Famous Sad Love Quotes: Video gamers play to 'adopt a new identity and experience superpowers'

Friday, August 5, 2011

Video gamers play to 'adopt a new identity and experience superpowers'

Thank you for using rssforward.com! This service has been made possible by all our customers. In order to provide a sustainable, best of the breed RSS to Email experience, we've chosen to keep this as a paid subscription service. If you are satisfied with your free trial, please sign-up today. Subscriptions without a plan would soon be removed. Thank you!

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 1:19 PM on 5th August 2011

People play video games to try and get closer to an 'ideal self' and not to escape reality, scientists have revealed.

Computer games such as The Sims and Call Of Duty are so enjoyable to play because they allow gamers to adopt a new identity and experience superpowers, according to a study.

They allow players to 'try on' characteristics we envision in an ideal version of ourselves - such as the ability to fly, turn invisible or just become more confident and outgoing.

Becoming an 'ideal': Video games are so enjoyable to play because they allow gamers to adopt a new identity and experience superpowers

Scientists from the University of Essex found that giving players a new identity during a game, such as a different gender, or playing a hero or villain, made people feel better about themselves.

They also claim that games are used as a means of moving towards your ideal self, rather than just escaping the humdrum reality of everyday life.

Lead researcher Dr Andy Przybylski said: 'I was heartened by the findings which showed that people were not running away from themselves but running towards their ideals.

'They are not escaping to nowhere, they are escaping to somewhere.'

Players who could in some way empathise with the character whose persona they adopted were found to get an even greater enjoyment from the game than players who had nothing in common with the character.

Researchers studied hundreds of gamers in the laboratory and thousands outside it who played a wide variety of games, from reality simulator The Sims, to shoot-em-up Call of Duty to strategy game World of Warcraft.

Players were asked how they felt about the characteristics of the game characters that they would most like to adopt themselves.

The scientists found that people enjoyed becoming characters with personality traits they would like to have themselves, such as an outgoing nature.

Dr Przybylski said: 'People spend three billion hours a week playing video games but little is known scientifically about why they are actually fun in the first place.

'The vast majority of research into video games has concentrated on the possible harmful effects of playing them, ignoring the simple question of why people actually want to play them.

'A game can be more fun when you get the chance to act and be like your ideal self.

'The attraction to playing video games and what makes them fun is that it gives people the chance to think about a role they would ideally like to take and then get a chance to play that role.'

He added: 'When somebody wants to feel they are more outgoing and then plays with this personality it makes them feel better in themselves when they play.'

The research is published in the journal Psychological Science.