history of video games research paper

A History of Video Games

This research begins with the premise that while video-games have become a pervasive cultural force over the last four decades, there is still a dearth of educational and historical material regarding the emergence of video game home consoles and their content. Games have an extensive history, dating back to early radar displays and oscilloscopes of the 1960s (Tennis for Two, 1958) and early home video game consoles of the 1970s (Magnavox Odyssey, 1972). From the JAMMA (Japanese Amusement Machine and Marketing Association) arcade standard of the 80s to the high powered processors of Sonys PS4, video games have come a long way and left a wealth of audio-visual material in their wake. Much of this material, however, is archived and engaged within a traditional manner: through text books or museum exhibitions (Games Master, ACMI 2015). Through interactive design however, this data can be made easily comprehensible and accessible as interactive data-visualisation content. This design research project explores processes of data visualization, interactive design and video game production to open up video game history and communicate its developmental stages in a universally accessible manner. Though there has been research conducted utilising game engines for visualizations in other fields (from landscape architecture to bio-medical science) it has rarely been used to visualize the history of gaming itself. This visualization (utilising the Unreal Engine and incorporating historical video content) creates an accessible preservation and catalogue of video game history, and an interactive graphical interface that allows users to easily learn and understand the history of console development and the processes that lead video games to their current state.

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“How Do We Play this Thing?”: The State of Historical Research on Videogames

Though previously overlooked by academia, scholars from a wide array of fields now consider videogames as a serious subject of inquiry. The emergence of game studies as a standalone discipline has led to the publication of high-quality work on the medium, yet the field of videogame history is still immature. Initial attempts to introduce critical historical analysis of videogames in a field dominated by journalistic accounts were themselves plagued by an overemphasis on videogame canons and on the United States and Japan. In effect, early writings by videogame historians resembled “great man” theory, something one could qualify as “great game” theory. Over the last decade, this situation has started to be redressed and there are now growing efforts to produce solid historical scholarship on videogames. Still, game scholars and game historians need to collaborate, engage in conversation, and develop and adapt proper methods to conduct historical research on videogames in order to write relevant histories of this relatively young medium.

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Introducing the VGHF Digital Library

A sneak preview of the future of video gaming’s past.

• Post author By Phil Salvador
• Post date December 13, 2023

The following is part of our 25-day Holiday Countdown Calendar ! Every day from December 1st through the 25th, we’re posting a cool game history treat, daily updates from the VGHF, giveaways, and more! To make sure you don’t miss a day, sign up for our email list:

This is all part of our annual Winter Fundraiser donation drive, where we ask those who are able to generously give what they can so that we can continue thriving. If you’re able to make an additional one-time charitable contribution, this really is the best time to do so, as your donations will be DOUBLED thanks to a generous group of sponsors! Head on over to gamehistory.org/donate to learn more and give today.

Today, we’re giving you a first look at our upcoming digital library platform!

One of the most frequent questions we get is how you can access our collections of rare video game history research materials. Well, wonder no more! For the past two years, we’ve been building a digital platform where you can explore our archives, without having to visit in person. And we think it’s ready to show off.

Today’s Sponsor

Today’s sponsor is Organized Havoc! They help creatives of all types with project management and strategy…and that includes us!

They’ve offered to DOUBLE every dollar put toward our goal this year, up to $1,000! As I write this we’re still pretty far from our goal, so if you’ve been waiting to give this year, this would be a really great time. Producing content like this takes a lot of effort, and if you’re able this year, we could really use your support.

We’ve put together an 18-minute demo of what our work-in-progress digital library looks like. This is our first look at how you’ll access the resources in our collection—plus an advance preview of the Mark Flitman papers, one of the exciting collections we’ll be rolling out when the library soft-launches next year.

Remember: This is a preview, and some things are a little unfinished! But if we’re all cool with that, we think it’s about time to show you what we’ve been up to.

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College & Research Libraries ( C&RL ) is the official, bi-monthly, online-only scholarly research journal of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association.

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Shannon L. Farrell is Natural Resources Librarian in the Natural Resources Library at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities; e-mail: [email protected] . Amy E. Neeser is Assistant Librarian, Library Research—Science and Engineering in the University Library at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; e-mail: [email protected] . Carolyn Bishoff is Physics, Astronomy, and Earth Sciences Librarian in the Walter Library at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities; e-mail: [email protected] ).

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Academic Uses of Video Games: A Qualitative Assessment of Research and Teaching Needs at a Large Research University

Shannon L. Farrell, Amy E. Neeser, and Carolyn Bishoff *

Academic libraries develop collections and services for scholars who use video games in teaching and research. However, there are no assessments of related information and technology needs. The authors conducted 30 semistructured interviews to gather data about these needs and understand how the University of Minnesota Libraries can facilitate access to games and technology. A total of 28 interviewees used games in research, and 23 used games in teaching. We identified a variety of information and technology needs; many showed strong disciplinary trends. The findings can inform needs-based multidisciplinary strategies to develop video game services and collections relevant to unique academic communities.

Introduction

Recent studies show that video games are ingrained in American culture and, increasingly, higher education. A 2015 Pew Research Center survey found that 49 percent of American adults and 67 percent of adults ages 18–29 play video games. 1 The New Media Consortium reported that games and gamification have several applications in higher education, as educational technology and components of blended learning. 2 A search for “video games” in major article indices finds game technology used in diverse research areas.

College and research libraries share a vision of exceptional services to motivate and facilitate cutting-edge research and student learning 3 and have proactively supported scholars using and experimenting with video games. Librarians frequently collaborate with faculty and students to create game collections and interactive spaces for research, teaching, game development, and play. Despite this, there are currently no multidisciplinary assessments that provide an overview of the information and technology needs required by scholars working with video games. Some disciplinary-specific needs are understood, such as the needs of game design programs and curricula, but most information on needs is based on anecdotal evidence.

The University of Minnesota (UMN) is a large, doctoral-granting research university. The Twin Cities campus includes more than 4,000 faculty and 52,000 students, 16 colleges, and more than 300 research, education, and outreach centers and institutes. There is no video game design program or department, but there are a number of research faculty, teaching faculty, and students who use video games for academic purposes. To understand the diverse uses of video games across disciplines, we conducted semistructured narrative interviews of faculty, staff, and graduate students who use games or gaming technology in their work. This paper explores the information and technology needs of scholars who use video games on the UMN campus, similarities and differences by discipline, and how college and research libraries can incorporate disciplinary needs into a strategic approach to video game services and collections.

Literature Review

Many academic libraries recognize that scholars using video games for research and instruction have unique information and technology needs. In 2008, Smith 4 called for a better understanding of game scholars’ information needs, research methods, and types of materials they require, but there are three challenges to understanding those needs on a large scale: lack of information on conducting a comprehensive needs assessment of academic video game users, scarce information about research and teaching needs related to video games, and little information about how unique disciplinary or institutional needs affect a game-related collection or service.

Most library literature on games focuses on recommended genres and equipment 5 or the specifics of acquiring, cataloging, and circulating games. 6 Descriptions of video game collections and services often include a process to gather input; but none of these articles go into detail about the methods or findings, nor do they share a specific plan for how faculty and students would be consulted as technology, research, and classroom needs change.

Laskowski and Ward provide the most thorough overview of classroom and research needs and areas the library can support. 7 They note three primary needs for game-related classes at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC): access to labs with high-powered PCs, availability of course reserves, and access to discontinued games. They propose a variety of needs for game design classes and surmise that those classes would benefit from close liaison partnerships. The research needs they identify all relate to analyses of gameplay, and they propose archiving gameplay videos with player commentary. Since then, game technology has evolved and these recommendations are worth updating.

Many academic libraries have new game collections since the publication of these foundational articles, and descriptions of these collections provide the most up-to-date understanding of the evolving academic uses of video games. It is well recognized that researchers and instructors who use games come from many different disciplines, including education, economics, and the humanities. 8 Some libraries developed partnerships with one department or discipline, such as education 9 or the arts. 10 Librarians managing the game collection at the University of Chicago (UChicago) intend to serve a wide population, from music to media studies to computer science. 11 UChicago also has strong faculty advocates who identified many potential users on campus. 12 Game collections at the University of Michigan 13 and Carleton University 14 likewise support a range of courses and research interests from the sciences to the humanities.

Despite the variety of potential users, there is less documentation about how a library game collection reflects the disciplinary or departmental information and technology needs at a particular institution. The information available shows a surprising amount of consistency across academic game collections: most libraries collect commercially successful games to play on consoles, such as the Playstation 3 or XBox 360. UIUC, 15 the University of Michigan, 16 and the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) 17 have vintage games and game systems available. Though personal computer (PC) games are recognized as an important genre to collect, 18 it was difficult to determine if any academic libraries collected PC games or provided hardware to play them. Carleton University is one of the few that does. 19

There are similarities among the themes of many game collections. Collections at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), 20 UChicago, 21 and the University of Michigan 22 all represent the history of video game development and the evolution of games through time. Many academic game collections also focus on acquiring current releases. 23

Some libraries have unique aspects to their collections. For example, VCU collects games specifically for users in the arts. The arts librarian looks for “games that have certain aesthetics … have significant artistic direction, unique narrative or cerebral gameplay.” 24 Some libraries plan to expand beyond console games, including UChicago; a faculty member from English hopes that “computer and mobile games” are eventually added to the collection. 25 At least two libraries make game development software available: the University of Calgary game resources include “six high performance (liquid cooled) gaming PCs” with software packages including Unity and several Autodesk products; 26 and Carleton University had requests for software including Poser Pro. 27

As affordable game technology evolves, libraries take steps to stay up-to-date with new research and teaching applications. Commonly, academic libraries rely on subject librarians to stay aware of research and instruction trends, and that is no different when video games are involved. 28 Another strategy involves direct faculty and student input, which often happens during the initial development of video game collections. 29 However, some collections are built from donations and gifts like at the University of Calgary; 30 a for those, the relationship between the collection and local research and teaching needs is less clear. Some collections accept donations for a particular purpose: the University of Michigan Computer and Video Game Archive (CVGA) accepts donations and purchases games to create the most comprehensive collection possible, while also collecting in targeted ways to support faculty and student activities. 31

No literature to date provides a comprehensive overview of the information and technology needs of academic video game users. Many universities rely on a handful of faculty advisors to understand needs on campus; UIUC consulted a faculty member and hosted a game night for students to gather input; 32 Carleton University similarly “crowd-sourced” input for their game collection from faculty, students, and library staff, though they did not describe their methods. 33 At UChicago, faculty advocates assisted directly with the development of the collection. 34 The University of Michigan LibGuide for the CVGA provides the most comprehensive list of courses, research, and faculty who have used the CVGA on their campus, but the list is intended to inform students and potential users, not provide an overview of trends about research and teaching needs or inform collection and service development. 35

This paper explores the information and technology needs of games scholars at UMN Twin Cities and how libraries can accommodate disciplinary needs and help overcome barriers to academic work related to video games.

We formulated the following research questions:

• Which disciplines are represented among UMN scholars who use video games?
• Do UMN scholars who use video games collaborate outside their disciplines?
• What are the information and technology needs for game-related research and teaching at UMN?
• Are there similarities in the information and technology needs of researchers and instructors using video games, despite disciplinary differences?
• If obstacles are identified, how can libraries help researchers and instructors overcome them and enhance their work?

To answer these questions, we identified scholars at UMN who work with video games or video game technology. This was defined broadly and ranged from using games as an object of study to using the technology to study a separate problem. We excluded researchers studying “game theory” (a mathematical concept) or studying analog games such as board games or logic puzzles because our interest was in needs related to video game technology.

We used a number of methods to identify a population of faculty, staff, and students. SciVal Experts, a research profile system used at UMN, identified 62 people who had published on video games. The SciVal Experts system does not include all UMN scholars, and the database best represents disciplines that use journal articles as their primary means of scholarly communication, so we also conducted searches of the UMN website to find mentions of video games in biographies, research statements, or classes. Word-of-mouth also played an important role: we asked librarians at the UMN for recommendations and used snowball sampling to find additional names from those we interviewed. Through these combined methods, we obtained 92 total names, which we considered an exhaustive list.

A qualitative approach was most appropriate, as opposed to a survey, since it allowed participants to drive the conversation and focus on topics important to them. Since we did not have personal connections to those doing video game–related work at UMN, interviews had the additional advantage of building new relationships. We sent invitations to conduct hour-long, semistructured interviews to our sample of faculty, staff, and graduate students. Those who responded were interviewed at a location of their choice. Those who did not respond were sent a follow-up invitation two weeks later. Of the 92 names in the original population, 30 people agreed to be interviewed, 20 declined, and 42 did not respond.

