‘Stop Killing Games’: Demands for game ownership must also include workers’ rights (2026-01-30T13:37:00+05:30)

With live service games, players are learning that what they’ve really bought is not a game but access to it. And, evidently, that access is something that can be revoked. (Unsplash/Samsung Memory) Louis-Etienne Dubois, Toronto Metropolitan University and Miikka J. Lehtonen, University of Tokyo When French video-game publisher Ubisoft announced it was shutting down servers for The Crew, a popular online racing game released in 2014, it wasn’t just the end of a title. It marked the beginning of a broader reckoning about the nature of digital ownership, led by players angry at the company’s decision to deny them something they had paid for. The Stop Killing Games (SKG) movement was born from that moment. As of July 2025, it has gathered more than 1.4 million signatures through the European Citizens’ Initiative. The European Commission is now obliged to respond. At the heart of the issue is a deceptively simple question: when we buy a video game, what are we actually purchasing? For many gamers, the answer used to be obvious. A game was a product, something you owned, kept and could return to at will. However, live service games have changed that dynamic. These are games usually played online with others and that typically require subscriptions or in-game payments to access features or content. They include popular titles such as Fortnite, League of Legends and World of Warcraft. With live service games, players are learning that what they’ve really bought is something more tenuous: access. And, evidently, access is something that can be revoked. Erasing gaming communities The issue goes well beyond The Crew. In the last couple of years alone, several games have been shut down, including Anthem, Concord, Knockout City, Overwatch 1, RedFall and Rumbleverse. There are valid reasons why companies might choose to end support for a title. The game industry is saturated and brutally competitive. Margins are tight, player expectations are high and teams often face impossible deadlines. When an online game underperforms, a publisher will likely be inclined to cut their losses and shut it down. Games tend to accumulate bugs in their code that are complex to clean and create player dissatisfaction. In our research, we have shown that when a game underperforms or becomes too costly to maintain, shutting it down can be a rational, even reparative, decision on many levels. Yet, when companies decide to shut down a live service game’s servers, it’s not just content that vanishes. So do the communities built around it, the digital assets (costumes, weapons and so on) players have earned or paid for and the sometimes hundreds of hours invested in mastering it. In the blink of an eye, the game is gone, often without recourse or compensation. That’s not just a customer service issue; it’s a cultural one. Games are not just another type of software. They are creative works that can foster shared experiences and vibrant communities. Players don’t just consume games, they inhabit them. They trade stories, build friendships and express themselves through digital spaces. Turning those spaces off can feel, to many, like erasing a part of their lives. This profound disconnect between business logic and player experience, which we theorized in the past, is what gave rise to the SKG movement. Video game publishers failed to anticipate the cultural backlash triggered by these shutdowns. What regulators can do The European Commission’s response to the Stop Killing Games petition could help define the future of digital ownership, cultural preservation and ethical labour in gaming. (Unsplash/Guillaume Périgois) Players of shut-down games may believe they were misled and should be compensated. Unfortunately, the current system offers little transparency and even less protection for them. That’s where regulation can help. The European Commission now has a chance to provide much-needed clarity on what consumers in the European Union are actually buying when they purchase live service games. A good starting point would be requiring companies to disclose whether a purchase grants the buyer ownership or limited access, akin to recent legislation passed in California. Minimum support periods, clearer content road maps (the projected updates) and making companies create mandatory offline versions for discontinued online games might also help prevent misunderstandings. There’s room for creativity here, too. Rather than killing a game outright, companies could allow player communities to take over its maintenance and allow for the continued creation of new content, especially for titles with active fan bases. This is known as “modding,” and in some cases, community-led revivals have even inspired publishers to re-release enhanced editions years later. Developers need protections too Instead of periodically ‘crunching,’ live service game developers are now constantly ‘grinding.’ (Unsplash/Sigmund) There’s another part of this story that’s unfortunately overlooked: the people who make these games. Video game developers are regularly subjected to long hours, poor conditions and toxic workplace cultures in order to meet the demands of continuous live service updates. In our research, we’ve found that this new model of endless content creation and perpetual support is unsustainable, not just financially or technologically, but humanly. Instead of periodically “crunching,” live service game developers are now constantly “grinding.” Somehow, in an industry notoriously demanding for workers, this model has managed to make things even worse. Policymakers need to protect both players and the workers creating games. That means, among other things, rethinking release schedules, enforcing rest periods for development teams and holding companies accountable for the well-being of their staff. The overall health of the industry depends on it. Whether you support the SKG movement or not, the issues it raises are urgent. While the ownership question is a very legitimate one, video game developers deserve more care and protection. The European Commission’s response could help define the future of digital ownership, cultural preservation and ethical labour in gaming. Louis-Etienne Dubois, Associate Professor, School of Creative Industries, The Creative School, Toronto Metropolitan University and Miikka J. Lehtonen, Specially Appointed Associate Professor, College of Business, University of Tokyo This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Fortnite gamers are motivated, not addicted (2026-01-29T13:45:00+05:30)

