Reports from a recent study suggest that playing games are contributing positively to the player’s well-being

A recent study from Oxford has revealed that playing video games is good for mental health, and it can also keep people happier. Oxford conducted the study on almost 3,274 players, and the researchers had used industry data collected from actual playtime. The video games used in this study were Animal Crossing and Plants vs. Zombies. The study results proved that the players experienced immense happiness and enjoyment while playing the game. It also showed that the games are responsible for a player’s positive well-being. The main factor that has to be considered here is the experience while playing the game and the researchers also studied the changes that were witnessed in the behavior of the players.

The team from Oxford University linked up true records of time spent with psychological questionnaires. Some of the previous studies conducted by the university focused on the self-reporting of playtime, which did not give proper reports correlated with reality. An actual study was conducted on the player’s experiences, specifically on the autonomy, feeling, competence, enjoyment, relatedness, and pressure of playing games for well-being. Telemetry data was used from the games, and almost 518 players from Plants vs. Zombies and 2,756 players from Animal Crossing participated in the study.