Each interview was attended by two members of the research team and was audio recorded with the interviewee’s permission. We asked guiding questions, but the interviewee led the conversation. Instead of transcribing each interview, we used a Google form to code data from the audio (see appendix for codes and definitions). We used a controlled vocabulary to code most topics and captured quotes and observations with free-text responses. To make sure that different coders maintained a level of consistency, we reviewed the audio from the first 15 interviews in tandem and resolved disputes with the codes and analysis methodology. We then assigned a single reviewer to the final 15 subjects.

We took measures to ensure participants’ anonymity by assigning each participant a random number, coding participants by discipline instead of department, and using generic titles (such as untenured faculty) in place of official positions. These methods were approved by the UMN Institutional Review Board on October 17, 2014.

We identified 92 people from four broad disciplinary groups: arts and humanities, social sciences, science/technology/engineering/math (STEM), and health sciences (see table 1). We interviewed 30 people from this population, an overall response rate of 33 percent. The interview sample overrepresented the STEM population, which had a 52 percent response rate, and underrepresented health sciences, which had a 19 percent response rate (see figure 1). It also overrepresented graduate students, who had a 46 percent response rate overall. Participants were split almost evenly between graduate students (13) and faculty/staff (17). It was also noteworthy that the largest number of interviewed graduate students (in both frequency and percentage of total) occurred in arts and humanities (5).

Interdepartmental collaboration was defined as a relationship, formal or informal, between an interview participant and a member of another department. Both formal and informal collaboration were considered: formal collaboration was defined as a relationship based on an externally recognized partnership, such as a project, grant, coauthorship on a manuscript, or serving as an academic advisor or dissertation committee member; informal collaboration was defined as unofficial or casual partnerships based on consultations, conversations, and friendships that contribute to academic work. These data were used to determine whether an interviewee’s work was confined to a single department or discipline or whether he or she had potential connections outside the interviewee’s home department. We found high levels of interdepartmental collaboration in all disciplines (see figure 2). One third of interview participants (10) reported three or more interdepartmental relationships, including an untenured instructor in arts and humanities who collaborated with faculty and students across five different departments in arts and humanities, STEM, and social sciences. A total of 20 percent of participants (6) reported no collaboration or no collaboration outside their departments, including an untenured instructor in STEM who only collaborated with graduate teaching assistants in his department. Interviewees from arts and humanities were the only group where all interviewees reported collaborative partnerships.

The majority (21/30) of interview participants used video games in both research and teaching (see figure 3). Most participants conducted research with video games (28/30). About a quarter of interviewees (7), most from STEM and health sciences, used games solely in research, including a graduate student in STEM who received funding for research and did not teach. Five categories of game-related research emerged from the interviews (see figure 4). Interviewees who conducted research on the development of games or technology typically produced software or algorithms that could be used in games or developed games based on existing technology. Researchers who used games as instrumentation modified game technology to collect quantitative data or used video games as a cheaper alternative to another analogous instrument they could have purchased. When games were used as an object of study, researchers often applied critical analysis or theory to a video game as they would another text or primary source. When games were used to study influences on people or society, the researcher typically used qualitative methods to examine some societal impact of games. Finally, games were studied by some for their educational applications and impact on student outcomes. Some interviewees used games in more than one way, such as a graduate student in arts and humanities who studied video games as both a cultural object and a cultural influence. Similarly, an untenured faculty in STEM researched video games as an educational technology while also examining their social influence. Each discipline was represented in 3–4 research application categories. At the same time, strong disciplinary research trends were present and each category was dominated by a single discipline, with the exception of educational technology. Educational technology applications primarily included testing games and game-based learning principles in the classroom.

Fewer people used video games in teaching (23/30) than in research, but interviewees who taught with games most often used them in research as well. For example, a tenured faculty researched the effectiveness of a mobile game to create and grade assignments and used the same game in several of his courses. Only two individuals used video games solely in a teaching capacity, including an instructor in STEM who had no research responsibilities. Four categories of teaching applications emerged from the interviews (see figure 5). Some instructors designed games from scratch for students to use in the classroom. Other instructors taught game design principles sometimes using commercial games and sometimes requiring students to create their own games. Games were also used as course material, analogous to texts or other primary sources: instructors assigned games in the syllabus or had students watch videos of others playing through a game. Finally, instructors discussed games, game mechanics, or their own research on games in the classroom but may not have assigned games to students to play in the course. Similar to research applications, some interviewees used games in the classroom multiple ways, like an untenured faculty in STEM who taught game design and also used video games as course material. Every disciplinary group used video games as course material and as a discussion piece in class. Some teaching applications were more common in particular disciplines; 4 of 8 STEM interviewees designed a game for their classes and 5 of 6 from the social sciences used games as course material. Overall, disciplinary trends were far less distinct. Table 2 summarizes the data from figures 3–5.

Among the interviewees, 18 types of information were used (see table 3). Arts and humanities participants used the most information sources (13), while STEM participants used the least (6). Video games were used as primary sources by interviewees in arts and humanities and social sciences, including a tenured faculty in the social sciences who studies game symbology. Interviewees from all disciplines used colleagues, web sources, journals and Google Scholar. Dominant information sources emerged from each discipline: arts and humanities, journals and web sources (see figure 6); social sciences, journals (see figure 7); STEM, colleagues, journals, and Google Scholar (see figure 8); and health sciences, colleagues (see figure 9).

Participants identified 17 unique technology needs (see table 4). The following technology categories emerged: equipment, games, programming languages, servers, software, and web applications. Equipment included any type of hardware, from game consoles like Xbox or PlayStations, to mobile phones or personal computers (PCs). PCs were the most common piece of equipment identified as required by the whole sample, but peripherals (accessories such as game controllers) were the predominant type of equipment mentioned by participants in the health sciences. For example, a Wii balance board was used to study involuntary bodily movements. Only five interviewees used console system equipment (see figure 10).

Games referred to all types of playable software, and four categories of video games emerged: PC games, played on a computer and often accessed through a platform like Steam, were the most common, followed by console games (played on a console) and web games (played through an Internet browser); mobile games (played on a phone) were the least common. Arts and humanities and social sciences participants had the strongest need for games, and they use the widest variety of platforms. For example, a graduate student in arts and humanities uses PC, console, and mobile games to study music, and a graduate student in the social sciences uses web, PC, and console games to study representations of bodies. Social sciences have the largest use of web-based games, used by 3 of 4 interviewees. Only 1 of 11 STEM participants used video games in his or her academic activities (see figure 11), a graduate student studying a prominent massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG).

Software as a category excluded video games but included almost any other type of digital application that a researcher or instructor identified as necessary to his or her work. The subcategories were chosen with collection development needs in mind; proprietary software would likely come at a cost and include access restrictions, while open source software would be more accessible for any library or user to install. Other categories of interest included custom software, which was usually designed by the researcher or instructor and might not be widely shared or available, and game design software. Game design software might overlap with one of the other categories: some interviewees used Unity, an open source game design software; some used the Unreal engine, which at the time of the interviews cost money to download and was not open source; and some built custom game design software of their own. STEM participants had the most software needs overall; and, as a group, both STEM and health sciences interviewees reported using some type of software from every category (see figure 12). However, the needs were diverse among individuals: a graduate student in STEM used proprietary robotics software and a tenured faculty member in STEM used open source software to teach programming. Arts and humanities interviewees overall did not report many software needs; only 1 of 7 interviewees described any software needs at all. However, members of every disciplinary grouping did report a need for proprietary software.

Some technology used by the interviewees in this study was free or provided by the university, like a personal computer, but many technology needs required some financial resources to fulfill. To determine how interviewees currently met their technology needs, we asked about the specific methods they used to acquire technology. We split the results on technology acquisition into two categories: graduate students and faculty/staff (see figures 13 and 14). Tenured and untenured faculty and staff were combined because the methods of technology acquisition were very similar for both groups. Graduate students used many strategies to acquire technology, including borrowing from others or using their own personal property. For example, one graduate student in the social sciences used free technology, borrowed games from others, made purchases, and still did not have all the technology he needed. On the other hand, faculty and staff primarily purchase technology. One faculty member in health sciences said, “I usually have a couple thousand bucks in my ICR [indirect cost recovery] account… that’s more than enough to pay for the kinds of things we’ve been talking about [plasma screen, Xbox 360, games].” This trend holds true regardless of tenure status. Faculty and staff in STEM are using more freely available technology when compared to the other disciplinary groups. If the faculty, staff, or students had not yet acquired the technology they planned to use, those responses appear as “other.” Faculty planned to either create the technology themselves or hire someone to create it, while graduate students were still considering their options.

Funding sources differed significantly by status, and untenured faculty and staff are shown separately from tenured faculty and graduate students (see figures 15–17). In general, graduate students and untenured faculty and staff relied on a variety of methods for funding compared to tenured faculty. In arts and humanities and social sciences, many graduate students paid out-of-pocket, such as a graduate student in arts and humanities who was unable to get funding for game skins (armor, clothing, and the like), which were required for his dissertation research. In STEM, graduate students received some funding from grants, but that was not the case for graduate students from other disciplines (see figure 15). Tenured faculty mostly got their funding from grants (10 out of 11 in our sample), with some additional support from ICR funds, departmental funds (funding providing by a researcher’s or instructor’s department), and new technology funds (funds provided by the department, college, or university to acquire technology) (see figure 16). Unlike graduate students, tenured faculty did not pay out-of-pocket costs. Health sciences’ tenured faculty illustrated a depth of funding sources. Although there were only three participants in our sample, they had six sources of funding. One example is a tenured faculty member who had both an external grant and used department funding. Untenured faculty and staff appear to be seeking multiple sources of funding (see figure 17). For example, in arts and humanities, an untenured instructor was funding his work with a grant, departmental funds, and his own money. Figures 18–21 summarize the data from figures 13–17 and organize it by discipline.

Research Limitations

This research had several limitations. If an eligible participant did not mention his or her work with video games on a staff profile page or in publications, or if the participant was not located through recommendations or snowball sampling, he or she was not included among the population of 92 UMN game scholars. The interview data was more limited in scope because some eligible participants were away on sabbatical, did not respond to invitations, or declined an interview.

The exploratory nature of this study limits the generalizability of the findings. However, despite being limited to this one research context, the size of the institution and broad range of disciplines and activities covered in this study provide a rich starting point for future research and the development of library services aimed at these types of researchers. Librarians serving game design or game development programs may observe different needs from those identified in this study because UMN does not have a dedicated game design program.

The open-ended, semistructured nature of the interviews resulted in rich and diverse data that posed some problems when categorizing findings and ensuring anonymity. We used broad codes and categories to capture as much data as possible while also maintaining anonymity, resulting in some loss in the granularity of the data. Additionally, determining how to assign disciplines to interviewees to maintain anonymity was challenging. For example, depending on the context, History can be considered a social science or part of the humanities as it is “multifaceted and diffuse.” 36 We chose to place it in arts and humanities because the researchers interviewed were primarily studying video games as cultural objects instead of the impact on society or human behavior.

Finally, some of the subjects discussed were sensitive (for example, institutional barriers to completing work or acquisition of funding) and some participants felt apprehensive about sharing information. Therefore, the data only represents what interviewees shared “on the record.” Occasionally, the interview location could have inhibited participants (for example, one interview occurred in a public location and two interviews occurred where interviewees’ colleagues were present). However, we have no reason to believe that interviewees concealed information or provided untruthful answers; in the cases where subjects spoke “off the record,” they were candid and honest about challenges with their work.

Demographics and Collaboration

Four disciplines were represented in both the larger population of game scholars and our sample of 30 interviewees. All but one interviewee identified strongly with a single area of study, usually the person’s department or area of research. No single department or discipline dominated; video games were used institutionwide.

Most interviewees had strong disciplinary ties and also had strong patterns of collaboration outside their departments. Collaboration was common for those we interviewed regardless of discipline. We anticipated a higher frequency of collaboration in STEM and health sciences because previous studies showed high levels of formal collaboration in these disciplines, 37 but this did not bear out in the interview sample. Collaborative partnerships took the form of coauthorships, collaborative conference presentations, and participation on doctoral committees, as well as many informal collaborations. Informal collaborations were also commonly described by interviewees and included professional friendships, relationships with advisors and committee members, pilot projects, and interest groups.

These data on collaboration are useful to keep in mind while discussing disciplinary trends around information and technology needs. Widespread collaboration on game-related projects and other projects suggests a need for cross-departmental and cross-disciplinary collaboration among librarians on collection development and the creation of services. Some libraries that invested in game technology do serve a range of users and disciplines, 38 but other prominent collections of games and game technology in academic libraries were driven by the needs of only one or two departments. 39 Awareness of the collaborative partnerships that exist could help libraries go beyond serving one student, class, or researcher at a time, and investments in game technology have the potential to support the work of whole networks of researchers and instructors. Explicit library support of collaborative work with video games could even give fringe projects and new collaborations a space to intersect and thrive. At UMN there is the potential for many departments and subject librarians to guide the development of a possible video game collection, and this would require a very collaborative approach to collection development.

