Violent Videogames Are Not More Enjoyable

As most gamers have known from the days of Tetris, we're not playing videogames to enjoy our daily dose of over the top violence but to overcome new gameplay challenges. This is now a scientific fact as demonstrated by a study from the University of Rochester and from the firm Immersyve, which specializes in “player experience research.”

The study says that most of the players questioned enjoy the challenge that videogames provide and many of them even believe that excessive gore is only a way to take the fun out of the game and reduce their immersion in the experience.

Andrew Przybylski, who is the author of the study, stated that "For the vast majority of players, even those who regularly play and enjoy violent games, violence was not a plus. Violent content was only preferred by a small subgroup of people that generally report being more aggressive."

The study was conducted using two online surveys and two other studies targeted at 2,670 subjects who described themselves as being frequent gamers. It focused on parameters like player satisfaction, immersion and enjoyment. The study used a psychometric model called the Player Experience of Need Satisfaction (PENS) created by Immersyve. One potential weakness of the study is that 89% of the subjects were males and aged 18-39, which leaves out a significant part of the gaming population.

Richard Ryan, who is a motivational psychologist and also an author of the study, put it best by saying that "Conflict and war are a common and powerful context for providing these experiences, but it is the need [of] satisfaction in the gameplay that matters more than the violent content itself." So, we like Call of Duty: World at War because the game creates complex situations that require a lot of thinking to solve and not because getting repeatedly stabbed in the chest by banzai attackers is something we enjoy.