A study conducted by the University of Rochester has concluded that challenges and "meaningful opportunities to interact and work together" are more important to videogame enthusiasts than violence.
While their results seem to fall well within the realm of the obvious, the data provides interesting talking points for fans of our particular hobby. Researchers worked with virtual environment think tank Immersyve, Inc. to conduct a pair of surveys with 2,670 "frequent game players," and carried out four experiments involving over 300 University of Rochester undergraduates.
In an interview with the Canadian Press concerning the study and its findings, lead author Andrew Przybylski notes that fans of titles like Halo 3 and Team Fortress 2 gravitate towards those particular titles in order to have "their psychological needs met," referring to the "experience of autonomy and competence in gameplay."
In one experiment, modifications were made to the popular first person shooter Half-Life 2. One version of the game saw players equipped with a shotgun, featured amplified levels of violence, and forced players to hunt down an adversary. The other featured psychic abilities, and players were "essentially playing a game of tag." If an opponent was hit with the psychic power, they would float into the air and evaporate.
After playing, participants were asked questions regarding their enjoyment of the experience, and whether or not they would return to the labs to play either of the versions again. The responses indicated that the a player's opinion of the experience, on average, wasn't affected by modifying the levels of violence.
Interestingly, even the 5% of participants who self-identified as having a preference for violent games did not rate the more violent game as being more enjoyable.
The study appears in the recently released February issue of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, but a free abstract of the report summarizes their research findings.
Image: Valve
Blood and gore don't make video games more enjoyable: study [The Canadian Press, via GamePolitics ]