Academic Use of Video Games: Research and Teaching

Video games were commonly used in research across all four disciplines represented in our sample. This confirmed a need for the collection development practices of universities such as UChicago, 40 University of Michigan, 41 and Carleton University, 42 which accommodated users from multiple disciplines.

We did not anticipate how common video games are in classrooms, since published information about game-related courses only identified a handful of classes at any comparable institution, unless they were focused on game design. Additionally, very few course descriptions in the UMN course catalog mentioned video games, and, of the game-related courses we found during our initial searching, most were in the social sciences or arts and humanities. We did not expect so many STEM and health science classes to integrate games as well. In fact, the use of video games in classes was present within all the disciplines, especially in introductory undergraduate courses and upper level seminars. The course descriptions were often vague enough to give the instructor leeway in how to develop his or her individual section, and those who wished to incorporate games could do so. Some departments even encouraged game-related classes due to consistently high enrollment.

Most people in our sample incorporated games into both their research and teaching. We suspect that having a research interest in games may make it more likely for them to incorporate video games into the classroom as well. This may explain why only two people in our sample were using video games exclusively in the classroom.

Overall, knowing how scholars are using video games and gaming technology on campus formed the backbone of this needs assessment. Any effort to provide library support for video game–related work will impact both research and classroom/student needs. Since we know that most scholars are using games in both research and teaching capacities, the support of this work may have double the impact.

Role of Video Games in Research and Teaching

There were clear disciplinary trends in the types of research done with video game technology. The development of video games primarily occurred in STEM, while video games were most often used as a text or an object of study in arts and humanities research. There were also some strong similarities among the disciplinary groups. At least one interviewee in every discipline conducted research that studies “educational technology” or “the influences on people and society.” Since video games were used by different disciplines in different ways, the type of support the library offers should not be done through the lens of a single department or discipline, and a variety of materials need to be available for many different applications including development, study, and experimental design.

Disciplinary differences were more difficult to discern when examining the role of games in teaching. Many classes were new or were only offered once; even so, teaching game design or designing games from scratch occurred not only in STEM but also in social science and arts and humanities classrooms. Incorporating game technology as course material was common, and interviewees identified a number of different ways in which games were used: readings, storytelling devices, and technology in labs. Students were impacted by these course requirements as well. Many interviewees described accommodations for students who did not own a console or a computer equipped to run graphics-intensive games, but some required students to figure out how to access the games on their own (such as via a personal account on the Steam game distribution system). 43

Game design was taught in four classes from three disciplines, which was unexpected because there is no game design program or certificate at UMN. Supporting classes that incorporate game design would be easier if they were all in one area of study, but a subject liaison might only be aware of the one class in his or her discipline. Regular environmental scans might be needed to uncover common technology and material requirements for classes across disciplines for courses that use video games and other emerging technologies.

Information Needs

The most commonly used information sources were Google Scholar, journals, and web sources. The interviewees in the social sciences and arts and humanities were the strongest users of “traditional” library materials such as books and journals. Several interviewees described having to acquire the majority of their texts through interlibrary loan (ILL) because their library did not have the journals or books they needed. Libraries need to review collections in this and other emerging areas to minimize the need for backchannels and shortcuts.

Colleagues were the single most common source of information for interviewees, especially in STEM and health sciences. In one case, a project in health sciences was developed entirely with information and skills contributed from existing relationships. The frequency with which interviewees in this sample collaborate outside their department emphasizes the importance of colleague networks in new and emerging areas. Libraries cross departmental and disciplinary borders and can cultivate a role as a connector for scholars doing similar work in different subject areas with events, experimental technology space, or other strategies.

Libraries should pursue partnerships with existing video game archives and other libraries or investigate shared collection development efforts to help researchers and the public overcome barriers to accessing game-related information sources. Interview participants identified video games as both a kind of technology and a type of information. Games are available in some academic libraries and public libraries, but it is unclear how accessible they are outside their immediate communities or institutions through ILL. Game manuals and trade magazines like Nintendo Power were also used by several interviewees. Public libraries typically collect trade magazines but, according to Worldcat, many often only keep the last 1–2 years. Locating game manuals is even more difficult, as they typically lie only in the hands of hobbyists and collectors. A search on Worldcat shows that relatively few libraries have holdings for either game magazines or manuals, raising the question of how libraries can facilitate access to these materials.

The depth and variety of sources used makes it clear that libraries cannot be the sole gatekeepers of information on this subject. The people in our sample used subscription journals but also ephemeral, noncurated materials (such as game manuals, gaming websites, and streaming games). Other library resources like subscription databases were not as valuable for most interviewees, possibly because they are too narrow in scope or interviewees are simply not aware of them. Rather than collect all of the sources scholars need, libraries can create guides to help scholars locate these materials elsewhere, akin to the University of Michigan CVGA LibGuide. 44

Technology Needs

Interviewees’ needs for devices, displays, and peripherals show no disciplinary trends. Investing in a range of equipment would benefit the largest range of users at UMN. Arts and humanities and social science scholars had a greater need for video games, while those in STEM and health sciences had more software needs. In fact, only one person in STEM identified games as a need, and only one interviewee in arts and humanities used software of any kind.

Disciplinary trends ought to factor into decisions related to purchasing and marketing game technology. For example, at UMN, subject librarians and users in the arts and humanities and social sciences disciplines might be primarily responsible for selecting game titles. Subject librarians for STEM and health sciences should weigh in on video game software selection, since usage would be most expected from STEM and health sciences disciplines.

Among our interviewees, the PC was the most common technology necessary to research and teaching. PCs are necessary to academic work, but there was some nuance to how interviewees used them. PC games are used almost as much as nearly all other types of games combined (console, mobile, and web-based). Mobile games are a growing industry, 45 but they are not used heavily on this campus for academic purposes. Other technology needs are tied to PC games as well; PC accessories, most often graphics cards, were the third highest need in the equipment category. PC games do not require much additional technology besides a computer (unless a powerful game requires faster processing or graphics cards), so they may be more attractive to the researchers and instructors from arts and humanities and social science, who make up the majority of game users. Guidance on collecting PC games is limited, since few academic libraries currently collect them. Most libraries with game collections and services collect console games almost exclusively, likely because console games do not have restrictive digital rights management (DRM) or require an account to play and are easier to collect and lend.

Peripherals were a common technology need, especially in health sciences. Interviewees shared a diverse range of applications for peripherals that have nothing to do with consoles: to control robotics, play PC games, and modify to use as instrumentation. Interviewees also preferred them for their low cost and ability to interface with a number of technologies. Since they are flexible and relatively cheap, libraries and makerspaces could provide a variety of peripherals (with or without consoles) for on-site use or rental.

Acquisition of and Funding for Games and Gaming Technology

In general, interviewees found they could purchase games or technology at stores or online but did not always have funding to do so. The acquisition of games and video game technology was intrinsically tied to funding, which was mentioned as the largest barrier to acquiring technology.

Graduate students used a variety of creative strategies to acquire technology (such as using their personal game collection, borrowing from friends, and other means), whereas faculty and staff simply purchased technology with grants or other funds as needed or used freely available games and technologies, such as online emulators. Graduate students may have less funding available, or they do not know how to access existing funding. The majority of graduate students, all from the social sciences and arts and humanities, were paying out-of-pocket.

Graduate students had the same technology needs as faculty and staff and conduct their own research, often independent of their faculty advisors and any associated funding. STEM graduate students were the only ones receiving grants or new technology funds. We argue that graduate students would be the primary beneficiaries of having video games and technology available, as this would break down disciplinary acquisition and funding barriers. Underfunded graduate students are probably not unique to UMN; and, if libraries made these games and technologies available, graduate students would have much more flexibility in their research. The arts and humanities students who purchased video games out-of-pocket likely used the games as primary research materials, analogous to texts. Since many libraries purchase books for research, it should be easy to purchase games for analogous reasons.

Libraries can also help connect graduate students with funding. Many academic units at UMN provide grants to fund graduate research, and the UMN Libraries subscribe to grant databases and offer workshops on locating grant funding. Since graduate student research is highly valued, it makes sense to assist them in their efforts to acquire game technology by building their grant-seeking skills.

Even though faculty and staff theoretically have the same opportunities for funding, untenured faculty and staff seek more sources of funding to meet their needs, whereas tenured faculty receive most of their funding from grants. Startup packages supported three untenured faculty from STEM and the health sciences, and one staff member reported having to pay out-of-pocket to buy games for classroom use. Faculty and staff for the most part were successful in finding funding to purchase the required technology, but making materials available at the library would put less pressure on faculty and staff to acquire them in other ways and would give them an option to use their funding for other purposes.

Collections in the UMN Libraries are focused primarily on meeting faculty research and teaching needs, as faculty tend to stay at the university longer than students. We recognize that these data could suggest that faculty and staff do not have many barriers to accessing technology and that it is neither necessary nor urgent to include video games and video game technology in library collections. It could also be argued that grants and other funding sources already pay for research and classroom needs and that libraries are not in the business of directly funding research costs like instrumentation, experimental design, or technology development. However, many faculty we spoke to welcomed a chance to collaborate with librarians whether or not the library could directly support their research. Some faculty incorporate games into their outreach service, and many have classes that would benefit from the availability of game materials. We also argue that libraries have a great opportunity to engage with graduate and undergraduate students who want to experiment with games before personally investing in the technology.

By focusing our study on researchers and instructors, we have missed the opportunity to explore implications for students taking classes that incorporate games and gaming technology. What we know came solely from the instructors’ viewpoints; therefore, we do not have a comprehensive picture of how these technologies were made available to students or if they encountered barriers to accessing them. In some classes the game technology was provided, like a health sciences class where Wii balance boards were available to take measurements; but, in another case, students were expected to purchase World of Warcraft and install it on their PCs. Some instructors did note that requiring students to purchase video games may be prohibitive and not directly analogous to purchasing textbooks, as it requires students to own consoles or a high-powered PC that supports gaming. Some attempted to find alternative solutions such as asking the UMN Libraries to install games on library computers and investigating Steam licensing for computer labs. It would be worthwhile to interview students from some of these classes to uncover if they encountered any barriers in attempting to access these technologies.

There is little data available about the information and technology needs of researchers and instructors who use video games in higher education. This study attempted to fill that gap with interviews with faculty, staff, and graduate students from UMN. Scholars from all disciplinary groups were represented and demonstrated both a high level of collaborative activity and use of video games in both research and teaching. As libraries build new video game collections or expand existing collections, they should consider the following findings:

• Information used in game-related research and teaching includes nontraditional material such as trade magazines and game manuals. Journals were the most common source of information identified overall, but some essential titles may not be collected or indexed in library catalogs.
• Video games are most often researched as an influence on society and having a role in educational technology. This research is diverse and may have vastly different needs.
• Video games are commonly used as course material in courses from all disciplines, but console games may not be used as frequently as PC games.
• All of the interviewees needed game-related technology, though there was much variation among the disciplines: arts and humanities and social sciences required video games; STEM required software; health sciences required peripherals.
• Graduate students, especially those from arts and humanities, are at a major funding disadvantage compared to colleagues in the sciences. This impedes access to game technology required for research and teaching and often requires them to pay out-of-pocket.

This study found some consistency in video game applications between disciplines but even more differences, especially in technology and information use. This suggests that the support libraries provide should be done collaboratively through a multidisciplinary lens. We propose a strategic approach to video game services and collections focused on disciplinary needs. For UMN, this would mean building a collection focused on PC games, a few console games, cutting-edge equipment with game design software, and a collection of peripherals with or without consoles, perhaps associated with a makerspace. Each academic game collection should reflect its institution, based on an evaluation of the unique needs of its population.

Since this study was limited to the UMN campus, we would like to see similar studies undertaken at various institutions that look at how students use and acquire games for classroom use, as well as a large-scale multi-institution look at the use of games in higher education. As technology changes and moves away from physical media, academic institutions will benefit from studies looking at the impact of DRM on scholarship and libraries. Very few video game companies have partnerships with higher education, and more exploration of this issue is needed. These studies would provide a more complete understanding of scholarly video games–related work and scholars’ information and technology needs.

APPENDIX. Interview Themes, Codes, and Definitions

• Graduate student: both master’s and doctoral students
• Untenured faculty and staff: assistant professor, instructor, postdoc
• Tenured faculty: associate professor, full professor
• Arts and Humanities: includes any field where the human experience and expressions or explanations thereof are the primary objects of study. History is included here because the interviewees study video games and texts and consider the games as the object of study
• Health Sciences: medical, kinesiology, and related disciplines
• Social Sciences: includes any field where humans are the primary object of study
• STEM: includes disciplines from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
• Formal collaborations: working on a project, publishing a paper, working on a grant together, serving as an academic advisor or member of a thesis or dissertation committee
• Informal collaborations: talking to/with people, sharing ideas
• Both: a combination of both formal and informal collaborations
• Intradepartmental: work alone or only collaborate within their own department
• Interdepartmental (1–2): between 1–2 collaborations outside their own department
• Interdepartmental (3+): 3+ collaborations outside their own department or split positions between departments
• Development of games/technology: researcher has created the video game or associated technology
• Instrumentation: using video games to gather quantitative data
• Object of study: using critical analysis or thematic study of video games
• Influences on people or society: researcher is examining the societal impact of video games
• Educational technology: using video games to facilitate learning and improve student outcomes
• Undergraduate: lower-level classes, primarily for those pursuing their bachelor’s (1xxx–4xxx)
• Graduate: upper level classes, marketed toward master’s and doctoral students (5xxx–8xxx)
• Instructor designed a game: instructor created a video game for use in the classroom
• Taught game design: instructor taught students how to design their own games
• Used games as course material: video games were studied in the classroom, as primary sources
• Discussed games: video games were used in the classroom as secondary sources
• Other: any other response that did not fall within the above categories
• Borrowed/given: the material was owned by someone else and the researcher or instructor acquired from them
• Purchased: the material had to be purchased by the researcher or instructor either out-of-pocket or with other funds
• Already owned: the instructor or researcher previously owned the material
• Freely available: available at no cost to consumers
• Grant (general): acquired funding via another organization to pursue their research or teaching projects
• New technology funds: funds provided for the explicit purpose of acquiring new technologies
• Seed grant: initial capital to start a project
• Department funds: funding provided by researcher’s or instructor’s department
• Dissertation fund: funding provided by graduate student’s department or graduate school to support dissertation research
• Startup package: new professor was provided with funding to set up a lab
• Indirect cost recovery (ICR) funds: funds that the university collects to cover overhead costs when grants are written. A portion is returned back to departments
• Out-of-pocket: the instructor or researcher had to use personal money to cover the cost
• MNDrive grant: grant allocated via partnership between the UMN and the state of Minnesota that provides funding in areas of interdisciplinary research that align with specific industries
• Not required: no funding was required for this research or teaching
• Equipment, console: consoles, such as Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, Wii, WiiU, or any other
• Equipment, controllers, and peripherals: secondary equipment for the gaming systems listed above, including controllers, Wiimotes, headsets, Xbox Kinects, Wii balance boards, steering wheels, and the like
• Equipment, mobile: smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices, including iPhones, iPads, and such
• Equipment, display: equipment used to view video games, including television screens, computer monitors, or any other display equipment
• Equipment, personal computer: includes Mac, Windows, and Linux systems
• Equipment, personal computer accessories: secondary equipment for PC gaming, including joysticks, controllers, headsets, webcams, and other equipment
• Games, web: games that are available through a browser or browser-based emulator, or for download online
• Games, PC: games purchased to play on personal computers
• Games, console: games purchased to play on consoles
• Games, mobile: games that are available on smartphones or tablets
• Programming languages: computer language used to communicate instructions to a machine, including C, C++, Java, Javascript, Python, and other languages
• Servers: computers or programs that manages access to a network resource
• Software, proprietary: software that must be purchased from the individual or company that developed it; often includes major restrictions for adaptation and use
• Software, free or open source: software that is available for free, typically on the web; often allows users to modify or adapt as needed
• Software, custom: software written by the researcher or instructor from scratch
• Software, game design: software developed for the specific purpose to design video games
• Web applications: software application that is available and runs on the web, such as streaming video
• Archives: historical documents or records
• Books: written or printed works
• Colleagues: talking to people in their discipline
• Conferences: formal meetings for people in related disciplines
• Course readings: resources that were provided while taking a class
• Datasets: collection of related sets of information
• Game manuals: instructions on how to play video games
• Game reviews: evaluations of video games
• Games: console, PC, mobile, or web video games
• Google Scholar: freely accessible web search engine that indexes scholarly literature
• Interviews: information obtained by interviewing appropriate people
• Journals: collections of articles about specific subjects or disciplines
• Library databases: catalog of both full-text resources and indexed citations that are accessible electronically
• Newsletters: bulletins that are issued periodically
• News sources: includes both print and website-based news
• Students: people enrolled in either undergraduate or graduate programs
• Trade magazines: periodicals that contain news and items about a particular topic
• Web sources: materials found on the open web

1. Meave Duggan, “Gaming and Gamers” (Report, Pew Research Center, 2015), available online at www.pewinternet.org/2015/12/15/gaming-and-gamers/ [accessed 18 December 2015].

2. Laurence F. Johnson et al., “NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Higher Education Edition,” Horizon Report (Austin, Tex.: The New Media Consortium, 2015), 22, 35, available online at www.nmc.org/publication/nmc-horizon-report-2015-higher-education-edition/ [accessed 18 December 2015].

3. Association of College and Research Libraries, “ACRL Plan for Excellence,” 2015, available online at www.ala.org/acrl/aboutacrl/strategicplan/stratplan [accessed 11 January 2016].

4. Brena Smith, “Twenty-First Century Game Studies in the Academy: Libraries and an Emerging Discipline,” Reference Services Review 36, no. 2 (2008): 205–20, doi:10.1108/00907320810873066.

5. Examples include Mary Laskowski and David Ward, “Building Next Generation Video Game Collections in Academic Libraries,” Journal of Academic Librarianship 35, no. 3 (May 2009): 267–73, doi: 10.1016/j.acalib.2009.03.005 ; Kristen Mastel and Dave Huston, “Using Video Games to Teach Game Design: A Gaming Collection for Libraries,” Computers in Libraries 29, no. 3 (2009): 41–44, available online at http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ831241 [accessed 18 December 2015]; and Diane Robson and Patrick Durkee, “New Directions for Academic Video Game Collections: Strategies for Acquiring, Supporting, and Managing Online Materials,” Journal of Academic Librarianship 38, no. 2 (Mar. 2012): 79–84, doi: 10.1016/j.acalib.2012.01.003 .

6. Examples include Natalie Gick, “Making Book: Gaming in the Library: A Case Study,” in Gaming in Academic Libraries: Collections, Marketing, and Information Literacy (Chicago: American Library Association, 2008), 1–25; David Baker et al., “Lessons Learned from Starting a Circulating Videogame Collection at an Academic Library,” in Gaming in Academic Libraries: Collections, Marketing, and Information Literacy (Chicago: American Library Association, 2008), 26–38; Danielle Kane, Catherine Soehner, and Wei Wei, “Building a Collection of Video Games in Support of a Newly Created Degree Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz,” Science & Technology Libraries 27, no. 4 (Aug. 20, 2007): 77–87, doi:10.1300/J122v27n04_06; and Emma Cross, David Mould, and Robert Smith, “The Protean Challenge of Game Collections at Academic Libraries,” New Review of Academic Librarianship 21, no. 2 (May 4, 2015): 129–45, doi:10.1080/13614533.2015.1043467.

7. Mary Laskowski and David Ward, “Building Next Generation Video Game Collections in Academic Libraries,” Journal of Academic Librarianship 35, no. 3 (May 2009): 267–73, doi: 10.1016/j.acalib.2009.03.005 .

8. Andy Burkhardt, “Taking Games in Libraries Seriously,” The Academic Commons (blog), available online at www.academiccommons.org/2014/07/24/taking-games-in-libraries-seriously/ [accessed 5 November 2015].

9. Chris Nelson, “Gaming Reaches into Far Corners of Academic World as U of C Builds Huge Collection,” Calgary Herald (Mar. 16, 2015), available online at http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/gaming-reaches-into-far-corners-of-academic-world-as-u-of-c-builds-huge-collection [accessed 4 November 2015].

10. Brian McNeill, “VCU Libraries Launches Collection of Critically Acclaimed Video Games,” VCU News (blog) (Nov. 6, 2014), available online at http://news.vcu.edu/article/VCU_Libraries_launches_collection_of_critically_acclaimed_video [accessed 4 November 2015].

11. Sarah G. Wenzel, “New Library Videogame Collection,” The University of Chicago Library News (blog) (May 25, 2012), available online at http://news.lib.uchicago.edu/blog/2012/05/25/new-library-videogame-collection/ [accessed 30 November 2015].

12. Patrick Jagoda, “Videogame Collection Supports Scholarly Study,” The University of Chicago Library News (blog) (May 25, 2012), available online at http://news.lib.uchicago.edu/blog/2012/05/25/videogame -collection-supports-scholarly-study/ [accessed 30 November 2015].

13. An overview of classes and disciplinary uses is discussed in Mary Claire Morris, “Computer & Video Game Archive Celebrating Five Years of Growth,” The University Record (blog) (Nov. 5, 2013), available online at http://record.umich.edu //articles/computer-video-game-archive-celebrating-five-years-growth [accessed 2 December 2015]. A list of classes and research applications can be found in Valerie Waldron, “Computer & Video Game Archive: CVGA,” University of Michigan Research Guides (2015), available online at http://guides.lib.umich.edu/c.php?g=282987 [accessed 2 December 2015].

14. Emma Cross, David Mould, and Robert Smith, “The Protean Challenge of Game Collections at Academic Libraries,” New Review of Academic Librarianship 21, no. 2 (May 4, 2015): 135–37, doi: 10.1080/13614533.2015.1043467 .

15. David Ward, “Vintage Gaming Collection Development Policy and Description” (Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2014), available online at www.library.illinois.edu/gaming/gamearchives.html [accessed 20 December 2015].

16. Valerie Waldron, “Computer & Video Game Archive: CVGA,” University of Michigan Research Guides (2015), available online at http://guides.lib.umich.edu/c.php?g=282987 [accessed 2 December 2015]

17. University of California Santa Cruz Library, “Video Games” (2015), available online at https://library.ucsc.edu/collections/video-games [accessed 18 December 2015].

18. Diane Robson and Patrick Durkee, “New Directions for Academic Video Game Collections: Strategies for Acquiring, Supporting, and Managing Online Materials,” Journal of Academic Librarianship 38, no. 2 (Mar. 2012): 82, doi: 10.1016/j.acalib.2012.01.003 .

19. Cross, Mould, and Smith, “The Protean Challenge of Game Collections,” 134.

20. McNeill, “VCU Libraries Launches Collection.”

21. Jagoda, “Videogame Collection Supports Scholarly Study.”

22. Adam DePollo, “Play On: Changing Gamer Culture at the ‘U,’” Michigan Daily (Oct. 22, 2014), available online at https://www.michigandaily.com/arts/10computer-video-game-archive22 [accessed 2 December 2015].

23. Laskowski and Ward, “Building next Generation Video Game Collections,” 268.

24. McNeill, “VCU Libraries Launches Collection.”

25. Jagoda, “Videogame Collection Supports Scholarly Study.”

26. University of Calgary Libraries and Cultural Resources, “Video Games,” available online at http://library.ucalgary.ca/dmc/video-games [accessed 4 November 2015].

27. Emma Cross and Robert Smith, “The Evolution of Gaming at Academic Libraries,” Canadian Library Association Conference (Winnepeg, Manitoba, 2013), available online at https://prezi.com/supsungb2uil/the-evolution-of-gaming-at-academic-libraries/ [accessed 4 November 2015].

28. Burkhardt, “Taking Games in Libraries Seriously.”

29. Three examples of soliciting direct feedback from faculty and students are found in Kane, Soehner, and Wei, “Building a Collection of Video Games”; Laskowski and Ward, “Building Next Generation Video Game Collections”; and Cross, Mould, and Smith, “The Protean Challenge of Game Collections.”

30. Nelson, “Gaming Reaches into Far Corners of Academic World.”

31. DePollo, “Play On: Changing Gamer Culture at the ‘U.’”

32. Laskowski and Ward, “Building Next Generation Video Game Collections,” 268.

33. Cross, Mould, and Smith, “The Protean Challenge of Game Collections,” 133.

34. Jagoda, “Videogame Collection Supports Scholarly Study.”

35. Waldron, “Computer & Video Game Archive.”

36. Mark T. Gilderhus, History and Historians : A Historiographical Introduction , 7th ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2010), 41.

37. Vincent Larivière, Yves Gingras, and Éric Archambault, “Canadian Collaboration Networks: A Comparative Analysis of the Natural Sciences, Social Sciences and the Humanities,” Scientometrics 68, no. 3 (2006): 519–33, doi:10.1007/s11192-006-0127-8.

38. Nelson, “Gaming Reaches into Far Corners of Academic World.”

39. Kane, Soehner, and Wei, “Building a Collection of Video Games.”

40. Wenzel, “New Library Videogame Collection.”

41. Mary Claire Morris, “Computer & Video Game Archive Celebrating Five Years of Growth,” The University Record (blog) (Nov. 5, 2013), available online at http://record.umich.edu //articles/computer-video-game-archive-celebrating-five-years-growth [accessed 2 December 2015].

