Videogames have been the hotbed for technological innovation for decades, and artificial intelligence has been a literal game-changer in the development process for years. But the recent arrival of generative AI technology has given creators a whole new toolkit to build the next wave of digital experiences. In our discussion, we first highlight different continuums or spectra that can be used to explore youth gaming and address its diversity. We then discuss agency and the positioning of youth in relation to gaming in research.
How Game Developers Shape Our World
We present our analysis organized by the four main themes derived from the DGR theory (Figure 1). We start with the Level of engagement to demonstrate the considerable differences in young people’s engagement with game cultures, followed https://alltimesmagazine.com/the-new-game-generation-how-technology-shapes-gaming-behavior-in-ghana/ by the Personal meanings of gaming. We then explore the Internal and external influences that shape individuals’ relationship with gaming and conclude with the different ways gaming takes place in the theme Ways of engaging with gaming.
Under 30 Games 2025: Forging A New Path On Technology’s Cutting Edge
The DGR theory examines individuals’ engagement and relationship with the social world of digital gaming and was developed from the sport sociological theory of physical activity relationship (Koski, 2008) by Sokka (2021) and expanded by Meriläinen (2023). As a new theory, it has shown promise as a tool to understand gaming as a complex phenomenon (Meriläinen, 2023). The theory takes as its starting point that each individual has a different relationship with gaming, and an individual’s relationship with gaming develops, and is actively constructed, over a long period of time and is influenced by a variety of factors. These factors are the personal meanings given to gaming, internal and external influences on gaming, different ways of engaging with gaming, and the level of engagement with gaming.
- These can take very concrete forms, as demonstrated by our respondents organizing events, making and watching gaming videos and streams, and purchasing games and merchandise.
- Gaming can reduce stress, elevate mood and offer a form of social interaction for some players, acting as a valuable outlet for relaxation and self-expression.
- Competition was a dimension where different goals and mentalities sometimes clashed.
- In our data, changing life priorities and responsibilities were a common source of change in participation.
- This magazine is all about how the metaverse is blending the physical with the digital, shaking up business, entertainment, and even how we live day-to-day.
- We conducted a thematic analysis (see Braun and Clarke, 2021) on the responses, utilizing a combination of data and theory-driven approaches.
Funding Statement
At some point, this could expand to virtual office communities, allowing workers in remote or home office locations to feel much more connected to their teams. By acknowledging the cultural impact of gaming, we can appreciate its potential to shape our global culture for better or worse. With an eye toward ethics, we can harness the cultural energy of the gaming community to attract new consumers and customers.
Technological Innovation Fueled By Games
- One of the reasons generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini are having their moment can be traced to the gaming industry.
- One respondent expressed his views on how gaming companies’ control over their product was limiting players’ sense of agency (see also Blom, 2022).
- Even those who preferred single-player games, or for whom gaming was very private, still participated in online communities related to their favorite games, visited events, or discussed games with their friends.
- Skill- or rank-based multiplayer systems or large differences in skill between friends and spouses could make gaming together difficult or even impossible, limiting opportunities for shared gaming sessions.
- Respondents also mentioned more abstract development, such as new insight into their behavior.
- Illuminating the problems of dichotomous approaches, both beneficial and detrimental qualities could appear simultaneously, and players were aware of this.
Hobbies, school, and work were mainly mentioned by respondents due to the time constraints they would introduce to playing video games. Related to this, some respondents mentioned that they would like to have some more time for playing video games or that they used to have more time to play video games. The changing rhythms of everyday life and engagements influenced how much the respondents spent time engaging with video games (see Apperley, 2010; Meriläinen, 2022). The questionnaire was targeted at 15–25-year-old Finnish speakers who played digital games.