Andrew Jes Reid, Glasgow Caledonian University The World Health Organisation officially classifies gaming addiction as a disorder. The recent classification sought to address the growing use of digital technologies where people turn to electronic devices at the expense of other things such as work (or school), friendships and socialising. But evidence to support the idea that players are addicted to video games is lacking. The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) strongly opposed the classification “as clearly prejudicial against gaming as a hobby and interest” and for a “broad” terminology. But both parties seem to agree one one thing: more and more people are choosing to play games over other activities. Is reality broken? Back in 2011, game designer Jane McGonigal reflected on the increased play of video games in her book Reality is Broken: The fact that so many people of all ages, all over the world, are choosing to spend so much time in game worlds is a sign of something important, a truth that we urgently need to recognise. The truth is this: in today’s society, computer and video games are fulfilling genuine human needs that the real world is currently unable to satisfy … And unless something dramatic happens to reverse the resulting exodus, we’re fast on our way to becoming a society in which a substantial portion of our population devotes its greatest efforts to playing games, creates its best memories in game environments, and experiences its biggest successes in game worlds. Seven years on, I believe McGonigal’s assessment of society is close to reality. In a world where terror haunts the streets of major cities, mental health problems are on the rise, and international relations have become worryingly strained, people are increasingly seeking escape in the vivid and thrilling experiences of online gaming worlds. The Fortnite phenomenon Technologies have developed and changed how games are played at an exponential rate. Environments that host millions of players at the same time offer opportunities to interact and take on a game’s challenges together. In-game moments can be captured and shared among friends and online communities. Gamer personalities have become modern-day celebrities to many young players as a result of streaming and on-demand video services. Fortnite, one of the biggest gaming phenomena of this decade, plunges 100 players from a flying bus on to an island, with the goal of being the last player (or team) standing. With a series of obstacles to negotiate, the game embraces online game-playing in a way that has appealed hugely to young people and adults alike. But players are not addicted to rocket-riding or loot-hunting on their way to outlasting 99 other players. Instead, they are fully invested and motivated to beat (or at least engage with) their opponents. Beneath the eye-popping colours, fantastical obstacles and over-the-top scenarios – and the unsubstantiated claims that games are “addictive” – lies a well-designed blueprint for motivation that encourages players to pick up, play, and play some more. Games like Fortnite provide gratification in a way, as McGonigal wrote, “that the real world is currently unable to satisfy”. Motivated players One of the most significant developments in understanding motivation, particularly in relation to online gaming, is self-determination theory (SDT), developed initially in the 1970s by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan. This theory has been applied to games, but also to industries such as education, business and sport as a means of understanding what encourages people to act and behave in particular ways. Three key characteristics of motivation – autonomy, mastery and purpose – may help to explain why players of Fortnite are motivated and not addicted. 1. Autonomy The desire to be self-directed; not necessarily to be independent, but to have freedom of choice. Players are able to play the game specifically in their own way and derive great satisfaction from the experience. For example, a player who focuses on “fellowship”, the aesthetic (gamespeak for an emotional response) concerning the game’s social nature, may have little motivation to win because their satisfaction simply comes from playing with others. Some will be motivated to win (the “challenge” aesthetic), while others may aim to entertain teammates and opponents through humour and antics (the “expression” aesthetic). Fortnite accommodates various approaches and goals, which ensure players feel stimulated and satisfied afterwards. 2. Mastery The desire to progress and improve playing skills. Consistent updates (or “seasons”) of Fortnite introduce new features for players to interact with and, more importantly, develop new skills. The reconfiguration of the game’s map, for example, allows players to explore and compete in new environments. New weapons and items, such as jetpacks, homing rocket launchers and “slurp juice”, mean different tactics are needed in combat that will entail new risks and rewards. New features continually test a player’s mastery of the game – a key motivational driver. 3. Purpose The desire to be part of something meaningful, going beyond being just a single player. This is increasingly important as online gaming becomes a bigger and bigger part of a culture. Friends and communities with similar passions congregate in virtual worlds to participate in play. Online personalities (“streamers”, “YouTubers”, “vloggers”) record gameplay online as a matter of pride, and to entertain. Games-related YouTube channels, such as Ali-A, have amassed millions of followers and billions of video views in a staggering display of how important gaming is. Studies estimate that the worldwide gaming community will be around 2.7 billion people by 2021. Motivational theory is a really useful way to explain what players get out of the gaming experience, and help us to understand why they persist in playing, as opposed to what they’re playing and when. Self-determination theory opens the debate of video game “addiction” more broadly to look at game-playing as something that can satisfy basic human desires. But McGonigal’s theory should serve as a warning to the real world: it needs to raise its game when it comes to satisfying human needs. Just like Fortnite does. Andrew James Reid, Glasgow Caledonian University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

