Once upon a game: Exploring video game nostalgia and its impact on well-being.

Abstract

Retro gaming and the renaissance of past video games has been an emerging area of interest for media research within the past years. Yet, there is little empirical research trying to explain the psychological effects and benefits of past-related gaming. This article explores how remembering of past video game experiences relates to nostalgia, a mixed emotion elicited via reflection on the past that shows positive associations to well-being. To this end, a mixed-methods approach was used to investigate prerequisites of nostalgic video game experiences, their nature, and connections to well-being. In a randomized online survey, participants were instructed to elaborate on past (vs. recent) and social (vs. solo) gaming memories. Quantitative analyses indicated that nostalgia was impacted (a) directly by past memories and intrinsic need satisfaction of competence and relatedness within the remembrance, and (b) indirectly by social memories that increased relatedness. Controlling for the associations between need satisfaction and wellbeing, nostalgia showed significant associations with present feelings of connectedness. Additional qualitative analyses indicated that past memories were more strongly associated with enjoyment and challenge, and social memories were likely to involve close others. These findings are discussed regarding the elicitation of video game nostalgia as well as the application of nostalgic gaming for well-being purposes. Public Policy Relevance StatementRemembering past video game experiences, especially those in which people felt competent (at the gameplay) and related (to other players), elicits nostalgia. This research shows that triggering nostalgia may be one way how video games can contribute to psychological well-being. This can help explain the general popularity of games that (re)create the look and feel of old games and the growing market for rereleased games and franchises.

Being a kid again: Playing Pokémon Go contributes to wellbeing through nostalgia

“…Our findings are also in line with research demonstrating nostalgia to be elicited by media content: Besides music (Barrett et al, 2010), film-and video game trailers (Natterer, 2014), and reminiscences of media used in the past (Wulf, Bowman et al, 2018, the current study provides evidence that actual video game play can elicit nostalgia. This finding suggests that nostalgia elicited by anticipating game play, as well as actual game play, is associated with personal meaning.…”

“…Nostalgic experiences are characterized by recalling positive, meaningful events from the past that were typically experienced with close others (Wildschut, Sedikides, Arndt, & Routledge, 2006). Nostalgia can be triggered by psychological threats such as boredom (van Tilburg, Igou, & Sedikides, 2013), loneliness (Wildschut et al, 2006), meaninglessness (Routledge et al, 2011), or threats to authenticity (Baldwin, Biernat, & Landau, 2015), and incidental experiences such as smells (Reid, Green, Wildschut, & Sedikides, 2014), music (Cheung et al, 2013), movies, video game trailers (Natterer, 2014), and memories of playing games (Wulf, Bowman, Velez, & Breuer, 2018).…”

When a Pandemic Enters the Game: The Initial and Prolonged Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Live-Stream Broadcasters on Twitch

“…Within the action genre, we observed that three out of six categories with the most significant increase in SL (Rust, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, DayZ) were shooter video games with either a survival setting (Rust, DayZ) or a war setting (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare). Given the fact that COVID-19 can be considered a huge worldwide stressor, triggering fears and uncertainties [40], our findings suggest that a association between real-life stressors and settings chosen in video games could be present.…”

Being a kid again: Playing Pokémon Go contributes to well-being through nostalgia

“…Nostalgic experiences are characterized by recalling positive, meaningful events from the past that were typically experienced with close others (Wildschut, Sedikides, Arndt, & Routledge, 2006). Nostalgia can be triggered by psychological threats such as boredom (van Tilburg, Igou, & Sedikides, 2013), loneliness (Wildschut et al, 2006), meaninglessness (Routledge et al, 2011), or threats to authenticity (Baldwin, Biernat, & Landau, 2015), and incidental experiences such as smells (Reid, Green, Wildschut, & Sedikides, 2014), music (Cheung et al, 2013), movies, video game trailers (Natterer, 2014), and memories of playing games (Wulf, Bowman, Velez, & Breuer, 2018). Furthermore, nostalgia serves existential and social functions, meaning that it is a psychological resource (Sedikides, Wildschut, Routledge, & Arndt, 2015a) that contributes to psychological well-being (Baldwin et al, 2015;Baldwin & Landau, 2014).…”