Changes in the Gaming Industry: Many people turn to video games to get away from the stress of everyday life.
On the other hand, others can become more stressed because of things connected to gaming, like internet toxicity.
In a recent study, the UK non-profit Mental Health Foundation looked at these similarities and came up with ideas for changing the game industry.
There have been a lot of accusations of harassment and abuse from game developers recently.
This study didn’t look at the game industry itself but at the people who play games.
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The short study found that there were both positives and negatives to gaming.
Players said that gaming helped their mental health, but there were also negatives, depending on many different things.
Two dozen gamers were asked by the Mental Health Foundation to keep a daily log about how they played games and how their mental health was.
Study: The Mental Health Foundation looked at the study results over several weeks and came to some different conclusions after that.
The study found that people who play games say that they have mental health benefits, but they also say downsides.
People who play games online or who play games at all may be bullied and harassed by other people at times, too.
The Mental Health Foundation also said that gaming could be used to avoid real-life socialization, and some people had trouble finding a balance between gaming and their other responsibilities.
Because of these findings, the Mental Health Foundation is making five calls for change in the game industry and how it makes games. They also have:
Some games and the people who make them already do these things or try to do them.
One of the co-creators of the original Xbox has called for changes to online gaming communities to help stop harassment and abuse.
When you play games made by a certain company, like Nintendo, you’ll often see gentle reminders to take a break from time to time.
Even though this isn’t true for every game, many have been praised for showing different groups of people in their games, like Life Is Strange and The Outer Worlds.
The Psychonauts’ developers worked with psychologists to show how mental health issues are shown.
There is, of course, room for improvement. Bullying in gaming is still a problem, and some game developers have been abused, worked very hard, and had other things happen that made them tired, depressed, or anxious.
If people work together, things can get better for both players and game developers, and hopefully, that will be the case.