How Swedish children learn English through gaming (2026-01-08T13:29:00+05:30)

Pia Sundqvist, Karlstads University and Liss Kerstin Sylvén, University of Gothenburg An hour of homework or an hour of World of Warcraft? It’s not hard to guess what many ten-year-old boys would rather be doing when they get home from school. But now research shows that in non-English speaking countries, children are picking up a large amount of English from online computer games. In Sweden, ten and 11-year-olds spend a lot of time at the computer and often use English rather than their native Swedish for online communication and gaming. In a recent study of 76 children, we could see that playing games seems to have a positive effect on their English skills. Our work adds to other research that has been done in Turkey and Finland on how children learn language as they play computer games. In our study, the children answered questions about the English they came into contact with outside of school, whether they liked English and whether they thought they were good at it. They also filled out a language diary over the course of a week, indicating how much time they spent doing activities such as reading books, watching TV, and playing computer games. The main purpose of the study was to investigate language-related computer use in English and Swedish, but also to look for possible correlations between computer gaming and a child’s motivation to learn, how good they felt there were at the language and the strategies they used to speak it. In a previous study with 12-year-olds, we had seen that gaming was positively linked to English comprehension and vocabulary. We wanted to see if this also was true for even younger learners, who had only learnt English in school for a little bit more than a year. Massive multiplayer bonus Our results show a major difference between Swedish boys and girls as regards spending time “in English” at the computer outside of school. On average, boys spent a total of 11.5 hours a week doing things in English, of which about 3.5 hours were devoted to playing computer games. To compare, the girls on average spent 5.1 hours on English, less than half of that spent by the boys, and hardly played any games in English, only 0.4 hours per week. But girls used Swedish much more than boys at the computer, primarily because they used Facebook more and did so in Swedish. To our surprise, despite their young age and very limited experience of English in school, we found that some of the boys play massive multiplayer online role-playing games, a genre of games in which hundreds or even thousands of players interact with one another simultaneously in a virtual world such as World of Warcraft. Since players in these online games are often from different countries, English becomes the default language for communication, both for writing and speaking. It was also very common among the boys to play multiplayer online games, such as Call of Duty, Counter-Strike, and League of Legends. They also enjoyed Minecraft and various sports games. Among the few girls who played games in English, The Sims was mentioned, a simulation game that does not include as much oral or written interaction as online multiplayer games. Picking up words We divided our sample into three groups: those who did not play any computer games at all, those who played a little bit, and those who played a lot (four hours or more per week). We wanted to see if there were any differences in their motivation in speaking English, their self-assessed ability in the language, and what strategies they used when they ran into problems speaking it. The non-gamer group consisted mainly of girls, group two was mixed, and among the frequent gamers all but one were boys. We found that motivation and self-assessed English ability were high across all groups – a very positive finding. Turning to Swedish was more common in the first two groups than among the frequent gamers. Although speculative, it is possible that the frequent gamers have more developed speaking skills than those who play games less frequently. In previous studies we have seen positive correlations between playing computer games and English vocabulary skills. In the past, we have found that young frequent gamers know more unusual and difficult words, such as melt, roar, flesh, meat or hide. In this study we showed that very young Swedes are involved in complex multiplayer online games. To succeed in such games, they have to understand game content and they need many English words to do so. Although this was not an experimental study with a control group, it is reasonable to conclude that gamers pick up words thanks to their gameplay. Based on our findings, we encourage teachers to learn more about their students’ English activities outside of school. By acknowledging the English learnt in children’s spare time as an important source of language input, we believe student’s motivation in school can also be boosted. Pia Sundqvist, Senior lecturer, Department of language, literature, and intercultural studies, Karlstad University, Sweden, Karlstads University and Liss Kerstin Sylvén, Associate Professor in Language Education, University of Gothenburg This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

How game worlds are preparing humanitarian workers for high-stakes scenarios (2026-01-07T12:18:00+05:30)

