"Gaming time has no link with levels of well-being, study finds" - BBC article

[Fascinated Viewer]

Summary

Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo provided six weeks of data to showcase whether the amount of time playing games affected your well-being.

Quotes

Quote

"A study of 39,000 video gamers has found "little to no evidence" time spent playing affects their well-being.

The average player would have to play for 10 hours more than usual per day to notice any difference, it found. And the reasons for playing were far more likely to have an impact.

Well-being was measured by asking about life satisfaction and levels of emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger and frustration." - BBC

 

My thoughts

 

 

I find the news to be good as I have well-being difficulties, and games are a great "scapegoat" for me. Interestingly, there has been researched into this before in a 2020 study. I feel this news could guide parents who may not fully understand games and misjudge games by other fellow parents/groups. This news could develop into more comprehensive research, such as on people who do struggle with their well-being and finding out how they affect that category of people 

 

Sources

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-62293235

[Motifator]

Bullshit, the other day I came across a Twitch stream of a guy with 2 hours of sleep playing trio's alongside of another who's been going on for 7 hours of WZ since morning. If you have no life outside of a game that you play it 5-10 hours a day, that's going to affect your wellbeing one way or another.

[TetraSky]

No matter the amount of studies they do, some people will still use games as the perfect scapegoat to deflect from real issues.

 

I'm just surprised the study didn't show an INCREASE in well being like the previous study had shown... I suppose the ones who abuse it are bringing the stats down.

Quote

But many gamers around the world say that their playing helps their mental health.

Mike Dailly, who created Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto, said the benefits were varied.

"I'm not sure it's something that's measurable with a single 'well-being' state," he said.

"As is everything in life, it's a balance.

"Spend 24 hours a day playing, that's not good - but spend 24 hours a day eating or working out, that is also not good."

 

Too much of a good thing is not good. Too much is like not enough.

 

 

[Fasauceome]

7 minutes ago, Fascinated Viewer said:

And the reasons for playing were far more likely to have an impact.

Insert shocked Pikachu here

 

 

Just now, Motifator said:

Bullshit, the other day I came across a Twitch stream of a guy with 2 hours of sleep playing trio's alongside of another who's been going on for 7 hours of WZ since morning.

Note the above findings:

8 minutes ago, Fascinated Viewer said:

The average player would have to play for 10 hours more than usual per day to notice any difference, it found

Yes, the research seems to indicate that if ALL time in your day is dedicated to a game, at the expense of the things you need to be doing to take care of yourself, this would be emblematic of an unhealthy interaction with the game. 

 

But again, the study's goal is to see if the correlation of game obsession is actually casual with the negative side effects. The BBC headline stating "no link" is misleading because that almost seems to imply that no correlation exists, and I don't think the study says that.

[Fascinated Viewer]

3 minutes ago, Motifator said:

Bullshit, the other day I came across a Twitch stream of a guy with 2 hours of sleep playing trio's alongside of another who's been going on for 7 hours of WZ since morning. If you have no life outside of a game that you play it 5-10 hours a day, that's going to affect your wellbeing one way or another.

Yeah Mike who made GTA agrees with you.

"

In China, children are allowed to play for only one hour per day, on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. But many gamers around the world say that their playing helps their mental health. Mike Dailly, who created Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto, said the benefits were varied. "I'm not sure it's something that's measurable with a single 'well-being' state," he said. "As is everything in life, it's a balance.

"Spend 24 hours a day playing, that's not good - but spend 24 hours a day eating or working out, that is also not good." - BBC artical

[Motifator]

5 minutes ago, Fascinated Viewer said:

Yeah Mike who made GTA agrees with you.

"

In China, children are allowed to play for only one hour per day, on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. But many gamers around the world say that their playing helps their mental health. Mike Dailly, who created Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto, said the benefits were varied. "I'm not sure it's something that's measurable with a single 'well-being' state," he said. "As is everything in life, it's a balance.

"Spend 24 hours a day playing, that's not good - but spend 24 hours a day eating or working out, that is also not good." - BBC artical

Not exactly saying people should be limited on gameplay hours, but as with most self-things, self control is a wonderful sight. Most people who play close to 10 hours a day, and I do know of some from IRL, also have weird sleep schedules and such. It's not helping the case.

You're probably sleeping around 8 hours a day as you should be, if you go by doing a rough math of breaks between gaming hours, food, the fact that you should go outside for walking for an hour or so... that doesn't even leave you close to 10 hours of gaming. Even 5 hours of gameplay in such period seems bad. I'd max it out around 3 hours for one day tops.

People should be doing other things than just spending their entire free time gaming, there are lots of hobbies that are harm-free and more beneficial, obviously.

[WhitetailAni]

1 minute ago, Motifator said:

People should be doing other things than just spending their entire free time gaming, there are lots of hobbies that are harm-free and more beneficial, obviously.

What makes gaming inherently bad from something else?

[Motifator]

35 minutes ago, FakeKGB said:

What makes gaming inherently bad from something else?

It's not as useful as quite some other hobbies, though my original point was overplaying, not regular hours.

Games today aren't the games of many years earlier, further doubling on the dumbed down experience IMO.

[Spotty]

1 hour ago, Fascinated Viewer said:

The average player would have to play for 10 hours more than usual per day to notice any difference

How do they expect me to play video games for 28 hours a day? /s

[MeedCEM]

Sola dosis facit venenum.
 

Play 10h of tennis/Basketball/… everyday and your body (most likely knees) will give eventually. Admittedly I can see the detrimental effect of gaming setting in earlier as you are exercising your body very little if at all. 

