Videogames Fill Psychological Needs for Players 143
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.'"
So wait, are all videogames MMOGs now? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:So wait, are all videogames MMOGs now? (Score:4, Insightful)
Video games are more fulfilling than the hole. Better games are more fulfilling than not so good games, although we are seeing some MMOGs that are achieving a low-level, lizard-brain kind of fulfillment that is more adicting than good-for-you.
Re:So wait, are all videogames MMOGs now? (Score:4, Funny)
You never played DaiKatana, did you?
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Here's the abstract [metapress.com] It's kinda saying. Folks feel good when they play video games, rather, when they feel good, while a player's needs are met while they play a game, they are likely to enjoy it more, and play more. MMO games seem to fulfill more needs and that is why they are so addictive.
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Why not?
Granted death is an exception, but that isn't as likely to happen very soon in real life as in a MMORPG. Other than that you really can walk away from most failures.
I myself have some really serious failures behind me. Some by choice (we all make bad choices sometimes) and some more or less by accident. Sometimes there has been consequences, sometimes more than just a lost level, but I've always been able to walk away with a new lesson learned. S
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i personally feel a greater level of escape when i play with other people (MMO's or even just typical multiplayer). i think it makes it a more convincing experience =/
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I can only really speak about WoW, but Blizzard takes that to another level. Although you can play most of the game by yourself, it actually is better, and more emersive when you play with other people. The other classes are so complimentary. I'm thinking inparticular about the various buffs. Any class is more powerful with a fortitude buff.
Not just MMOGs (Score:2)
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.
Re:So wait, are all videogames MMOGs now? (Score:4, Funny)
"Not a substitute for human interaction."
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Duh (Score:2, Troll)
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Re:Duh (Score:5, Informative)
I don't eat for "sustenance" as much as I am sustained by what food offers.
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Doesn't it seems obvious to you? (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Doesn't it seems obvious to you? (Score:4, Insightful)
Gamers are looking for a sense of achievement meaning they don't actually have to achieve anthing to feel fulfilled with a game. I have noticed (personally) that when I am playing a MMORPG the game is a lot of fun until I get to the point where I see no worthwhile accomplishment left to complete; essentially, where the game has become mostly about grinding and nothing else.
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Best. Thesis. Ever.
Damn it... (Score:5, Funny)
This just in (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This just in (Score:5, Funny)
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I find it disheartening, myself.
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Loving Choice Adoption in Second Life [somethingawful.com] -- A virtual adoption agency where people wishing to sexually roleplay as children are able to meet pedophile partners.
I play videogames because... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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It's the same reason I'm involved with geocaching [mngca.org] and post "articles" and photos to my website...
Slow news day.
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Yup, I'd rather do that in person. Afterall, would anyone have the dark desire for having sex with an AIDS carrier?
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The reason is obvious (Score:5, Insightful)
Just take this simple test: would the last 24 hours of your life make for a good season of "24"? Would anyone watch it?
Re:The reason is obvious (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The reason is obvious (Score:5, Funny)
As the posters name is 'Rob T Firefly', I suspect that even if he did have big boobs not many would watch.
man boobs
(shudder)
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No manual entry for boobs.
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But you've got to admit that a phone that never needs charging would be handy...
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Speak for yourself.... life would probably be less boring if you'd go out and do something instead of sitting playing a video game in the first place!
Anyway, I'd suggest that they serve as not merely a passtime, but rather an outlet, or a release for things we can't do in waking life, because we are limited by physics, law, morals, etc. Hmmm... sound familiar? Freud believe that our dreams serve this purpose of "wish fulfillment" while we sleep. To me gami
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> because we lead exceedingly boring lives, whether we
> realize it or not.
[camp]
Speak for yourself, Ducky.
[/camp]
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Well, guessing most people did visit the restroom at least once in the last 24 hours, yeah, I'd say there are people who would get off on that. For proof I offer webcam-for-pay sites. And german and japanese fetish porn.
Personally, anyone who wants to watch my fatass get up and go to work, come back, fix dinner, and relax by working on one of about 20 projects scattered around my workshop and garage...needs to get off their ass and find a hobby or two. (or three, or four, or a dozen,
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People playing solitare at work, someone going to a baseball game, another playing WoW or something for 24 hours. General stuff like that. Perhaps some sleeping and some partying. Someone gets too drunk and blacks out.
