people fill their need for sex with ice cream.
Certainly this is news for nerds! Had it been the players' needs being filled with video games, well, that wouldn't be very interesting would it?
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to play DOAX2 as soon as I get done placing this pre-order for "THE IDOLM@STER."
This study is a joke! You can't just take such a small test set and make any sort of accurate judgement. I personally know gamers that range in age from 4 to 44. How was this range represented in the 1000 test cases??
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Problem is they are not gamers, most of them have computers ~1ghz with graphics cards ~geforce 2-3. So the latest and greates games are pretty much off limits.
Anyone out there know of other multi player games? Ones that can be played in co-opt mode? RPG/action/Fantasy is best. What would be awsome is Dues Ex like game in co-opt mode. (or remember the days od Doom2, Hexen, Heritic that you could play the levels together, or pvp)
Do they even make games you can play in co-opt anymore?
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive
Yes, but it's a pretty spreadsheet, with multiplayer. What's not to love about that?
how to invest, a novice's guide
I bought a Fender Telecaster, and now I don't play any video games at all, because the guitar is actually productive. I can play songs for myself, friends etc. It's a much better expenditure of cash to do something creative, instead of something passive like a game. Music will even help you unwind, and will stimulate new areas of your brain. I stopped playing my basses because I moved across the country and hadn't found anyone to play with, and so I entertained myself playing videogames. I realized that it's really kind of anti-social, sitting in your house on the computer, so I figured I'd better start playing music again. Now I'm in another band with several new friends, that I met thru a music want add.
What would you rather do - sit at home playing video games and being a slug, or out with your friends making music, etc. Who knows - your band might even play out - it's a great way to meet people, especially the opposite sex.
And no, Guitar Hero does NOT count - it's just DDR on your fingers, it has nothing to do with playing an instrument.
..........FULL STOP.
Videogames Fill Psychological Needs for Players
... duh) but it's true enough. I haven't had the time for some years now, but I used to play network games pretty heavily. Generally it was in my basement, I had a dozen machines down there at one point, and we'd play Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior and Rise of the Triad and Blood and others from dusk 'til dawn. And the psychological void those games filled, for me anyways, was the need to blow some of my best friends into tiny little bloody fragments until my fingers were numb. The evenings were filled with the usual sounds of network gameplay: "Son of a bitch!", "God DAMMIT!", "Yeah, yeah ... fuck you man. No, really, fuck you man" and "Kill the bastard!" Great times all the way around.
That's obvious, of course (when people do things it's usually because they have a need
Rather cathartic, in a way, although my girlfriend never understood the appeal. On game nights she'd usually find an excuse to go visit her sister.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
... which bears an odd similarity to the "heathen hunting" game featured in the Simspons several years ago.
If only all religions would go SCRATCH (ala Cowboy Bebop), so the rest of us reasonable individuals could regain control of the world before humanity destroys itself over some foolish religious idealogies.
8==8 Bones 8==8
Sorry folks, but cutting someone in half with a chainsaw in Gears of War is soooo satisfying.. As far as causing violence, my 6 year old knows his Marvel superheroes game is just that, a game. No, he doesn't play (or see/hear) Gears of War, not until he's at least 7... javaC_CM
Hey Zonk, from the stating-the-blindingly-obvious dept.
davecb5620@gmail.com
If I ever go to Las Vegas I'll lose all my money in Solitaire.
Defining Statistics and Social Research
If you could approach things from a wider angle, you would see that Japanese culture has its (severe) problems. One of them is the mass production of low-class entertainment for wide audiences. Sort of emotional and intellectual masturbation.
That aside; I didn't say that seeing killing, or doing it virtually causes problems. But the people attracted to such unimaginative practices just might. Those who have the psychological need for destruction and self-gratification. For those people, "art" that feeds one psychological urge is good enough.
Think about it.
Heh.. reminds me of a story from the early days, Atari in 1982.
As the story goes, Parker Brothers had just cranked out "Empire Strikes Back" as a 2600 cart, and for some reason Harlan Ellison had been hired by Video Review magazine to study and review it. Now as many know, Ellison's a cranky old man, and has been since long before he became an old man. He gave the game a shot, pointing out in the review that - like in many videogames at the time - all the player really did was shoot things (in this case, snow walkers) in endless waves until the player couldn't anymore. Impossible to win. Ellison compared it to the Sisyphus myth, damned to push a gigantic boulder up a mountain for eternity, only to watch it roll down the other side and be forced to start again - a staggering waste of time and energy (and in the game's case, money). Long run, it communicated nothing positive, only reinforcing the "can't win, don't try, can't quit" view of the world.
What makes the story interesting is that both the president and the chief scientist at Atari thought so highly of this review that they ordered framed copies for their offices. No doubt it significantly influenced Atari from that point forward.
And considering that Atari was the video game industry at the time, inspiring the Nintendos and EAs to come, it's quite possible that this one 1982 review by Harlan Ellison leads at least indirectly to the points made in this study.
True, albeit odd, story.
I'm willing to bet many of the players from that study (assuming it was done on site at U of R) were from Rochester Institute of Technology considering it's the third biggest online game college in the US, and a 15 minute drive away.
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
...and you dont even know it, thanks to CBS and corporate media in general.
This study is hiding a much scarier reality : that video-games produce a mental state of trance. Other studies focus on the brainwaves of gamers and TV-watchers. Add to that other studies about suggestion, brainwashing, social control, and you get the whole deal.
If you're interested in role-playing online, might I suggest any of hundreds of fantasy-themed MUSHes? MUSHes are usually very heavy on the roleplay and light on the hack and slash. Check out TMC, perhaps. And, they're usally all free.
demi