[RONOTHAN##]

16 minutes ago, Spotty said:

How do they expect me to play video games for 28 hours a day? /s

Technically if you travel west fast enough you can game for 28 hours a day (~150MPH if you were traveling along the equator). 

[Fascinated Viewer]

I would love to see Linus and luke disscuss this on the WAN show on friday, just saying, lol

[Supreme Calamitas]

Ah yes... Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo saying games are good for you. 

 

Trust gained !

[YamiYukiSenpai]

Everything in moderation

[Bananasplit_00]

Look, I don't think gaming is bad for you, but I wouldn't trust a study about playing games conducted by three large companies whose whole income is from people playing games to show any negatives.

[Mihle]

6 hours ago, Motifator said:

It's not as useful as quite some other hobbies, though my original point was overplaying, not regular hours.

Games today aren't the games of many years earlier, further doubling on the dumbed down experience IMO.

There is plenty of hobbies that are worse, like going out getting super drunk every day.

[Isuck Assimov]

i mean... that would be the response of most addicts wouldnt it ?

Would be interesting to see how the same group answers the survey after being forbidden from playing videogames for like a week.

[TVwazhere]

5 hours ago, YamiYukiSenpai said:

Everything in moderation

As a moderator I approve this moderate post

[Lurick]

6 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

As a moderator I approve this moderate post

I moderately agree with the moderator approving moderately of the moderate post

[TVwazhere]

13 minutes ago, Lurick said:

I moderately agree with the moderator approving moderately of the moderate post

*Banned for Backseat moderating moderators moderatly moderating moderate messages*

[Brooksie359]

1 hour ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

Look, I don't think gaming is bad for you, but I wouldn't trust a study about playing games conducted by three large companies whose whole income is from people playing games to show any negatives.

I agree with the article says about how the reason matters the most. If you feel the need to game then it's a problem vs if you game because you want to. As someone who used to have a gaming addiction it wasn't just a wanting to play the game it felt like I had to. It was a compulsion where if I didn't game I felt awful and just generally couldn't deal with it. Granted for me it was a coping mechanism so after dealing with the underlying issues the gaming addiction just went away. 

[Quackers101]

AAA wants you to game, in their casinos daily with no age restriction! To use you in projects that will try to undermine your humanity, from dynamic prices, dynamic events and loot, to keep you attached, spend and suffer in their paid to win NFT grind. To games that are not games, only work or dedication needed.

 

Playing is not that bad, but it can affect mental state, it kind of depends on the person and how good they are to keep themselves healthy.

Its a bit the same like trying to keep a healthy discussion on twitter, reddit or 4chan, like how long would you be able to last or if it would change your mental state? Then you have the games you play, why you play, and if you are able to take care of yourself, in person or daily life. (the WoW pandemic, RIP gamers)

Online relationships, guilds, timed events or very long play sessions.

 

IGN - World of Warcraft Addiction Documentary - In Real Life by Anthony Rosner

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4W0uHG77Zc

Spoiler

off-topic

 

but god wow got so much outdated elements in the UI and the walking.

"Profession TALENTS?! After A Decade, I'm FINALLY Excited For Crafting In WoW"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKvYp8_-tNA

Edited July 27, 2022 by Quackers101

[Doobeedoo]

I mean... first let's be honest, not everything is for everyone, like gaming a lot and such. Some can't cope with it, it ruins them in some way, they lack self control and so on. Same with social media or internet in general, take that away from people and you'd see massive increase in depression, suicides and such really. Some would be saved though, but let's not kid our selfs that it wouldn't make many lose it, sadly.

 

I love gaming, I can game all day every day, but I can easily play little a day and do other stuff, not feeling very bad because. It also depends how you have your life set up currently too and how much you can allow yourself to sink that time if no other importance you should rather do. If you live from gaming being a pro and a streamer then definitely you can not worry much about pouring way more time into it.

I remember quote from WoW loading tip "take all things in moderation, even WoW" funny enough that's one game I did take the least in moderation hehe. 

[Kisai]

11 hours ago, Fascinated Viewer said:

Summary

Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo provided six weeks of data to showcase whether the amount of time playing games affected your well-being.

 

 

Under "normal", "intended" gameplay, which is almost certainly to be 4 hours, not the 12-hour binges some people do.

 

That said, I think it has to be stated to be obvious that just because some people neglect their health, that's not the game's fault. That's the player having executive misfunction and not prioritizing the things they don't see as important to do immediately.

 

Like a lot of jokes about "dirty, basement-dweller, doritos and mountain dew, hardcore gamer" comes directly from this unintended consequence of games sometimes lacking the ability to pause.

 

Like when I stream a game, I make a point of taking a break every 2 hours, no matter what the game is. If it won't let me (eg like some damned MMORPG raids) or the game has timed events (eg "dailies"), then I nope out of those. Things like that, is what pushes people to ignore things like their physical and mental health because those events could be missed. Skinner-box gameplay is bad for you. But it is you who is making the decision to play it.

 

People who are predisposed to gambling additions due to themselves or their parents/family all having similar addictions, probably should not play games that have such "games of chance"/"surprise mechanics","lootbox","gachapon" type systems. Unfortunately more and more games are putting this garbage in, in lieu of any actual content worth playing the game for. 

 

It will not surprise me if at some point countries start putting any game with "monetized chance" systems under gambling, and crack down on any game that uses premium currency.

 

[EvoGamer]

40 minutes ago, Kisai said:

It will not surprise me if at some point countries start putting any game with "monetized chance" systems under gambling, and crack down on any game that uses premium currency.

Some countries are already looking at legislation for this.

 

A counter-point I always pull out for anyone who say games are bad for you without providing evidence is Daphne Bavelier's TED talk: