Examining Enjoyment of Casual Videogames

Abstract

The psychological theory of play and the mental models perspective offer firm theoretical grounds for understanding how enjoyment is wrought in the process of playing casual games. The relationships among interactivity, spatial presence, perceived reality, and enjoyment hold for games played on handheld or console devices. Furthermore, this study is one of the first to demonstrate these relationships and test them simultaneously, breaking new ground in research on game enjoyment.

The Effects of Casual Videogames on Anxiety, Depression, Stress, and Low Mood: A Systematic Review

“…Although many CVGs were developed for teenage users, research indicates that they are popular among people of various ages, genders, and nationalities. 11 For instance, among a sample of 263 students with an average age of 20.4 years, Shafter and Carbonara 13 found high levels of enjoyment playing CVGs on handheld or console devices. This research is consistent with the growth of the casual game market, in which, for example, the CVG ''Angry Birds'' reached 1 billion downloads in 2012.…”

“…14 Similar to other recreational activities, it is possible that the popularity of playing CVGs is due to the fun they elicit. 13 With the variety of CVGs available, most people can choose a game that best suits their interests, thus maximizing user's autonomy and enjoyment. Research suggests that individuals who experience mental illhealth-related symptoms can benefit from engaging in pleasant activities.…”

“…20,21 These findings alongside the popularity of CVGs suggest that CVGs might form a useful addition to the suite of available interventions for some individuals 19 and this is a promising area for further study. 13,18,19 However, there has been limited research in the area to date, and to the best of our knowledge, no systematic reviews have been published. We aimed to systematically review the literature regarding the effects of CVGs on treating anxiety, depression, stress, and low mood.…”

Study Protocol: Does an Acute Intervention of High-Intensity Physical Exercise Followed by a Brain Training Video Game Have Immediate Effects on Brain Activity of Older People During Stroop Task in fMRI?—A Randomized Controlled Trial With Crossover Design

“…Video games are meant to be fun; they excel at inducing the so-called flow (Sherry, 2004; Chen, 2007), which is a state of an individual when the challenge presented by a certain task matches the skill of this individual (Belchior et al, 2012). This state itself has beneficial effects on cognitive function (Shafer and Carbonara, 2015), which can be superior to usual cognitive training at least to some degree (Anguera and Gazzaley, 2015; Shute et al, 2015). Because exergaming is fun and emerging (Maillot et al, 2012; Verheijden Klompstra et al, 2014; Eggenberger et al, 2015; Lyons, 2015), it has a more positive influence on compliance than those of other rehabilitation methods.…”

Ubiquitous Pokémon Go: Human–Environment Relationships and the Location-Based Augmented Reality Game

“…Therefore, this study takes an exploratory stance to examine the antecedents of Pokémon Go enjoyment from the perspectives of environmental psychology and media entertainment. Building upon concepts that are mostly relevant to players’ interactions with the virtual characters and integrating the physical world in the AR-enabled environment, the perceptions of realism (Shafer & Carbonara, 2015), crowding (Shelby, Vaske, & Heberlein, 1989), and co-presence (Slater, Sadagic, Usoh, & Schroeder, 2000) are first examined. This study then explores how game enjoyment and players’ emotional connections toward specific physical places may intertwine to elucidate the experience players have when they engage in a fictional world that is anchored in real-world surroundings.…”