Nostalgia in video games.

Video games have been a popular form of media entertainment since the 1970s, with gamers of all ages experiencing and engaging digital worlds and creating lasting memories in those spaces. As video games mature, so are their players-by some estimates, the average age of a gamer is in their 30s, and often playing games with their children. As such, video games are a potentially powerful elicitor of nostalgia, as is being recognized in more recent research and discourse. In this article, we describe and explain nostalgia as elicited from video gaming experiences, discuss the effects of gaming-induced nostalgia on psychological well-being, and offer direct avenues for fostering and growing this research.

Social video gaming and well-being.

Despite stereotypes of video games as isolating technologies, video gaming can be a highly social activity that contributes to well-being. Advances in computing technology and greater social acceptance of video gaming have led to overall increases in gameplay in social scenarios. Our review focuses on three areas of research relevant to understanding social gaming and well-being: social play in video games (both past and present social play, and forms of tandem play), social gaming and psychological recovery (both short-term recovery and long-term resilience), and the use of emerging technologies to connect via gaming (such as game streaming and augmented/virtual reality). Throughout the article, we also highlight deficiencies in extant research and offer suggestions for how social scholarship on video games can move forward with well-being in mind. While existing research generally demonstrates the social dynamics of gaming and demonstrates the role of games for well-being, a robust and directed merging of these two complimentary lines of research is currently lacking.

"I did it without hesitation. Am I the bad guy?" Online conversations in response to controversial in-game violence.

Video game content has evolved over the last six decades, from a basic focus on challenge and competition to include more serious and introspective narratives capable of encouraging critical contemplation within gamers. The "No Russian" mission from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 casts players as terrorists responsible for the murder of innocent bystanders, sparking debate around how players engage and react to wanton violence in modern video games. Through thematic analysis of 649 Reddit posts discussing the mission, 10 themes emerged representing complexity in player experiences. Those themes were grouped into categories representing (descending order), (1) rote gameplay experiences, (2) dark humor, (3) comparing the mission to other games and real-world events, and (4) self-reflective eudaimonic reactions to the mission. Although less common, the presence of eudaimonic media effects (in at least 15% of posts) holds promise for the use of video games as reflective spaces for violence prevention.

Some Assembly Required: Player Mental Models of Videogame Avatars.

In playing videogames, players often create avatars as extensions of agency into those spaces, where the player-avatar relationship (PAR) both shapes gameplay and is the product of gameplay experiences. Avatars are generally understood as singular bodies; however, we argue they are functional and phenomenological assemblages-networks of social and technological components that are internalized by players as networks of knowledge about the avatar. Different PARs are based on different internalizations (i.e., mental models) for what an avatar is and why it matters. Toward illuminating nuances in PARs, we examine the content and structure of players' internalizations of avatars as evidenced by descriptions of those digital bodies. Secondary analysis of N = 1,201 avatar descriptions parceled them by PAR type (avatars as asocial Objects, psychologically merged extensions of Me, hybrid me/other Symbiotes, and authentically social Other). Aggregated descriptions for each PAR type were subjected to semantic network analysis to identify patterns in salient avatar components, and then qualitatively compared across the four PARs. Results indicate component clusters that are universal to PARs (demographics and body features), common to three of four PARs (time, appearance, clothing, and player agency), and idiosyncratic to specific PARs (significance, character narratives, game dynamics, liminality, and gratifications). Findings signal the importance of theoretically engaging avatars as assemblages both (a) influenced by player-avatar sociality and (b) that contribute (in part and whole) to antecedents, processes, and effects of gameplay.

The Paradox of Interactive Media: The Potential for Video Games and Virtual Reality as Tools for Violence Prevention.