42. Cross, Mould, and Smith, “The Protean Challenge of Game Collections,” 144.

43. For more information, see http://store.steampowered.com/about /.

44. Waldron, “Computer & Video Game Archive.”

45. John Gaudiosi, “Mobile Game Revenues Set to Overtake Console Games in 2015,” Fortune , (Jan. 15, 2015), available online at http://fortune.com/2015/01/15/mobile -console-game-revenues-2015/ [accessed 15 January 2016].

* Shannon L. Farrell is Natural Resources Librarian in the Natural Resources Library at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities; e-mail: [email protected] . Amy E. Neeser is Assistant Librarian, Library Research—Science and Engineering in the University Library at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; e-mail: [email protected] . Carolyn Bishoff is Physics, Astronomy, and Earth Sciences Librarian in the Walter Library at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities; e-mail: [email protected] ). ©2017 Shannon L. Farrell, Amy E. Neeser, and Carolyn Bishoff, Attribution-NonCommercial ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ ) CC BY-NC.

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The father of the video game: the ralph baer prototypes and electronic games video game history.

From the earliest days of computers, people have found ways to play games on them. These early computer programmers weren’t just wasting time or looking for new ways to goof off. They had practical reasons to create games.

During the 1940s and 1950s, computers took up entire rooms and were so expensive that only universities and large companies could afford them. Most people had both a limited understanding of what these electronic behemoths were able to do and an unfamiliarity with the types of mathematical equations these machines were regularly programmed to compute. Games like tic-tac-toe or William Higinbotham’s 1958 Tennis for Two were excellent ways to attract public interest and support. As an added bonus, computer programmers were able to learn from the creation of games as well because it allowed them to break away from the usual subroutines and challenge the computer’s capabilities.

It was this mindset that led a group of MIT students during the 1960s to create one of the first and most groundbreaking computer games. Students Steve Russell and his friends were granted access to the school’s new PDP-1 computer providing they used it to create a demonstration program that (1) utilized as many of the computer’s resources as possible and “taxed those resources to the limit,” (2) remained interesting even after repeated viewings, which meant that each run needed to be slightly different and (3) was interactive.

Inspired by the science fiction novels Russell and his friends enjoyed, these computers “hackers” decided to create a dueling game between two spaceships. The result, called “Spacewar,” caused a sensation on campus and variations on the game soon spread to other universities that had computer engineering programs.

Although Spacewar was fun to play, it was never destined for released to the general public, since computers were still too expensive for personal use. To play Spacewar one needed access to a research facility’s computer, which kept the game’s influence limited to the small computer technology sphere.

In fact, video games did not get their true start from computer programmers, but from an engineer skilled in another major invention of the 20th century: the television set. By the 1960s, millions of Americans had invested in televisions for their homes, but these television sets were only used for the viewing of entertainment. Engineer Ralph Baer was certain this technology could be used to play games.

In 1966, while working for Sanders Associates, Inc., Baer began to explore this idea. In 1967, assisted by Sanders technician Bob Tremblay, Baer created the first of several video game test units. Called TVG#1 or TV Game Unit #1, the device, when used with an alignment generator, produced a dot on the television screen that could be manually controlled by the user. Once Baer had established how it was possible to interact with the television set, he and his team were able to design and build increasingly sophisticated prototypes.

Sanders senior management were impressed with Baer’s progress and assigned him the task of turning this technology into a commercially viable product. After a few years and numerous test and advancements, Baer and his colleagues developed a prototype for the first multiplayer, multiprogram video game system, nicknamed the “Brown Box.” Sanders licensed the Brown Box to Magnavox, which released the device as the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972.

With fewer than 200,000 units sold, Magnavox Odyssey was not considered a commercial success. Among the contributing factors, poor marketing played a large role. Many potential consumers were under the impression—sometimes encouraged by Magnavox salesmen—that Odyssey would only work on Magnavox televisions. Ultimately, the problem was that Magnavox saw Odyssey as a gimmick to sell more television sets. Executives at Magnavox lacked the vision to see that television games had the potential to become an independent industry, and did not give the product the support it needed.

Meanwhile, a creative young entrepreneur named Nolan Bushnell remembered playing Spacewar during his years as a student at the University of Utah. He began to think of ways that the game could be retailed. Bushnell had past experience with amusement park arcades and had witnessed firsthand the popularity of pinball machines. He believed that Spacewar would make a successful coin-operated machine.

In 1971, Nutting Associates, a coin-op device manufacturer, released Bushnell’s idea as “ Computer Space .” However, while Spacewar had been an enjoyable game, Computer Space proved too complex for the casual game player to understand quickly. The changes that were required to convert the two-player Spacewar to a one-player game made Computer Space frustratingly difficult for those who did learn how to play.

Though Computer Space was a flop, Bushnell still believed that coin-operated video games could be successful. After seeing a demonstration of Magnavox Odyssey’s table tennis game in May 1972, Bushnell set about trying to create an arcade version of the same game. He and his business partner, Ted Dabney, formed Atari, Inc., in June 1972, and released Pong, an arcade ping-pong game, that same year. The first Pong machine was installed in Andy Capp’s Tavern, a bar located in Sunnyvale, California. A few days later, the tavern owner called Atari to send someone out to fix the machine. The problem turned out to be that the cashbox was filled with too many quarters. The coins had overflowed and jammed the machine. Atari clearly had a sensation on its hands.

Emboldened by Pong ’s success, Atari partnered with Sears, Roebuck & Company to produce a home version of the game in 1975. Magnavox sued for patent rights infringement. The case was heavily in Magnavox’s favor. Ralph Baer had carefully documented his work. Magnavox could prove that they demonstrated Odyssey to the public in 1972 and that Bushnell had attended the demonstration. (It was even confirmed later that Bushnell had played Odyssey’s tennis game.) Rather than face a lengthy and undoubtedly unsuccessful court case, Atari settled with Magnavox.

The home version of Pong was just as successful as the arcade version. Atari sold 150,000 units in 1975 alone (compared to the 200,000 Odysseys that took Magnavox three years to sell.) Other companies soon began to produce their own home versions of Pong. Even Magnavox began to market a series of modified Odyssey units that played only their tennis and hockey games. Of these first-generation video game consoles, the most successful was Coleco Telstar, due in part to some luck and the help of Ralph Baer.

Coleco, a toy company that later became known for the wildly popular Cabbage Patch Doll in the early 1980s, was just beginning to branch out into video games. Acting on a recommendation from Ralph Baer, Coleco was the first company to place a major order for General Instruments’ AY-3-8500 chip, on which most Pong console clones were based. When General Instruments, which had underestimated the interest in the chip, had trouble meeting production demands, Coleco was at the top of the priority list. While Coleco’s competitors waited for months until General Instruments could complete their orders, Coleco cornered the market.

At a crucial moment, Coleco Telstar did not pass the interference tests needed for Federal Communications Commission approval. Coleco had a week to fix the problem or the unit would need to be totally redesigned before it could be resubmitted for FCC approval. The process could potentially take months, putting the company well behind its competitors. Without FCC approval, Coleco would be stuck with warehouses full of units that they could not sell.

The company turned to Sanders and Ralph Baer in hopes that Baer’s experience would be able to help them. Baer found their solution within the week and Coleco received its FCC approval. Telstar sold over one million units in 1976, before being overshadowed by the next generation of video game consoles.

Produced between 1976 and 1983, these second-generation consoles, such as the Atari VCS (also known as the Atari 2600), Mattel’s Intellivision, and ColecoVision, featured interchangeable game cartridges that were retailed separately, rather than games that came preloaded in the unit. This advance allowed users to build a library of games. There was soon a wide variety of games to choose from, but, ironically, this surplus proved to be the one of the key reasons that the industry faced a serious crash during the early 1980s.

In a classic case of supply outpacing demand, too many games hit the market, and many were of inferior quality. Further complicating matters, there were too many video game consoles from which to choose. Beyond the flooded market, video games consoles now faced growing competition from computers.

The bulky, room-sized expensive computer behemoths were a thing of the past. The age of the home computer had arrived. For many, purchasing a versatile computer, like the Apple II, Radio Shack’s TRS-80, or the Commodore 64, which could play games in addition to running a multitude of other programs, seemed a more logical investment than buying a system devoted solely to gaming.

Sales of video game consoles and cartridges plunged in 1983 and 1984. Many companies like Mattel and Magnavox discontinued their video game lines completely, while Atari, the leader in the field, struggled to remain afloat. Video games remained popular arcade features, but it seemed that the era of home video game systems had ended.

But in 1985, a small Japanese company proved just the opposite. That year, Nintendo released its Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), whose popularity and commercial success surpassed any previous game console. No longer a novelty, video games found a firm foothold mainstream American life, just as Ralph Baer had predicted they would.

• The Father of the Video Game: The Ralph Baer Prototypes and Electronic Games
• Video Game History

• Department of Psychology, Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Science, Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany

Introduction

In recent years, much research has been conducted in order to understand the effects of action video games on mind and behavior. For example, it has been tried to investigate potential links between playing action video games and aggressive behavior ( Anderson and Bushman, 2001 ; Ferguson, 2011 ), visual selective attention ( Green and Bavelier, 2003 ) or gender differences in spatial cognition ( Feng et al., 2007 ). What we see is that playing certain types of video games in the right doses might enhance several cognitive skills. This can be used in the long run to help those with deficits in these areas, for example the elderly. This article shall emphasize the importance of a holistic and unbiased view in regards to the impact of video games and their possible use. Therefore, it is essential that we desist from antiquated concepts of “typical gamers,” understand the advantages and disadvantages of playing action video games and try to step up efforts in application-oriented research. From our understanding, any physically challenging video game in which reaction time plays a crucial role can be described as an action video game. While there is no generally accepted definition, others define action video games as characterized by the use of violence within these games.

Action Video Games, Media Coverage and Public Perception

The role of media.

When it comes to the question whether video games (in general) are harmful or not, a heated debate is very likely to start. Especially demographic groups which are not familiar with video games are four to six times more likely to hold a negative opinion regarding that matter ( Przybylski, 2014 ). One reason might simply be the unfamiliarity with gaming in those cohorts. In addition, headlines in the news might also contribute to a negative bias just due to the innuendo effect ( Wegner et al., 1981 ). An innuendo (“games might be harmful”) is a statement about something (“games are harmful”) with a qualifier about the statement (“statement could probably be true”). The innuendo effect occurs when the qualifier has little or no effect. In this case, games would be perceived as harmful. Furthermore, it could be shown that (1) incriminating innuendos had almost the same effect as directly incriminating accusations and (2) the innuendo effect was only minimally reduced, even if the source was one of a bad reputation ( Wegner et al., 1981 ). Further findings show that attempts to reduce this effect (e.g., clarifying statements or major campaigns) might be especially unsuccessful in the case of low processing motivation of the audience ( Kim and Chun, 2009 ).

Earlier this year, news articles depicted a generation of gamers dealing with an early onset of Alzheimer's disease ( Call of Duty increases risk of Alzheimer's disease, 2015 ; Siddique, 2015 ). Reading this study carefully, one cannot find such causal link. However, it would be wrong to solely blame the media for its coverage. For instance, in terms of health related science it could be shown that not only news are exaggerated but also the press releases (e.g., from the researchers' university) these news are based on ( Sumner et al., 2014 ). The aforementioned news reports, which basically stated that playing action video games leads to Alzheimer's disease, were based on a press release by the Douglas Mental Health University Institute (2015) . The lead researcher Dr. Gregory West, inter alia, stated that “gamers rely on the caudate-nucleus to a greater degree than non-gamers.” As a matter of fact, activity of the caudate nucleus was not measured. Notwithstanding the above limitation, journalists might fall for statements like this (fair communication between scientists and administrative staff, politicians, journalists or lay people is currently also addressed as an important future topic in the Cognitive Science community; Gluck and Gray, 2015 ). Scientists should be aware of their responsibility. Claims unsupported by data and exaggerations of results (e.g., correlations treated as causal relationships) were part of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2011 where the regulation of violent game sales to minors was ruled as unconstitutional ( Ferguson, 2013 ).

What is a Gamer?

Do the average consumers, researchers and journalists have the same concept of a typical gamer? We should be aware that any commonly received pre-millennium concept of a gamer is outdated. According to the Entertainment Software Association (2015) , the average video game player is 35 years old and has been playing videos games for 13 years now. About 42% of Americans play video games for 3 h or more per week and around half of them are female, of which about one third plays action video games. German statistics provide similar proportions (e.g., one third playing, 34.5 years on average, 48% female; Bundesverband Interaktive Unterhaltungssoftware, 2014 ). Thus, the term video game player no longer describes just a few people among the population. Video games are part of our everyday lives, like computers, smartphones or navigation aids. Hence it is crucial that we become clear about the positive and negative outcomes. Today's gamers are tomorrow's elderly, while today's elderly are not yesterday's gamers. This simple but nevertheless important fact shows that research in this area is urgently needed.