David Chandross, Toronto Metropolitan University The pandemic has bred a new dependence on online technologies for work and social engagement. Immersive technology such as that used in 3D video games, virtual reality and augmented reality can be designed now so that the person experiencing them is transported into a socially rich online world. This began with the design of massive online role playing games and continues with other platforms for living in an altered digital reality with purposeful activity, such as the platform Second Life. Introduction to Second Life. During pandemic shutdowns, online role playing gamers have still had access to extensive social connections with many people in virtual worlds. Players communicated free of charge, with hundreds of other people on the real-time voice server Discord. The combination of an immersive 3D video game and real-time voice communications created a reassuring space when the external world was cut off. But game worlds are not just for recreational community. This form of immersion based on a desktop computer experience has now reached the medical and humanitarian fields as well. Building game world simulations A game world is an alternate world that can transport users to virtual worlds. This means that in corporate, academic or life coaching settings, people can also learn and practise extending their skills in virtual space. Some life coaches use game worlds to help people imagining alternative settings or outcomes. Video from consultant Katharina Kaifler. Perhaps most importantly, a game world is not a game. It has no winning or losing conditions. It is simply an immersive fantasy world that is created with the intention of promoting interaction with its environment. Visiting a game world is like visiting a city or a continent, or even the inside of an emergency room where rules, called game mechanics, govern the players’ abilities. It is not a game in that it is not designed to entertain, but to both entertain and change behaviour. A game world has a few core essential components. The first is a narrative, or story. If it were used for medical education for example, the world could be the inside of an emergency room. Game worlds for medical and aid workers Currently, the World Health Organization (WHO) is building such simulations. By using a 360 camera we can record any emergency department in the world, then translate that into a 3D model which can be viewed on a desk top or enlarged so that the user is standing inside that virtual reproduction. The WHO Learning Academy is building code to admit simulated patients, each one with its own life path. Virtual lives can be saved by managing the flow of patients during a mass casualty simulation. The software can predict how many minutes can be saved by careful triage. Game worlds can be more fantastical and oriented to increase enjoyment of learning, particularly when the subject matter is complex. The UN office for Disaster Risk Reduction and the the UN World Food Program have produced video games for learning about the respective issues they respond to. Currently with the World Food Program, our team — consisting of a video game company, learning professionals and UN subject experts in Rome — is building a fully immersive exploration game. We are working on building a game world for UN staff that will help them learn how to protect vulnerable populations and how to be accountable in their field work. The game world features multiple engagement loops (things to do) that make it attractive to participate in. When you have to teach the minutia of a 40-page manual in a few hours, a video game world is a sound approach. People’s capacities to recall text they read is limited in the short term, and their memory of it diminishes over the long term, but when people learn procedures through a video game world they show high engagement and retain the information. Fantasy encompasses a simulation Two terms have now become essential when describing what happens in game worlds: “autopoiesis” which means self organizing or self generating; and “hyper reality” which is a term developed by French post-modern sociologist Jean Baudrillard referring to “the generation by models” of something real “without origin or reality.” A game world has its own “digital physics,” not real-world physics, thus separating it from simulation. A game world is a place where new things can be created and the person lives among fantasy objects. Autopoetic hyper reality is a digital space where the player is enticed to complete goals in a fantasy that encompasses a simulation. Scholars across the field of digital media are now hard at work creating a kind of fusion of the the human nervous system with technology. What this means is that the boundary between one and the other will become imaginary, for example, in the instance of doctors using remote technologies to conduct medical procedures. But the larger meaning is that as virtual reality continues to mature, we will gradually live more of our lives in digital space. We’ve seen many examples of this through the pandemic, including new uses of Zoom and social media to replace the workplace and face-to-face contact. Digital game worlds are places we can live, play and work together across great distances while feeling we are in a reassuring place where we connect. David Chandross, Associate lecturer, Masters of Digital Media Program, and Senior Scholar in the field of Aging and Technology, Ted Rogers School of Management, Toronto Metropolitan University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

What’s leisure and what’s game addiction in the 21st century? (2026-01-04T13:33:00+05:30)

Crowds gather to watch top gamers play. Sam Churchill, CC BY Lindsay Grace, American University School of Communication The World Health Organization’s description of “gaming disorder” as an “addictive behavior disorder” includes a vague description of how much digital gaming is too much. The WHO warns that “people who partake in gaming should be alert to the amount of time they spend on gaming activities.” At what point does a leisure activity turn into an addiction? Games researchers are no strangers to complaints about the dangers of too much game playing. Video games have been blamed for causing aggression, unemployment and even the vitamin D deficiency called rickets. Games have also, of course, been championed for improving surgical skills, encouraging pro-social behavior, aiding in cancer treatment and helping develop new AIDS medications. New forms of popular media are often targets of public concern, going back to dime-store novels, comic books and jazz, all the way through rock ’n’ roll and rap. But those fears eventually wane, and society embraces work like “Maus,” the first graphic novel to be a National Book Award finalist and rapper Kendrick Lamar, who won a Pulitzer Prize earlier this year. Digital video games can be exceptionally enticing and engaging. Regarding the risk of addiction, it is interesting to analyze the WHO’s warnings about excessive gaming in the wider context of leisure. As part of the Games for Change conference, I and others who study psychology, serious games and youth advocacy will be talking about the myths of games, media and technology addiction. Leisure in history Development psychologists and educators bemoan the overscheduled itineraries of American children, and “being too busy” can be a status symbol oddly juxtaposed with the idea of ultra-luxury leisure and globe-trotting vacations. Indeed, the average medieval peasant only worked 150 days a year, giving them more leisure time than the average U.S. worker today. Historically, social leisure has evolved with society. Before sports were ubiquitous, the Puritans and other political leaders fought their popularity on moral grounds and as a threat to social fabric. Later, the Industrial Revolution yielded new leisure pastimes that seemed decadent to prior generations – most notably travel. The new urban working class had the remarkable opportunity to temporarily escape their everyday surroundings and routine. Yet at the dawn of the tourism industry, leisure travel was considered a threat to contemporary politics and society specifically because it helped expand travelers’ experiences. Contemporary downtime In the modern developed world, the dominant leisure activity is watching television, followed by other leisure activities like sports and entertaining friends. There’s no evidence that game playing is more dangerous than these other leisure activities. In fact, the academic research provides much more evidence about the dangers of television viewing. Since the 1960s, researchers have been emphasizing television’s potential for addiction and detriments to quality of life. Beyond investigating how TV viewing supplants other leisure activities, researchers have found watching TV drains productivity, encourages obesity, boosts violent or aggressive behavior and can lead to lower life satisfaction and higher anxiety. People watch television for far more time than they play video games. In the U.S., people watch an average of 4.5 hours of TV every day. That’s more time than they spend reading, relaxing, socializing, participating in sports, playing digital games and using computers – combined. Television and games The WHO seems unconcerned about the effects of TV. This is especially clear when it comes to televised sports. Consider a person who skips household and professional Sunday responsibilities to sit on the couch for hours watching pre-game shows; screaming at referees, coaches and players; and following post-game analysis – or who calls in sick to catch a game or breaks friendships over team rivalries. By the WHO’s criteria, this could qualify as “gaming disorder” – except that it’s about sports on TV, rather than video games. (That doesn’t even consider tens of thousands of sport-focused rioters.) But sports fans aren’t players, the way gamers are. For athletes, the time commitments far exceed even the most devoted fans’ dedication. The average college athlete in the U.S., for example, spends more than 40 hours a week practicing their sport. Many student-athletes say they lack the time to be students, but we wouldn’t identify them as addicted to their sport. There’s another way to view dedicated video-game players, too: With the rise of esports, professional gamers net millions in performance payouts, attract arena-sized audiences and even earn college scholarships. What’s the point at which a person with “gaming disorder” turns from mental patient or social pariah into a varsity star with serious professional prospects? Crowds gather to watch top gamers play. Sam Churchill, CC BY The challenge of measuring game addiction It can be hard to identify addiction to an activity. Though the WHO warns against spending too much time gaming, that is not the way to measure addiction. Some studies demonstrate that some people who spend more time gaming actually exhibit fewer addictive behaviors than people who play less. In a 2009 paper, the drafters of a game addiction scale for adolescents explicitly wrote, “Time spent on games should not be used as a basis for measuring pathological behavior.” And as a leading researcher into games and behavior put it, “Some people who are depressed stay in bed all day, but we wouldn’t say that they have a bed addiction.” In the end, humans with leisure time seek escape through weekend trips to the country, a visit with the Cleavers’ 1950s America, or exploring the vast desert of “Journey”. What people are looking for in their leisure time is a break, and just because they enjoy that break – and spend a fair amount of time doing it – doesn’t mean it’s an addiction. Lindsay Grace, Associate Professor of Communication; Director, American University Game Lab and Studio, American University School of Communication This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The Nex Game Console Is Perfect for Kids Whose Parents Have Concerns About Traditional Gaming (2026-01-01T13:24:00+05:30)