I suppose we'd have to find plot twists to make it not make sense if you skip a couple episodes to keep it in good faith with the original show.
The Opposite (Score:5, Funny)
It's about the timescale (Score:3, Interesting)
It's
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Oh, don't sound so pessimistic!
Those players just chose to hit the "reset" button to try again with a new character, rather than trying to salvage their current one with a large time penalty.
Leveling (Score:5, Insightful)
If I got a pay raise after a week of grinding, I'd sure enjoy work a lot more.
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Oh, come now. Work's not so far from your average D&D RPG. Most of your work colleagues will already have been slowed, with a duration of several days, and some may have been blinded or deafened as well. Your office will be under the effects of an ice storm for the first morning back. Your boss will still be an ogre several levels higher than you. But on the bright side, launching a fireball into his office will still be fun!
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Work is just work - it's *you*, sat at *your* desk, in *your* office, in *your* world, doing *your* job.
WoW (and any other game) is different - it's *you*, being *someone/thing else*, doing *something else*, in a *different* world.
It's an escape. Me, I'd love to be living in an Elite/Freelancer/Eve/X kind of universe, travelling through space, seeing the universe, trading, fighting, having adventures. Of course if I
Re:The Grind (Score:2)
Some players tell me that the real content is in t
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Yes, but it's a pretty spreadsheet, with multiplayer. What's not to love about that?
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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 [mudconnector.com], perhaps. And, they're usally all free.
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Different games... (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
People play video games to feel good (Score:1)
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Of all the things I *COULD* be... (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
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The Sniper Credo... (Score:1)
It's better to be the sniper than the snipee. Less discouraging that way.
Synthetic Achievement (Score:2, Interesting)
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
Re:Synthetic Achievement (Score:4, Interesting)
That being said, do with your lives whatever you see fit. It's none of my buisiness. I just personally have given up RPG's because of this realization.
Adarn
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World of Warcraft Trial Pack (Score:1)
I think it might be true... (Score:2, Interesting)
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I bought a guitar (Score:2)
The real reason is clear as crystal (Score:1)
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!
Significant real world benefits of Mmorgs. (Score:5, Interesting)
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%?).
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Empirical evidence says that does not translate into RL, so I'm not sure what use it is.
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I don't play 40+ hours a week any more but I still play enough (you play a"GAME" 10 HOURS a WEEK?!?!?) that folks act like it is freaky.
I would never date the swedish bikini team. I date ladies in my own age range- not my daughter's. About the youngest I'd go these days is 34.
The nights i used to play more- now I take dance lessons and I've met a lot of nice ladies. I can flirt with them instead of locking up using the skills I p
Yeah, we coulda told em that. (Score:1)
Guess I'm just odd like that... (Score:2)
In other words, RTS (CoH is my current favorite) and tactical FPS.
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Negative effects (Score:1)
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DUH! (Score:2)
MMOGS are the future? (Score:2)
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.
Do you mean...... (Score:2)
I'll buy it.... (Score:1)
For me... (Score:1)
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?
Amazing but true! (Score:2)
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?
Mmm indeed they do. (Score:2)
And they call psychology a science (Score:1)
OT, Need suggestions for fun games (Score:2)
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.
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Damn right they do! (Score:2)
That's obvious, of course (when people do things it's usually because they have a need
I guess this explains "Left Behind"... (Score:2)
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.
Its so satisfying... (Score:1)
Well, DOH! .. (Score:2)
*pouts* Give the credit to the research subjects! (Score:2)
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That's really odd. All the gamers I know are normal folks with good jobs, kids, house, no particular hang ups, etc. Perhaps it's not the gamers you are identifying, but the crowd you hang with, who just happen to be gamers.
I'm a guy in my mid 30s with a wife who is also a gamer and two well adjusted kids (who occasionally game). I have a successful business and career, I've written two books, and several magazine articles, and deal with people, very well, all day long.
A c
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You obviously haven't listened to dr dre's account of his LA riots experience. It begins;
Sittin in my livin room calm and collected
Feelin mad, gotta get mine respected
You can't change anything. The best you can hopefore is some sort of revolution to swallow you up and spit you out a hero in your idealized world. This has a very slim possibilty of happening.
So I'll be headshotting 14 year olds in the mean time mmmkay?
Possibly, yes: (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
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