Are video games good for your mental health?

Video games could be used more widely to help schoolchildren learn, train people for specific professions and stop or slow cognitive decline – that's the view of University of Bradford academic Assistant Professor and video games industry expert Robert Redman. 

Robert, who studied games design development at Bradford and has also worked in the industry and who now teaches the Game Design and Development programme at Bradford, makes the argument in his PhD thesis, Experience Transference – Crossing the digital/ physical experience boundary, due to be published soon. 

Part of his research involved a pilot study involving members of the University’s archery society found novice archers shot better after playing archery video games and that archers who shot in real life first then did better on the video game, evidence of what he says is known as ‘the digital crossover.’ 

Robert said: “The study found novices who played video archery games first shot better in real life. Novices who practised in real life and then tried to shoot arrows on a video game also improved slightly, compared to a control group. Even experienced archers found they were better at the computer game after shooting in real life, showing evidence of the ‘digital-physical crossover.’ 

Gamification and brain ‘plasticity’ 

Mr Redman, pictured below, is a strong advocate of ‘gamification’ and argues video games can be used to stop cognitive decline in older people, help schoolchildren learn new skills and even train the CEOs of the future.

He said: “The notion that video games can improve life-skills is now generally accepted - any games were originally designed with military, transport and sports-based purposes in mind. What I am interested in is how a user’s personal gaming experience can complement your physical and mental skillset.   

“Video games are big business, with people now competing in them as professionals. Being at the top of your game as an e-sports athlete for example is equivalent to being at the top of your game as a train driver or a professional sportsperson or the CEO of a successful company.” 

He added: “There’s a lot of evidence that video games can help improve brain plasticity – in other words, help people ‘learn to learn.’ Games are primarily about learning, because when you start any game for the first time, whether that is a game of cards, a board game or a video game, you first have to master the rules – this means, our brains have to spend some time learning. Video games are especially good at creating new environments and new rule sets and enabling us to engage with those. 

“Skills acquired in games can be transferred into real world scenarios. There is also evidence that playing video games can improve a person’s psychological and physical wellbeing.” 

Escapism vs reality 

Mr Redman said the reason why video games were addictive was a combination of effort vs reward, the chance to become immersed in “elevated levels of concentration and enthrallment” and to master a specific skill or task. 

“Humans do this all the time, when they read a book or watch a movie, or engage in something that enables their thinking mind to detach from reality and ‘time skip.’ There’s a deep sense of satisfaction in immersing oneself in the worlds of video games, partly because they balance risk and reward and enable you to become the master. 

“There is also the concept of reward, which in a sense is very similar to the gold star your teacher used to stick in your book when you were in junior school. 

“My argument is video games are, for the most part, ‘additive’, in that they have beneficial and positive effects on people’s day to day lives. There is overwhelming evidence that action games can hone some cognitive domains, and these effects can pervade within a measured participant for a number of weeks or months post training.” 

Are we living in a simulation? 

“It’s a good philosophical question and it would answer a lot of questions but the reality is there is no way of us ever knowing the truth behind the proverbial existential veil. 

“We could be a hallucination or a snapshot of a memory of an older superior being (or a machine) with far more ‘compute power’ than we could ever possibly imagine.” 

Graduates get their game on 

The University of Bradford runs a BSc in Game Design and Development that includes a placement year, giving students the chance to apply their knowledge and develop real-world skills. 

Graduates include Ed Arthur (BSc in Animation) working at Double Negative in London, Antonella Pounder (BA Graphics for Games) working for Team 17) and Nickolas Powell (BSc Animation) at Sumo Digital in  Manchester.