The Nex Playground console’s basketball game – credit: Nex, released. 29-08-2025, Need a late gift idea? A new video game console is flying off the shelves by offering an alternative to parents worried about gaming’s effects on their children. With no in-app purchases, violence, or online interactions, and all available titles accessible immediately through an annual subscription, the Nex Playground addresses every concern a parent might have. For more than 30 years, the Nintendo consoles, the Sony Playstation, and the Microsoft Xbox have ruled the console gaming space. The only alternative of any marketable value since the collapse of Sega and Atari consoles has been PC gaming, but given that the Nex Playground has sold 100,000 consoles when pre-order was limited to just 5,000, it’s fair to say there’s a new kid on the console block. Reminiscent of the Nintendo Wii, all the games on the Nex Playground involve body motion capture, such as sport movements, dancing, or pretending to cut pieces of fruit in half in the introductory title Fruit Ninja. Again, on the theme of addressing parents’ concerns with gaming, this aspect of the Nex addresses both video game addiction and lack of exercise; you can’t play a game for five hours if it is moderately exhausting. Reviewers writing for Business Insider got a hold of the console, and report that their kids of all ages loved it. They sent the consoles back to prevent a conflict of interest. At the moment, Nex features more than 40 games, all of which are available for a subscription of $89 a year. This may seem a major hangup for the “subscription fatigue” in the modern consumer, but it’s actually much less than most parents will spend on different titles, each of which will cost between $40 and $70, in a single year. Some of the most popular games in the world are actually free, but come heavily monetized through an in-game currency that can be earned through playing, or that can be purchased directly with a card. The Nex Playground features none of this in-app purchasing, nor is there any open access online interactions between a child and the rest of the gaming world. GNN has reported often on the links between gaming and positive mental development (or at least lack of negative influence). It’s been shown in studies that homework grades remained unaffected by a preteen’s gaming habit, even if it extended past 3 hours; and that video gaming was associated with higher IQ in children compared to social media use and watching television. It’s also been shown that massively multiplayer online video gaming tends to be associated with greater levels of teamwork and problem solving in adult employees.However, the phenomenon of modern gaming and everything that is attached and associated with it, really can’t be measured in a single study. Sitting, excess screen time, overvaluing digital tokens, and influence of negative interactions online are all things which may in some broad sense be bad for a child’s wellbeing, but which happen to all be absent from the Nex Playground experience. The Nex Game Console Is Perfect for Kids Whose Parents Have Concerns About Traditional Gaming

Finding nostalgia in the pixelated video games of decades past (2026-01-01T13:23:00+05:30)

Nicholas Bowman, West Virginia University and Tim Wulf, University of Cologne Every day, it seems, new ultra-high-resolution video games are released, syncing with players’ social media accounts and ready for virtual reality headsets. Yet old games from the 1970s and 1980s are still in high demand. The Nintendo Corporation has moved recently to both quash and exploit that popularity, shutting down websites hosting old games’ code while planning to release its own back catalog on a new platform. Fans of Nintendo-made games may end up OK, but fans of other legacy games may lose much more than a retro way to have fun: They could find themselves without a powerful link to their personal pasts. Playing old video games is not just a mindless trip down memory lane for lonely and isolated gamers. The average age of a U.S. gamer is 34, and many popular retro game titles have been around for 20 years or more. It seems Generation X-ers could be returning to their cherished childhood properties. In fact, emerging media psychology research, including our own work, suggests that video game nostalgia can make people feel closer to their past, their friends and family, and even themselves. The popularity of retro video games The earliest video game consoles emerged in the 1970s, marked by the 1972 release of the Magnavox Odyssey. The arcade classic “Pong” was so popular in 1973 that machines each collected about US$200 a week in quarters. Many 1990s gamers remember fondly the “console wars” in which major game developers would battle publicly – for example Sega claiming to do what “Nintendon’t.” It may be a bit of a surprise to find out how popular retro and classic games are. Older games feature pixel-based graphics that can look fuzzy on modern televisions and can be frustrating to play for even experienced gamers. Yet in 2016, Nintendo released a NES Classic Edition console and sold out all 2.3 million of them in just three months. The company made more and began selling them in June 2018. Other similar retro consoles are popular too. A quick search of eBay and Amazon reveals hundreds of retailers selling original and refurbished older video game systems. These older games pale in comparison to modern games that immerse players in lush, photo-realistic and smoothly interactive worlds. And yet they’re very popular. The people who play them are clearly getting something compelling – though it’s probably not graphics or a deep storyline. The psychology of nostalgia As a psychological principle, nostalgia can be best understood as a bittersweet mix of positive and negative emotions that arises when thinking of meaningful events in one’s own past, and tends to be tied intimately to social relationships. So far, researchers have identified two ways to trigger nostalgia: external triggers and internal distress. External triggers might include things such as smells and tastes and even references to media content, such as movie titles or music. Internal triggers are brought about by feelings of loneliness or even boredom. Regardless of the trigger, nostalgia has a number of psychological benefits. It