Aging and Games

Aging goes hand-in-hand with decline in several psychological areas. In the following, the focus will be exemplary set on three of these areas in regards to aging effects and the possible impact of playing action video games.

Spatial Cognition

Living in an unfamiliar environment such as a retirement home poses a challenge for the elderly. Relatives and caregivers are, for example, often confronted with wandering and getting lost behavior. Even in healthy people the ability to navigate ( Morganti et al., 2009 ) as well as more specifically the ability to acquire spatial knowledge ( Jansen et al., 2010 ) declines with age.

With respect to navigation, especially two different neurophysiological structures play a crucial role, the caudate nucleus and the hippocampus. The former is strongly associated with route learning and response strategies, the latter with wayfinding and spatial strategies ( Packard and McGaugh, 1996 ; Head and Isom, 2010 ). It is argued that because action video gamers rely more on response strategies than non-action video gamers, playing such type of games might result in an increase of gray matter of the caudate nucleus. Because of the inverse relation between those structures, the authors suggest that a decrease of hippocampal volume might occur, which in turn is associated with Alzheimer's disease ( West et al., 2015 ). Nevertheless, these findings could be explained by reverse causality. Striatal volume could predict the improvement of performance in video games ( Erickson et al., 2010 ). As such, video gamers might feel more attracted to games.

If further studies using quantitative neuroimaging such as volumetry (MRI) could show that there is no negative impact on the hippocampus, certain games could be used or new ones could be designed based on neuroscientific data to enhance route learning skills.

Perceptual Skills and Attention

Another set of skills, which declines over time, concerns visual perception. For example, it is known that the useful field of view, which “is defined as the visual area in which information can be acquired within one eye fixation,” declines with age ( Ball et al., 1988 , p. 1). In one study the useful field of view was measured and compared to the vehicle crash history of the participants. The authors could show that difficulties in the field of visual attention are associated with an increase of vehicle crashes in older drivers ( Ball et al., 1993 ). Another example would be contrast sensitivity. It is long known that elderly observers show a great loss of contrast sensitivity in higher spatial frequencies ( Crassini et al., 1988 ).

Action video games could help to enhance visual perception ( Bejjanki et al., 2014 ) and visual attention, yet the exact mechanisms remain unclear. Focusing on dyslexia, Franceschini et al. (2013) show not only the benefits of action video games but also suggest that the magnocellular-dorsal pathway, impaired in individuals with dyslexia ( Gori et al., 2015a ), plays an important role as a neural substrate ( Franceschini et al., 2013 ; Gori and Facoetti, 2014 , 2015 ). This hypothesis has successfully been tested by Gori et al. (2015b) . In a recent review article, Franceschini et al. (2015) summarize these findings and demonstrate that prevention programs based on action video games could be highly beneficial in regards to developmental dyslexia.

Playing action video games might also enhance the spatial resolution and concomitant the ability to identify objects while distractors are in their immediate vicinity ( Green and Bavelier, 2007 ). Gamers also seem to be better in regards to their attentional capacity ( Green and Bavelier, 2003 ). Additionally, ERP measures show that when put on a visual attention task, action video gamers differ significantly from non-video action gamers in regards to their N2pc component ( West et al., 2015 ), a component which is long known as an indicator of visual attention ( Eimer, 1996 ).

Lastly, video games could also help to treat visual impairments such as amblyopia (“lazy eye”). Making use of the remarkable neuroplasticity during development, eye patching is seen as the standard of treating amblyopia in children. On the contrary, this means that adult amblyopia is seen as difficult to treat. However, Li et al. (2011) showed that a treatment consisting of occlusion therapy and game therapy might improve visual acuity in adults. Recent findings also show that a combination of an action video game with perceptual learning and dichoptic viewing improves visual acuity as well as stereopsis ( Vedamurthy et al., 2015 ).

Task Switching

In everyday life, the ability to switch tasks and perform tasks simultaneously is becoming more and more important, especially because of the impact of information technology. Kray and Lindenberger (2000) found by using verbal, figural and numerical material that old and middle-aged adults were less efficient in maintaining and coordinating two different task sets instead of one (it should be mentioned that the so-called switch costs were not as strong for numerical material).

Recent studies show that gaming can be associated with enhancements in regards to task switching abilities. For instance, there seems to be a causal relationship between playing action video games and reduction of switch costs ( Green et al., 2012 ). Neurocognitive plasticity in old age could also be shown in a study with non-action video games ( Mayas et al., 2014 ). Finally, Anguera et al. (2013) demonstrated by using a self-designed three-dimensional racing-game that multitasking not only declines with age but can also be trained with an adaptive version of the game.

The Whole Picture

Taken these findings together, the desire to utilize the useful potential of virtual environments emerges (see Figure 1 ). Especially when looking at demographic change, the actual role of video games within our society and the promising outlook based on preliminary findings, it becomes clear that researchers need to strengthen their efforts in this area. Furthermore, in order to ensure transfer and practical relevance we need to differentiate more precisely within the framework of our research. What kind of game does really help? What are the mechanisms behind these effects? How can these be extracted and implemented in a helpful way in order to develop means of therapeutic use? Finding answers to these questions will not be easy, but we can contribute by also focusing on the positive and stay critically open-minded. Negative effects occur with action video games or multimedia in general, especially when used excessively (“digital dementia”; e.g., Spitzer, 2012 ). Thus, we also need to find the right dose. Today, many people rely on their smartphones. They definitely can facilitate our work and everyday life, but excessive use might be detrimental as well (e.g., addiction). Scientists and lay people are aware of this, but hardly anybody claims to abandon smartphones, which would be inappropriate. Certainly, video games will not turn into the Fountain of Youth ( Cranach the Elder, 1546 ), nevertheless, they might help generations to come to alleviate some negative effects of aging or neurological impairments in general while ensuring patients' acceptance.

Figure 1. Visualization of how deficits due to aging might be counteracted by benefits of gaming (please note that special neurological deficits, e.g., due to closed-head injuries or others, are not included here) . While these links are hypothetical, they are based on the empirical findings presented in this article.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

We thank the reviewers for their critical and helpful comments on the manuscript.

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Keywords: ageing (aging), attention, visual perception, spatial cognition, treatment, dyslexia, action video games, gaming

Citation: Karimpur H and Hamburger K (2015) The Future of Action Video Games in Psychological Research and Application. Front. Psychol. 6:1747. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01747

Received: 28 August 2015; Accepted: 31 October 2015; Published: 18 November 2015.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2015 Karimpur and Hamburger. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Harun Karimpur, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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No matter what role you play in education, you’re likely no stranger to the buzz surrounding gaming. It seems like no matter where you turn, students are trying out new games, customizing their avatars, or launching friendly competitions with one another.

However, this rise in gaming doesn’t have to come at the expense of learning. And in truth, enterprising creators in the education industry have worked for decades to combine learning with all the fun and engagement great games provide.

First, what is game-based learning?

According to research compiled in an Educational Psychologist article about the foundations of game-based learning in education , this term refers to “a type of gameplay with defined learning outcomes.” However, authors Jan L. Plass, Bruce D. Homer, and Charles K. Kinzer also note that the design process of these educational games necessitates balancing the subject matter itself with the aim of creating an enjoyable gaming experience.

The popularity of gaming also speaks for itself. Roughly three-quarters of U.S. kids play video games , and around 7 in 10 K-8 teachers report incorporating digital game-based learning in the classroom . Likewise, proprietary research from Paper™ notes that 48% of students surveyed say they believe playing an educational game would be an effective approach to learning.

[READ: “ The K-12 guide to game-based learning ”]

When implemented thoughtfully, games and education make a great match. It’s no longer a question of whether games belong in educational contexts, but how to mindfully implement them.

The origins of education and gaming

Game-based learning has a long and storied history. Authors of a research paper on game-based learning note that strategy-heavy board games—xiangqi, mancala, and chess, to name a few examples—have been played for thousands of years, helping players sharpen their mental skills while providing entertainment and a chance for camaraderie. At the same time, ancient Greeks and Romans understood games and play-based learning as effective didactic tools.

Besides this, psychologists have long lauded the benefits of play and games in both cognitive development and learning. Roughly six decades ago, Jean Piaget—perhaps the most well-known developmental psychologist—famously described play as being intertwined with cognitive development in children, according to the previously mentioned article by Plass, Homer, and Kinzer.

Gaming’s digital evolution

With all of this in mind, we can view game-based learning in education as a more modern evolution of the older and widely accepted concept of play in pedagogical settings.

Plass, Homer, and Kinzer also note that today, there’s more interest in how, exactly, video games apply to the learning process. They then mention Geoffrey and Elizabeth Loftus’ “Mind at Play,” one of the first books about video game psychology. 

By drawing on earlier research to home in on what makes video games engaging, Loftus and Loftus found that great games don’t dole out rewards so often that novelty wears out. At the same time, these games find their players’ learning edge: the delicate balance between a task being too easy and frustratingly difficult.

To be sure, Loftus and Loftus published this insightful analysis of video game psychology four decades ago. Regardless, their insights track with today’s most popular games, even though these titles are a world away from the more emergent video game options of the 20th century.

A recent timeline of game-based learning in education

Education and gaming have an incredibly rich history that can’t be accurately summarized in a short timeline. Below, we outline some of the most impactful moments in the history of game-based learning across the 20th and 21st centuries, but this is by no means an exhaustive list. 

An important disclaimer

Additionally, we want to recognize that even though the following game titles are integral to telling this story, some of them contain problematic, antiquated depictions of their characters and cultural contexts. This is especially true with history-based computer games, perhaps the most well-known example being The Oregon Trail. 

Paper does not endorse the contents of the game titles below, but we find it useful to mention them as key players in this decadeslong history.

1960s: The digital game-based learning market’s humble beginnings

• 1964: You might not believe it at first, but The Sumerian Gam e—recognized as the first educational computer game —paved the way for the rich and complex video games so many students enjoy today. Designed by Mabel Addis, a writer, teacher, and the first female video game designer, The Sumerian Game was created as part of a study featured in Computerworld magazine. The game served as a strategic exercise for students while also covering the history of ancient Sumer. To play, students would use an IBM terminal connected to a mainframe computer and slide projector, listening to a cassette track describing the contents of the slideshow in order to make their strategic decisions.
• 1966: The programming language Logo is created by computer scientists Seymour Papert, Wallace Feurzeig, Daniel Bobrow, and Cynthia Solomon. By using a cursor called a “turtle,” learners could direct a physical robot to move via lines created in pieces of code. The physical robot eventually became a computer program, and Logo was implemented in the classroom to teach students programming basics .

1970s: Students grow familiar with computer games

• 1971: The Oregon Trail —an educational computer game that would eventually be enjoyed across multiple generations—is developed by teachers Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger. To play the game, students lead an 1800s-era pioneer wagon from Missouri to Oregon , encountering many tasks and pitfalls along the way. After its release in 1974, the game sees unprecedented success, becoming a staple in early computer labs. The game later launches updated versions with more sensitively informed depictions of Indigenous characters and westward expansion by white colonists.
• 1973: Minnesota’s government, in partnership with the University of Minnesota , launches the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC). Over the following years, the MECC is integral in the creation and popularization of many influential learning-oriented computer games—including Odell Lake and Number Munchers . To combine the games holistically with more traditional teaching methods, the MECC provides materials such as worksheets that teachers can use in tandem with the games themselves.
• 1977: The Apple II , an 8-bit computer meant for home use, becomes one of the very first widely distributed microcomputers. Households and schools that own the Apple II are now able to play games via floppy disks, including some earlier educational games developed to be compatible with the system.

1980s: An explosion of mainstream learning games

• 1983: Sony and Phillips launch the CD-ROM , which allots more storage than the previous standard : floppy disks. With this increase in storage space, game developers can improve the graphics they use in games and enhance the gameplay experience overall.
• 1984: The Learning Company launches Reader Rabbit , a game teaching younger audiences how to read and spell with help from a rabbit host. Like the Carmen Sandiego game line mentioned later, Reader Rabbit grows to become one of the biggest success stories in educational gaming, launching spinoffs for decades.
• 1985: Game developer Brøderbund launches Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? in the hopes of making geography more engaging. Players attempt to solve crimes by virtually traveling the world to try and find the game’s namesake, Carmen Sandiego. Although sales are slow at first, the game goes on to become one of the bestselling educational games of all time. Today, the game line is still launching new versions and partnerships, including a Carmen Sandiego crossover with Google Earth . 

