Johannes Niklas, Vuorre Matti, Przybylski Andrew K
Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
R Soc Open Sci. 2021 Feb 17;8(2):202049. doi: 10.1098/rsos.202049.
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 and 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 play time will lead to addiction and poor mental health, we found a small positive relation between game play and affective well-being. Need satisfaction and motivations during play did not interact with play 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.
人们玩电子游戏的时间从未如此之长，许多利益相关者担心这种活动可能对玩家不利。到目前为止，研究还没有足够的数据来检验这些担忧是否合理，以及政策制定者是否应该采取行动来规范电子游戏的游玩时间。我们试图用充足的数据提供急需的证据。以往的研究不得不依赖自我报告的游戏行为，而我们与两家游戏公司——美国艺电和任天堂合作，获取玩家的实际游戏行为。我们调查了《》和《》的玩家在游戏过程中的幸福感、动机和需求满足情况，并将他们的回答与遥测数据（即记录的游戏玩法）相结合。与许多人担心的过度游戏时间会导致成瘾和心理健康不佳相反，我们发现游戏玩法与情感幸福感之间存在微弱的正相关关系。游戏过程中的需求满足和动机与游戏时间没有相互作用，而是独立地与幸福感相关。我们的研究结果在两个重要方面推动了该领域的发展。第一，我们表明与行业合作伙伴的合作可以以道德和透明的方式达到很高的学术标准。第二，我们为政策制定者提供了关于游戏与心理健康之间联系的急需证据。