can help people feel better about themselves and make them feel less alone. For these reasons, nostalgia can promote mental health and well-being. Clinical studies have suggested that nostalgia might help protect against dementia. Nostalgia in video games Can video games really evoke nostalgia? Forums online debate the issue furiously, museums chronicle the history of video games with an eye toward bygone days, and the topic comes up in popular podcasts. Players’ relationships with the characters they’ve played in the past – Mario, Sonic and scores of others – can play an important role in invoking nostalgia. One reason for this is players have complex social relationships with those characters, either by seeing them as their friends, or even as extensions of themselves. In our own research, we asked 582 participants, mostly from the United States, to respond to a survey on “how people think about certain gaming experiences.” Specifically, gamers were randomly assigned to write one of four essays: about past or recent video game experiences, playing either alone or with others. The essays were designed to help participants immerse themselves in the memories, so that they could later answer questions about the intrinsic psychological needs satisfied by those experiences. As we expected, people who wrote about the older memories experienced stronger feelings of nostalgia than the people who wrote about recent ones. Those essays about older, more nostalgic memories were also more likely to have discussions of challenge and enjoyment as core to their experience, and tended to recall memories from the writer’s childhood. Social memories essays were also more nostalgic, but only when those memories were associated with a greater sense of belonging with people from the past. Some of these essays, especially those about family and friends, were emotionally powerful – one participant wrote (edited slightly, to protect their identity) that “My dad died when I was 10 so playing Mario Kart with him is one of my best memories that I have.” Nostalgic gaming and well-being Perhaps more interesting? Memories of video games were enough to induce nostalgia that, in turn, made those people feel a little closer to those around them right now. The study has limitations – the largest being that participants did not get to play their older games, so we don’t know if their nostalgic memories would be the same if they actually replayed the games – but it helped us better understand gaming nostalgia and its potential effects. Our findings have also been corroborated by other research on gaming nostalgia, such as work on active players of “Pokémon Go.” In that study, playing the game resulted in feelings of nostalgic reverie, which in turn was positively connected to resiliency, or the ability to cope with challenging times in life. Research into the psychology of video game nostalgia is relatively new. However, the results of this work suggest that games can be nostalgic, and that this nostalgia can be therapeutic. For example, we already know that playing games at work can aid in psychological recovery from stress; it might be that playing nostalgic games could intensify this process. It could also be possible to use the popular video games of yesterday as health interventions to delay the onset of dementia, following a line of research showing video games to have cognitive and physical health benefits for older populations. As gamers age, understanding gaming nostalgia will help us better examine the wide range of experiences that they have with one of the most profitable and popular form of entertainment media today. Nicholas Bowman, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, West Virginia University and Tim Wulf, Ph.D. student in Media Psychology, University of Cologne This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Technology practitioners eye online skill gaming industry for career growth : Study (2025-12-24T12:34:00+05:30)

IANS Photo Kochi, (IANS) The online skill gaming industry is being seen as a potential high-growth sector by tech talent in Kerala, according to a study. The study, titled 'Unveiling the Potential and Scope of the Online Skill Gaming Industry: A Study with Technology Students and Professionals” by the E-Gaming Federation (EGF) and the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata (ISIK), provides unique insights into the growing interest in the online gaming sector within the technology community. The study sampled 4,644 individuals from the tech community across Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, demonstrating a very strong interest among both students and professionals in the online skill gaming sector. It found out that 72.5 per cent of respondents across India have expressed a strong inclination towards pursuing a career within this dynamic domain, while 60 per cent believed that "providing an opportunity to create in India for the world" could stem the brain drain to overseas tech jobs. Another finding was 100 per cent of participants in Kerala showed a willingness to pursue professional education in the gaming sector, indicating a strong desire to upskill and contribute to the industry's expansion. Dr Diganta Mukherjee, Professor at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, said as the industry rapidly evolves, there is a unique opportunity to harness the creative potential of our youth and build a robust ecosystem that nurtures both technological innovation and economic growth. Kerala is home to more than 4100 start-ups operating in a variety of industries including hardware, healthcare, fintech, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence. The study's analysis underscores the vital role the sector could play in India's economic and technological trajectory. To unlock this potential, it is imperative that policymakers, industry stakeholders, and academia work hand in hand to create an environment that fosters innovation, skill development, and entrepreneurship. skill gaming industry Technology practitioners eye online skill gaming industry for career growth : Study | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Episode – Choose Your Story: the inappropriate game .... (2025-12-24T12:33:00+05:30)