1990s: The internet turns gaming on its head

• 1991: Programmer and game designer Sid Meier launches Civilization , an iconic history- and strategy-heavy computer game. “Civ”—the nickname of the series adopted by gamers—“turns all of human history into a playground that you can exploit, turn by turn, to bring your chosen nation to glory,” writes Fraser Brown in PC Gamer. Beyond simply being an enjoyable game, Civ is an interactive way to learn about all things social studies.
• 1993: By launching code for the world’s first web browser and editor, English computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee puts the World Wide Web within the public’s reach . Of course, besides forever shifting the way we share and publish information, the internet also changes how students can access games and learn together.
• 1999: Inventor and entrepreneur Jim Marggraff launches the LeapPad —a sort of hybrid between a talking book and an educational game console for young children. In the early aughts, countless children in American homes learn with help from this bestselling item. 

2000s: In a new tech era, educational games diversify

• 2005: Nintendo’s Brain Age game series launches and is one of the world’s first commercial neuroscience games. The original version of the game is for Nintendo’s handheld DS console and encourages players to complete puzzles, memorization games, and similar tasks that challenge their brains. 
• 2006: Roblox, a game platform allowing users to program their own games and play those created by others, goes live. When it comes to gaming in the classroom, older students can use Roblox Studio to develop more in-depth games with help from code. An article about Roblox published by The Verge notes that more than half of U.S. children 16 and under play Roblox as of 2020.
• 2007: The programming language Scratch is developed, allowing learners to code their very own stories, games, and animations. As a free and open-source programming opportunity, Scratch still benefits hundreds of millions of young children annually.

[READ: “ 4 effective self-directed learning strategies ”]

2010s: The rise of social gaming moments and massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs)

• 2011: Math Blaster , a classic edutainment video game first released in 1983, comes full circle with an online MMOG offering . Players using the game’s more updated version guide their space cadets and defend the universe—solidifying key math concepts all the while. At the same time, the multiplayer element of this new game helps players sharpen their social skills, showcase their rewards, and personalize their characters.
• 2011: The multiplayer sandbox game Minecraft launches, allowing users to gather resources and create their own immersive worlds and structures. Minecraft: Education Edition , its learning-specific offering, allows users to flex their ingenuity, teamwork, and problem-solving skills in a highly creative digital environment.

Peeking into the 2020s

Technological innovations such as touch screens and mobile applications create an entirely new ecosystem for game developers to benefit from. 

Countless mobile app offerings are now downloaded and loved by both students and adults alike. One great example is the ever-popular language-learning app Duolingo, which allows anyone to become a polyglot with help from the brand’s owl mascot. At the same time, game developers are putting a fresh spin on older titles— a new version of The Oregon Trail among them—by translating these games into updated mobile-friendly versions that can be enjoyed by younger generations of gamers.

With so many education-oriented gaming options available, trying to wrap your head around game-based learning can be overwhelming. Our K-12 guide to game-based learning is here to help.

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Symptoms, Mechanisms, and Treatments of Video Game Addiction

Shabina mohammad.

1 Department of Anatomy, Taibah University, Madinah, SAU

Raghad A Jan

2 Collage of Medicine, Taibah University, Madinah, SAU

Saba L Alsaedi

Video game addiction is defined as the steady and repetitive use of the Internet to play games frequently with different gamers, potentially leading to negative consequences in many aspects of life. As recent technological development has given easy access to gaming on many devices, video game addiction has become a serious public health issue with increased prevalence. Many studies have shown that video game addiction leads to changes in the brain that are similar to those that occur in substance addiction and gambling. Evidence has also shown that there is an association between video game addiction and depression, as well as other psychological and social problems. In light of these issues, our review article aims to increase awareness of video game addiction in society. The main objectives of this review are as follows: to describe the mechanism of addiction, to consider whether video game addiction is a real addiction, and to highlight the signs and symptoms of addiction. In addition, we identify the consequences of video game addiction and possible treatments for addicts. The information was extracted from high-quality research papers and reliable websites like PubMed and ScienceDirect.

Introduction and background

Video game addiction falls into the category of Internet gaming disorders (IGDs), which have been strongly correlated with motivational control issues and are regularly compared with gambling [ 1 ]. Many studies have suggested that behavioral addiction can result from compulsive use of the internet [ 2 - 4 ]. Although the spectrum of internet addiction includes video gaming, online shopping, gambling, and social networking, video game addiction seems to be its most studied form [ 5 ]. Currently, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), video game addiction is defined as the steady and repetitive use of the Internet to play games frequently with different gamers, which leads to clinically significant distress and psychological changes as demonstrated by five or more criteria in a year [ 1 , 6 ].

Evidence has shown that addiction can cause changes in some areas of the brain, such as the prefrontal cortex (PFC), the ventral striatum (VS), and the dorsal striatum (DS) [ 5 ]. In 1999, neuroimaging evidence showed that increases in dopamine (DA) levels in the brain are associated with pleasure and euphoria [ 7 , 8 ].

Cross-sectional studies revealed that those with IGD played video games longer, usually missed classes in school, had lower grades, reported more sleep problems, and showed more addiction to video games than those without IGD [ 1 ]. Yee suggested that gamers are generally more youthful and may have low self-esteem or emotional disturbances, and those with emotional disturbances might be more vulnerable to addiction to gaming [ 9 ]. In video games, gamers can explore different sides of themself. They can be increasingly vocal and experience assuming the role of a leader, among others. Unfortunately, problems can arise when these youthful gamers become dependent upon the personalities they create in online games - blurring the line between reality and the game [ 10 ]. The rapid development of technology has given young gamers further access to games, such as advanced mobile phones, tablets, and personal computers (PCs). These online video games usually have tasks and achievements. As an achievement in video games occurs quickly, they are especially alluring for youthful gamers as a method for experiencing fun. Games depend on such feelings, as they often delight the individual and give them satisfaction in their accomplishment. Moreover, the use of a microphone or text chat is enabled in many games, allowing gamers to satisfy their need for relatedness by speaking with others [ 11 ]. Gamers regularly experience difficulty with social connections and feel forlorn-lacking a sense of belonging. This inclination can be particularly strong among kids and youths who have never felt like they belong to a place in reality, and most likely their only friends are also gamers [ 10 ].

Video game addiction may have both short and long-term impacts on gamers, including various emotional, psychological, and neurological effects. A few studies have demonstrated that anxiety and depression are common among individuals who are dependent on video games [ 6 , 12 ]. In the new generation of children, physical activity time is less and shorter in duration when compared with the parent's generation because children’s activities moved toward indoor more than outdoor play. There is a negative relationship between the time spent on online gaming and exercise and that leads to a sedentary lifestyle which is a risk factor for many medical health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and coronary artery disease [ 13 ]. According to the American Medical Association, approximately 90% of young Americans play computer games. Furthermore, 15% of these gamers (i.e., over five million children) could be considered addicted [ 10 ]. Issues arising from gaming have become so serious that the first detox center for video game addiction opened in 2006 in the Netherlands [ 14 ]. As described by Keith Bakker, director of Amsterdam-based Smith and Jones Addiction Consultants and their treatment center, although video games may look innocent, they can be as addictive as gambling or drugs and just as difficult of a habit to break [ 11 ]. A study in an international school in Buraidah, Saudi Arabia showed that 16% of the 276 students were addicted to video games, and the data showed a strong relationship between video game addiction and psychological distress [ 6 ]. In light of these issues, our review article aims to increase awareness of video game addiction in society.

Mechanism of addiction

Researchers have demonstrated that at the initial phases of the intentional use of any substance, the choice to utilize it is made by the brain, specifically the PFC and the VS, as habituation to utilize and compulsion begins. In the DS, brain activity changes and become progressively activated through dopaminergic innervation [ 15 ]. There are also changes in the dopaminergic pathways of the brain, particularly those of the anterior cingulate (AC), the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and the nucleus accumbens (NAc), due to the repetitive long-term use of the substance, which may result in a decreased response to natural reward and diminished control over seeking and using the substance [ 12 , 16 ]. The long-term use of substances decreases synaptic activity [ 17 ], and the brain becomes progressively responsive by craving substance cues like accessibility [ 18 , 19 ]. In the case of video game addiction, seeing the game or the controller can lead to cravings. Cravings for substance use involve complicated interactions between various brain regions [ 20 ]. The OFC plays a significant role in such stimulation-affecting behavior, as does the amygdala (AMG) and the hippocampus (Hipp) [ 21 ]. Eventually, an increase in the amount of substance is required to create the desired impact, and the brain’s natural reward system becomes inadequate, prompting the activation of an anti-reward system that diminishes the ability of the addicted to finding biological reinforcers pleasurable [ 22 ]. Withdrawal symptoms can also develop, which are due to the absence of DA in the mesocorticolimbic pathways [ 21 ]. Research has demonstrated that changes in brain activity generally occur in substance addiction after a compulsive commitment to use [ 23 ], which suggests that there may be similar changes associated with video game addiction. However, as mentioned previously, increases in DA levels occur by various mechanisms. In this way, the DA theory of addiction explains the powerful activation of mesolimbic DA, which is a strong feature of every addictive substance. However, although the increase in DA may clarify the intense fortifying impacts of addictive substances, it does not clarify associated long-term behavioral anomalies such as desiring and relapsing, which are obvious features even when DA levels return to normal after the clearance of the substance [ 24 ]. Therefore, changes in DA levels cannot be the reason for the adaptive behavior that presents long after the substance has been cleared from the brain [ 25 , 26 ]. Accordingly, it has been proposed that the changes induced by a substance in specific neurotransmission circuits of the mesocorticolimbic area play a role in the pathological behavior of addictive patients [ 27 ].

Whether it is real addiction or not

Numerous governments see the compulsive playing of online video games as a serious general medical problem and have set up treatment facilities, particularly in China and South Korea [ 28 ]. However, whether video games can lead to a real addiction is still hotly debated, and the question arises as to whether a game can be considered an intoxicant. The neurological proof suggests that video games might act as substances, with convincing similarities between their impacts on brain chemistry [ 5 ]. Professor Nancy Petry of the American Psychiatric Association committee considered adding video game addiction to the most recent diagnostic manual but ultimately chose to wait for further consideration [ 28 ]. In recent years, the concept of becoming addicted to behavior has grown in popularity, especially with growing neuroimaging evidence of the brain’s response to such behavior. For example, gambling has been shown to activate the brain’s reward system in a way that is similar to that of a substance [ 28 ]. In 2011, a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study on 154 participating 14-year-olds by Simone Kühn of Ghent University in Belgium found that frequent gamers had increased grey matter in the left VS - a change that may result from increased DA discharge and also appears in those addicted to gambling [ 29 ]. According to the WHO, adding video game addiction to the ICD-11 depends on evidence and agreement among specialists from various countries that are associated with the procedures of specialized consultations. The inclusion of video game addiction in the ICD-11 follows the improvement of treatment programs for individuals with similar conditions in many countries, which will bring more attention to the dangers of this addiction among health professionals, as well as to available avoidance and treatment measures. For gaming addiction to be diagnosed, the signs and symptoms must be of adequate seriousness to bring impairment in different aspects of the person’s life, with the effects normally being obvious for at least one year [ 30 ].

Sign and symptoms

It is important to be able to identify the signs and symptoms of video game addiction, and the sooner one looks for help, the better the outcome. As video games are still a relatively new technology, therapists may disregard the signs of video game addiction. To be able to make informed choices and act successfully in navigating addiction, the following signs can be used as a guide [ 10 ].

Preoccupation with Gaming

Video game addiction starts when gamers become preoccupied with video games, where they will think and fantasize about the game when they are not playing it when they should be focusing on other things, such as schoolwork [ 10 ].

Lying or Hiding Gaming Use

Gamers may play games for uncountable numbers of hours and days, leading to a lack of eating, resting, or personal hygiene. They may also lie to loved ones about what they are truly doing for hours in their rooms. Gamers may tell their parents that they are getting their work done, say that they are using their PC for work, or make up many reasons why they cannot go out and socialize [ 10 ].

Loss of Interest in Other Activities

As video game addiction increases, the person’s interest in daily activities they used to enjoy decreases [ 31 ]. For example, one gamer’s mother said that her child cherished baseball and played varsity on his secondary school team until he discovered Xbox Live, which led to declining grades [ 32 ]. However, she only realized that there was a problem when he stopped playing baseball, as he cherished the sport to an extreme.

Social Withdrawal

One’s character might also change as the addiction increases. For example, social people may remove themselves from their loved ones to invest more time in play. Otherwise normal and happy children may be inclined to simply make friendships in the game, which can become more important than those in real life [ 10 ].

Psychological Withdrawal

Gaming addicts may experience loss when they cannot play a game, as they miss it and feel the need to play it. This inclination can become intense to the point that they become emotionally unstable when compelled to abandon the game. As a result, they cannot focus on anything else except playing [ 10 ].

Defensiveness and Anger

When gaming addicts need to play or when they are compelled to stop playing, they can become defensive and furious. Guardians attempting to set time limits for the game have reported that their children can become angry, unreasonable, and even brutal in response [ 10 ].