Interactive media such as video games and virtual reality (VR) provide users with lived experiences that may be dangerous or even impossible in daily life. By providing interactive experiences in highly authentic, detail-rich contexts, these technologies have demonstrated measurable success in impacting how people think, feel, and behave in the physical world. At the same time, violent interactive media content has been historically connected with a range of antisocial effects in both popular press and academic research. Extant literature has established a small-but-statistically significant effect of interactive media violence on aggressive thoughts and behaviors, which could serve as a risk factor for interpersonal violence. However, left unexplored is the seemingly paradoxical claim that under some conditions, interactive media experiences might protect against interpersonal violence. Drawing on advances in media theory and research and the evolution of interactive media content and production practices, the current manuscript suggests ways in which interactive media violence may be leveraged to lower the likelihood of real-world violence experiences. For example, research on both violent and non-violent games has found that players can (a) express guilt after committing violent acts, (b) report reflective and introspective emotional reactions during gameplay, and (c) debate the morality of their actions with others. Regarding VR, studies have demonstrated that (a) witnessing physical violence in immersive spaces led participants to take the perspective of victims and better understand their emotional state and (b) controlled exposure to traumatic or violent events can be used for treatment. Broadly, studies into video games and VR demonstrate that the impact of actions in virtual worlds transfer into the physical worlds to influence (later) attitudes and behaviors. Thus, how these experiences may be potentially harnessed for social change is a compelling and open consideration, as are side-effects of such interventions on vulnerable groups. The current manuscript summarizes emerging research perspectives (as well as their limitations) to offer insight into the potential for interactive media violence to protect against real-world violence victimization and perpetration.

"I'm attached, and I'm a good guy/gal!": how character attachment influences pro- and anti-social motivations to play massively multiplayer online role-playing games.

One's feelings of intimacy and connectedness with distal, fictional media characters are referred to as parasocial interactions. Video games have challenged this concept, as the distance between game players and characters is greatly reduced, if not completely removed, in virtual environments. Games encourage the internalization and psychological merging of a player's and a character's mind, a multidimensional concept known as character attachment (CA). Data from our study suggest that dimensions of CA are useful in understanding both pro- and anti-social gaming motivations. Pro-social gamers feel a greater sense of control over their characters, while anti-social gamers are more likely to suspend their disbelief of the game environment and not take responsibility for their virtual actions. Pro-social gaming was more prevalent in older gamers, and younger male game characters were motivated by anti-social reasons.

Concern as motivation for protection: an investigation of mothers' concern about daughters' breast cancer risk.

The present study surveyed mothers with daughters (N = 386) to investigate how mothers' concern about their daughters' breast cancer risk influenced intentions to engage in preventive behaviors. Using protection motivation theory as a framework, self-efficacy, response efficacy, and level of concern were posited to influence protective behavioral intention in distinct ways. Results from regression analyses indicate that self-efficacy, response efficacy, and mothers' concern are significant predictors of intentions to engage in preventive behaviors with daughters. In addition, a content analysis of mothers' open-ended reasons for their concern about their daughters' breast cancer risk yield a list of specific concerns and trends that vary by concern level and individual comment valence. The authors discuss implications for incorporating mothers' concerns into breast cancer prevention messages as a novel strategy for campaign designers.

Mothers' Intentions to Teach Adolescent Daughters about Breast Cancer Risk Reduction Activities: The Influence of Self-Efficacy, Response Efficacy, & Personal Responsibility.

The current study examined whether self-efficacy (SE), response efficacy (RE), and personal responsibility (PR) affect mothers' intentions (N=139) to teach their adolescent and pre-adolescent daughters about breast cancer risk reduction measures such as maintaining a healthy diet, exercising on a regular basis, and avoiding chemical exposures. Results showed that both SE and RE were related to mothers' intentions to teach their daughters how to maintain a healthy diet, engage in regular exercise behavior, and avoid chemical exposures. However, PR was not related to any behavioral intention. Implications for breast cancer message development for communication campaigns are discussed.

"They may be pixels, but they're MY pixels:" developing a metric of character attachment in role-playing video games.

This paper proposes a new and reliable metric for measuring character attachment (CA), the connection felt by a video game player toward a video game character. Results of construct validity analyses indicate that the proposed CA scale has a significant relationship with self-esteem, addiction, game enjoyment, and time spent playing games; all of these relationships are predicted by theory. Additionally, CA levels for role-playing games differ significantly from CA levels of other character-driven games.