Episode – Choose Your Story: the inappropriate game your kids have probably played Dr Janine M. Cooper, Murdoch Children's Research Institute As smartphone ownership surges, we’re seeing a drastic rise in the use of mobile apps, many of which are marketed towards impressionable young audiences. One such app is Episode – Choose Your Story, a free game with more than 50 million downloads and five million weekly users. Episode is coming under scrutiny by parents and users, many as young as 10, for its inappropriate themes. Such apps are far-reaching, and parenting their use can be tricky. According to a US report published this year, which surveyed 1,677 kids, 41% of tweens (aged 8-12) and 84% of teens (aged 13-18) owned a smartphone. There’s an increasing number of games targeted at these age groups, of which many follow a “choose your story” format. The stories are divided into episodes and the user, or “reader”, can interact with storylines and even create their own. Readers can choose from a list of responses to influence things such as a character’s appearance, dialogue and reaction to events. While most storylines focus on romance and high school relationships, many have raised alarm bells in parents. A number of parents have voiced concerns on Common Sense Media, a leading source of entertainment recommendations for families. What your child engages with online Episode features numerous storylines about sexual discrimination, underage sex and pregnancy. Many of these glorify adultery and are potentially promoting reckless decision making, pettiness and unkind acts. On inspection, there are several issues with the app. First, storylines can be written by anyone, even those aged 13-17. And while there are more than 12 million creators, there is little content regulation, even when the Episode community expresses concern. One story regarding sexual consent raised uproar with users, who were concerned at the poor moral message of a young female character being “blind drunk” and not consenting to a sexual liaison with an older male character. Yet, the story was not removed, and the author did little to address the backlash. Another concerning aspect of the game is that in many situations, users have to pay money to make morally correct decisions, yet reckless choices are free. This reinforces inappropriate reactions to events. This is also where players can unwittingly spend huge amounts of money. What about parental guidance ratings? On the Common Sense Media website, parents have given Episode a parental advisory rating of 14+, whereas kids have rated it suitable for ages 13+. On the Apple App Store, the game is rated 12+ and on Google Play it’s rated “Mature”. That said, players of Episode are often impressionable older children and teens. A 12+ rating offers little guidance to parents, and ratings overall don’t seem to deter children from playing. This is hardly surprising. At this stage of development, peer relationships are highly rewarding. Many players are introduced to apps such as Episode by siblings or friends, and are enticed by the excitement they offer. Research shows several areas of the brain make adolescents more sensitive to the rewards of peer relationships than adults. This motivates teens to focus on their peers in decision-making situations that involve risky behaviour. This is apparent in one comment from a 13-year-old made on a Common Sense Media forum about Episode: WOW!!! The best app!!!!! I love it!!!!! P.S. – kids, make sure your parents don’t know you’re using Episode! ;) No universal standard Although different countries offer their own classifications for online sites and gaming, there’s no universal standard apps have to meet in order to establish suitability for children and teens. Due to the discrepancy in app store ratings, the best prevention of a child or teen using inappropriate apps is to refer to guidance sites such as Common Sense Media. But an even better defence is for parents to test questionable apps themselves. From those adults who offer valuable feedback online for childrens’ apps, many are parents who have personally tried the apps. Until there’s an improved consensus on app classification, parental monitoring remains best practice. Other things parents can do To prevent the use of unsuitable apps by children and teens, parents can try establishing a verbal and written contract with their child before they are allowed to own a smartphone, or other smart device. It should contain guidelines for when, how long and what can be viewed on the device. There should also be transparency around what’s being downloaded, with parents checking the device(s) on a regular basis. Furthermore, due to the tendency of apps such as Episode to encourage consumerism, children and teens should not buy gems, tokens, cards or any app-related digital currency, without first discussing this with an adult. As it is, the estimated daily revenue of Episode is US$105,000. Passive versus interactive A major criticism of screen time and app use is that it’s passive and requires little or no involvement from users. Research suggests typing on a keyboard to calculate times tables, rather than writing by hand or using a smartphone, can hinder long-term learning and memory. Instead of encouraging device usage, children benefit from more reading, storytelling and imaginative play. As they mature, such activities enable greater fluency, theory of mind (which is understanding that others may have different beliefs and desires to you), and moral reasoning abilities. The good news is, app developers have also started to heed such advice, with many promoting the interactive components of their product. And this isn’t just to appease parents. Apps that encourage storytelling, many led by research and developed by educators, are popular with children and teens too. Dr Janine M. Cooper, Founder, Everyday Neuro & Honorary Fellow Manager, Clinical Sciences, Murdoch Children's Research Institute This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.