Gaming Addicts Use the Game World as a Psychological Escape

Video games, as an easy way to mitigate upsetting emotions, can turn into a safe space that is removed from real-world issues [ 10 ]. Those who feel shy or alienated from their peers can feel more confident while gaming and this fictional life can become more fulfilling than their real life [ 32 ].

Continued Use Despite Its Consequences

Frequently, gamers have the urge to be the best in the game. Therefore, the more they develop and progress in the game, the more they have to play it. This progress is found particularly in journey-type games, where gamers join each other and complete missions in the game together [ 10 ]. Ultimately, gaming addicts may continue game use despite its negative effect on their lives. Although young gamers may drop out of school and disregard their hygiene and self-care just to play, and adults may lose their jobs or relationships, they often continue to play [ 32 ].

Consequences

Video game addiction can lead to a number of serious consequences. Gamers can forget that they need to sleep and eat, or even how to communicate with people in the real world. Gamers may play for 10, 15, or even 20 hours in a single gaming session. Only a couple more minutes can turn into hours as the gamer progresses to the next challenge. They may also endure various medical issues resulting from back strain, eye strain, and carpel tunnel syndrome. For example, one addicted gamer said that he stopped washing himself, ate very little food, and experienced weight loss [ 10 ]. The gamer’s appearance had deteriorated so much that his mom said that he looked like a heroin addict. Although gamers make friends in the game, their friendships or relations in real life can end up being damaged. Furthermore, often it is not only the gamer that suffers the consequences of their addiction. In South Korea, parents were arrested because their four-month-old daughter died due to suffocation after they left her alone in the house for many hours while they played World of Warcraft at a nearby café [ 33 ]. In another similar story, parents from Reno were playing video games so obsessively that they forgot about their children - a two-year-old boy and a girl who was almost one year old - who were seriously malnourished and near death when doctors saw them. The parents pleaded guilty to child neglect and faced a 12-year jail sentence. According to the Associated Press, authorities said the parents were so distracted by video games, mainly the fantasy role-playing Dungeons and Dragons series, that they forgot to take care of their children [ 34 ].

Research on video game addiction treatment is ongoing, only a few clinical trials have been conducted. Some therapists have suggested cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) [ 35 ]. As a prevention strategy for IGD, exercises, and physical activities have been recommended. Particularly, outdoor activities and sports [ 36 ].

Based on the peer-reviewed literature, CBT seems to be the most common treatment for video game addiction and IGD [ 37 , 38 ]. Specifically, substance abuse treatment is often applied, including stimulus control, learning proper adapting reactions, self-monitoring strategies, cognitive rebuilding, addiction-related critical thinking, and withdrawal regulation methods with exposure [ 37 , 39 ]. One systematic review and meta‐analysis suggested that this treatment option is effective for IGD as a short‐term intervention for reducing IGD and symptoms of depression. However, the effectiveness of CBT in reducing the amount of time that is spent on games was unclear. Therefore, there is a need for more studies to determine the long‐term benefits of CBT for IGD [ 40 ].

Programa Individualizado Psicoterapéutico para la Adicción a las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (PIPATIC) has been used to treat addiction to technology. PIPATIC is an individualized psychotherapy program that is available for people aged 12 to 18 years who have IGD and is designed to integrate several areas of intervention. PIPATIC comprises six modules: psychoeducational, treatment as usual, intra-personal, interpersonal, family intervention, and development of a new lifestyle [ 39 ]. The program uses many psychotherapeutic strategies, one of them is CBT [ 41 ]. It was suggested that the use of many psychotherapeutic strategies is more effective than one (Dong and Potenza 2014; Orzack et al. 2006; Sheketal 2009; Therien et al. 2014). The goals of the program are to reduce the symptoms of video game addiction and to improve the well-being of adolescents, and its initial findings have been encouraging [ 39 ]. The program has a duration of six months and involves 22 to 45-minute sessions each week for video game addicts and their families. The PIPATIC intervention is a person-to-person approach that involves a qualified clinical psychologist [ 41 ], with therapeutic homework to strengthen the establishment that is related to the therapeutic changes required to help change everyday behavior. In the PIPATIC program, the family collaborates to achieve treatment progress, and it is usually them who ask for therapeutic care or psychological treatment [ 42 ]. Although the PIPATIC program appears promising, there are some limitations. First, it was designed to focus on only one specific population, adolescents. Second, it must commit to specific methodological standards for the application and evaluation of the intervention, and it is difficult for addicts to adapt to these particular needs. However, results have suggested that the treatment is effective, as data from 17 video-game addicts that went through the program showed a decrease in time spent playing video games and improvement in many important daily life activities (e.g., family and educational or occupational functioning) [ 41 ].

Pharmacotherapy

The medications trial that has been done were on drugs usually used to treat depression or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Bupropion is one of the medications used for depression. It has been investigated as a treatment for IGD in randomized clinical trials [ 43 , 44 ]. The drug was superior to the control group with no medication [ 43 ]. Also, superior compared to the placebo group in decreasing the symptoms of IGD that were maintained for four weeks after the treatment [ 44 ]. Another antidepressant is escitalopram. Compared to bupropion it was inferior in reducing the symptoms [ 43 ].

Conclusions

Many studies suggest that the changes that occur in video game addicts are similar to those that occur in other addictions, such as substance-related addiction and gambling. The WHO has added video game addiction to the ICD-11, with adolescents being the most susceptible. Video game addiction can lead to many serious consequences for gamers and the people close to them. Although research on video game addiction treatment is ongoing, only a few clinical trials have been conducted on the efficacy of the treatment options, for example, CBT, PIPATIC, and pharmacotherapy.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Personal Excellence Pathway (PEP) committee at Taibah University in Madinah, Saudi Arabia, for giving us the chance to write this review article.

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Niamh Chamberlain

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122 Video Games Research Paper Topics For Students

Oct 6, 2022

Oct 6, 2022 | Topics

Video games are a big part of our lives, just like political science, and they have been since the early days. Even with all that gaming available to us, there’s still something about a classic game that keeps us coming back for more. This is why we’ve decided to put together a list of 100 video game research paper topics.

The best video games research paper topics are those you’re passionate about. If you know how to write a video games research paper , it needs to be something that interests you and inspires you to write. The more the topic interests and inspires you, the easier it will be for you to write a good one.

When selecting your topic, make sure it’s something that has enough information available on it so that there is no need for any additional research beyond what has already been done on the subject matter.

Video Games Argumentative Essay Topics For Students

Best Video Games Research Paper Topics

• The History of Video Games
• How Video Games Affect the Brain
• The Psychology Behind Video Games
• Why Do We Play Video Games?
• How to Make Money with Your Gaming Skills
• How to Improve Your Gaming Skills
• What Makes a Good Game?
• How to Choose the Right Gaming Computer
• How to Clean Your PC and Keep It Running Smoothly
• The Psychology of Video Game Design Masturbation: Let’s Talk About It
• The Psychology of Gaming Addiction
• How to Improve Your Gaming Skills What Makes a Good Game?

Interesting Video Games Research Paper Topics

• The Impact of Video Games on Children’s Development
• The Effects of Violent Video Games on the Brain
• How Does a Gamer’s Body Impact Their Gaming Experience?
• How Do Gamers Use Interactive Fiction to Explore Human Nature?
• How Does Video Games Impact the Brain?
• How Do Children Use Video Games to Explore Social Issues?
• Can Video Games Change Society for the Better?
• How Do Mobile Apps Affect Our Lives as a Whole?
• How Do Video Games Affect Our Emotions?
• What Is the Relationship Between Video Games and Social Media?
• Can Video Games Help People With Special Needs ?
• How Does Technology Affect our Brain Health?

Simple Video Games Research Paper Topics

• Simple Video Games – A Definition and Explanation
• How to Create Your Own Game
• The Way Children Play Video Games Nowadays and Their Favorite Types of Games.
• What is the Most Popular Type of Game?
• Who Creates These Games?
• What is the Difference Between Video Games and Real Life?
• How Are Video Games Used in Education?
• Can Video Games Be Addictive?
• What are the Effects of Violent Video Games on Children’s Behavior?
• How Do You Feel About Video Games?
• What is the Future of Video Games?
• What Can Be Done to Reduce the Amount of Time Kids Spend Playing Video Games?
• How Do We Know If a Child Is Too Addicted to Playing Video Games?
• Should Children Play Violent Video Games?
• Are Any Benefits of Playing Violent Video Games on Children’s Behavior and Learning Abilities?

Controversial Video Games Research Paper Topics

• Video Games and Violence
• Video Games and Addiction
• Video Games in the Classroom
• The Effects of Violent Video Games on Children and Adolescents
• Obesity, Diabetes, Cancer, and Heart Disease as a Result of Game Play
• How to Make You’re Playing Time More Productive With These Tips From Experts
• Benefits of Gaming: Why Gamers Can Be Happier Than Non-Gamers
• Why is Playing Video Games Good for Your Mental Health?
• Does Technology Destroy Creativity?: How to Avoid Becoming a Cyber Zombie?
• How to Use Video Games to Improve Your Self-Esteem?
• How Can You Avoid Becoming Addicted To Video Games?:
• The Benefits of Playing Video Games
• 10 Ways Gaming Can Make You Smarter
• Why It’s Important To Maintain A Healthy Diet While Playing Video Games
• Is Gaming Bad For Your Eyes?
• How To Become More Productive By Playing Video Games
• How to Make Your Playing Time More Productive

Compare and Contrast Video Games Research Paper Topics

• Compare and contrast the stories of two video games based on the same universe
• Compare and contrast different types of mini-games in video games
• Compare and contrast the game design styles of two different developers (for example, Nintendo vs Sega)
• Which video game series improved gameplay over its sequels? Explain your reasoning with examples from each title in the series.
• Which video game series has the best story?
• Which video game world do you think is most likely to be real? Why?
• Compare and contrast the gameplay of two different video games within the same genre.
• Which video game is better? Why?
• Which video game has the best story? Why?
• Which video game is more fun to play? Why?
• Compare and contrast different types of mini-games in video games.
• Which game developer do you think creates better games? Why?
• Compare augmented reality with virtual reality in gaming

Video Games Research Paper Topics for Kids

• Video Game Addiction: Is it a Real Problem?
• The History of Video Games, Past and Present
• The Benefits of Playing Video Games to Children’s Development
• How to Choose the Best Educational Toys for Your Child’s Development
• Video Games Research Paper Topics for Middle School
• How to play video games?
• What are the best video games of 2020?
• What is the difference between online and offline gaming?
• How to make your own video game?
• What are the popular gaming trends in 2020? *Top 10 Video Game Trends In The United States Of America*
• What is a pirated game and how can we avoid it when playing online video games or downloading apps on our phones/tablets/laptops etc.?
• Why did I lose my score while playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on Nintendo Switch?

Video Games Research Paper Topics for High School

• Video Games Are a Waste of Time.
• What is the Best Gaming Platform?
• Which is Your Favorite Game and Why?
• Discuss the Benefits of Having a Gaming Console in the Home.
• Do You Have an Xbox, PlayStation or Wii? Why Didn’t You Choose The Other One?
• Video Games Are A Great Way to Socialize. How Do They Help You Connect With Friends and Family Members?
• What Are Your Favorite Types of Video Games?
• What Are Some Fun Things You Have Done While Playing Video Games?
• What Does Your Family Say About Your Gaming Habits? How Do They Feel About It?
• What Would You Tell Someone Who Doesn’t Understand Why You Play Video Games?

Video Games Research Paper Topics for College

• Video Game Violence and Its Effects on Children
• The Role of Women in the Video Game Industry
• How Technology is Affecting Our Relationship with Games
• The History of Video Game Development
• Why Do People Play Violent Games?
• How Technology Is Changing Our Relationship with Games
• The Role of computer games and its impacts on Society
• How Do People Interact with Each Other and the Environment in a Virtual World?
• The Effect of Violent Video Games on Youth
• What Are the Benefits of Playing Video Games?

Video Games Research Paper Questions

• What was the first video game ever made? What made it so special at that time?
• How have different generations of gamers interacted with different types of technology over time (e.g., arcades vs consoles) or even between generations (e.g., Millennials vs Generation Z)?
• What is the biggest video game ever made?
• How does playing video games affect your brain?
• What are some of the most important technological advancements in gaming over time?
• How have different cultures worldwide responded to new types of technology, such as video games?
• What is the history behind classic games like Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Donkey Kong?

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This article lists some of the best research paper topics for kids, middle school and high school students. These topics will help students better understand video games and write a good essay on this topic. Choosing your topic wisely before you start writing is important, as it can make or break your research paper. So, if you are looking for some interesting ideas, we have covered them all here!

With a passion for education and student empowerment, I create blog content that speaks directly to the needs and interests of students. From study hacks and productivity tips to career exploration and personal development

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