video game play

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It’s Not The Video Game It’s The Player That’s The Problem

Video game play

Those video game players with more autonomy, competence and relatedness, thus who feel free to be themselves, and usually feel capable and have closeness and intimacy with others, often play video games because they like to. Those low on these traits often become obsessive game players, they have to play a video game. Moreover the first group enjoy their game play and feel energetic afterwards, while those in the latter group often feel more tension after game play and they usually play more hours.

In the end you have those video game players that want to play and those that have to play. The self-determination theory says that those with high self determination have a harmonious passion for video game play while those low on this dimension have a more obsessive passion for video game play. These groups of low or high level on this dimension also differ in outcome of game play. Those with obsessive passion usually play longer, have higher feelings of tension after the game and they have less game enjoyment.

Why is this important?

Many in popular culture assume that unhealthy relationships with games are rooted primarily in the experiences games provide. An important takeaway from this research is that these intuitions may be inaccurate, or at least incomplete.
The current findings suggest that the ways in which players approach games, either as a volitional, enhancing pursuit or as a compulsive, deleterious one, can be considered a consequence of the psychological need supports players experience in their day to day lives.
Players whose lives are more need satisfying are more likely to pursue games with a harmonious passion, accompanied by experiences of choice, energy, and enjoyment. Need thwarting, on the other hand, presents a risk factor for a disordered pattern characterized by long hours of compulsive, tense, and unenjoyable play.

Another important suggestion from this research is that with problematic game play the improvement of competence, autonomy and relatedness might help protect against obsessive game play. Teachers, parents and therapists can benefit from these results in their approach to obsessive game play.

How was this study done?

Mostly male video game players were recruited (n=1324) from members of a popular online community, ranging in age from 18-43 years. They had to be playing video games for at least a month. They participated in a survey and those completing the questionnaire received 100 dollar.
This shows the limitations of this study. First the generalizabilty is limited, only young adult males. The survey was done only once.

ResearchBlogging.org
Przybylski, A., Weinstein, N., Ryan, R., & Rigby, C. (2009). Having to versus Wanting to Play: Background and Consequences of Harmonious versus Obsessive Engagement in Video Games CyberPsychology & Behavior DOI: 10.1089/cpb.2009.0083

 

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Long Video Game Play and Time Perception, Chicken and Egg Problem

Video game play

It’s no secret that Dr Shock enjoys a video game now and then. Time flies when I am having fun, at least that’s what I thought.

In recent research this phrase: “time flies when having fun” doesn’t apply to playing video games. Surprisingly the enjoyment values recorded for each task in this trial, 8 minutes reading from screen and 8 min video game play, and 24 minutes game play, were not correlated with the time estimation values. It didn’t matter whether you enjoyed your self or not, this didn’t influence your time estimation (wrong or good).

The results from this study shows that video game dependence defined as longer usual playing length and a greater number of hours spent playing per week are all associated with lower time estimations in the 24-min video game task. Since only the 24-min task is affected by the gaming profile, and not the 8- min task, the gamers seem to lose the track of time only when they immerse themselves in the game for a longer period. Moreover, the ones playing longer and a greater number of hours estimated the total duration of the study correctly. This indicates that they are able to perceive long durations adequately.
Their time estimation mechanisms for long durations are normal, and they just have difficulty estimating long video game playing sessions.

Compared to reading from a computer screen during 8 minutes, video game play for 8 minutes was estimated as shorter than the 8-min reading task. An attention-based hypothesis might explain this finding. The literature provides empirical evidence that an increase in mental workload yields shorter time judgments. Time may be estimated as shorter in the video game task because this Tetris task might require more mental effort than reading. Tetris requires a constant visual-motor coordination in addition to spatial abstraction to make sure the blocks are correctly aligned. As more resources are required to play the game, less attention is available and directed to the passage of time. That’s only for Tetris, can you imagine what would happen when playing Doom or Call of Duty 4.

How was this study done?

116 adolescents (14–15 years old) had to judge prospectively or retrospectively the duration of three consecutive tasks: a 8 min and a 24 min task of playing video game (Tetris) and an 8 min task of reading on a computer screen (control task).

Why is this important?
Adolescents play for a long duration of time not because their timing mechanism is disrupted by the video game but because their time mechanism is disrupted they play longer. The Chicken and Egg problem.

These findings are coherent with the hypothesis that time perception might partially determine playtime; adolescents who have a greater tendency to play video games tend to lose track of time when they play. As adolescents underestimate time when they play, they play for longer that they expected or planned to play. Moreover, they like to play because they lose the track of time when they play. Therefore, timing mechanisms might not only be disrupted by video games, but they might likely also be part of the reason why they play for long periods.

So does Dr Shock play a lot because he has inaccurate time estimations or does he have inaccurate time estimations because he plays a lot? What do you think?

ResearchBlogging.org
S TOBIN, S GRONDIN (2009). Video games and the perception of very long durations by adolescents Computers in Human Behavior DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2008.12.002