Data and method
Based on our results, we suggest alternative approaches that help reduce and avoid these problems. Although gaming can certainly have both beneficial and detrimental impacts on game players, these are not the be-all and end-all of young people’s gaming culture participation, nor did the young people in our study usually frame gaming primarily as a balancing act between the two. The spectrum of beneficial–harmful is only a single, narrow perspective on young people’s participation in the social world of gaming. Providing alternatives to the impact point of view is crucial to how we view games and gaming as culture, as media, and as a part of everyday life. The framing of gaming influences perceptions and attitudes (Kümpel and Haas, 2016), and whether gaming is primarily seen, for example, as a tool, a health risk, a form of art, or an everyday activity impacts how it is perceived, discussed, and studied. Furthermore, knowledge of the different potential impacts of gaming without a broader understanding and critical exploration of the phenomenon can cause its own problems, whether in the form of moral panics (Pasanen, 2017) or unrealistic optimism (Deterding, 2014).
The light, the dark, and everything else: making sense of young people’s digital gaming
Think of virtual real estate tours, virtual concerts, remote meetings and immersive training programs. Traditional CPUs are good at solving highly complex calculations, while GPUs are good at doing many slightly less complex calculations in parallel at a very high speed. That was originally meant to help with fast, high-quality gaming graphics, but it also turned out to be the perfect fit for the types of calculations AI models need. We use it not just to communicate but also to transmit values, beliefs, and traditions.
- They might regularly play different kinds of games on a variety of platforms and devices or have a history of very intense gaming yet did not view gaming as all that important.
- As a result, gaming has been at the forefront of VR-related hardware innovation such as controls, screens, headsets, speakers and consoles to create an enhanced consumer experience.
- Developers of online Role Playing Games, like Guild Wars 2, have the opportunity to bring people together from across the world.
- The responsibility of developers is similar to that of filmmakers or authors whose works have the power to inspire and influence.
- Using the DGR theory, we illuminated the diversity of young people’s gaming as a phenomenon influenced by a great number of variables, complicating the dichotomy of gaming being either beneficial or harmful.
- But wherever you are in the tech landscape, if you want to see where you can get a head start on innovation, look to the gaming industry.
Virtual Reality In Education
But wherever you are in the tech landscape, if you want to see where you can get a head start on innovation, look to the gaming industry. The previously mentioned industries are ultimately also going to benefit from this improved hardware and user experience, likely increasing adoption by their employees. One of the reasons generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini are having their moment can be traced to the gaming industry. Gamers demand realistic graphics, which require even more powerful graphics processing chips. For most of its three decades, Nvidia was known for its powerful graphics processing units (GPUs) and graphics cards, which enable the output of high-quality 3D visuals.
Links to NCBI Databases
Team Arena Net, the developers of Guild Wars 2, caught wind of this player’s misfortune, shared the post, and raised thousands of dollars from other Guild Wars 2 players. While these developers only set out to build a game, they also created a network of support that served a member in dire need. Games, through their rules and narratives, construct frameworks defining success, respect, and community values.
1. Level of engagement
The impact of games and gaming cultures on young people’s wellbeing and behavior has been a source of concern and interest from the early steps of modern digital gaming in the late 1970s and early 1980s to contemporary times (Rogers, 2013). To our knowledge, only a few studies (Lenhart et al., 2008; Aarsand, 2012) have sought a more general understanding of young people’s relationship with gaming. Whether gaming has a beneficial or detrimental effect on young people’s lives is a defining feature in both the research and the public discussion of youth digital gaming. In this qualitative study, we draw from a thematic analysis of the experiences of 180 game players in Finland, aged 15–25 years. Utilizing the digital gaming relationship (DGR) theory, we explore how different aspects of gaming actualize in their lives, and how different features of gaming culture participation come together to form their experience. We contend that framing gaming as a balancing act between beneficial and detrimental obscures much of the complexity of young people’s gaming, reinforces a partially false dichotomy, and overlooks young people’s agency.
However, the distinction between leisure and labor also relates to gaming more generally. Learning how to play games often requires considerable effort, and game play can in itself be laborious and repetitive (e.g., Orme, 2021). This framing also connects to fundamental societal discussions on the value of play and leisure, seen, for example, in some of our respondents’ use of professionalization to justify gaming.
This said, few participants discussed long-term changes in their gaming participation. Much of previous research on youth gaming has focused on the impact of gaming, typically examined through variables such as gaming motives and spent time, on different aspects of wellbeing. The development of video games drives technological innovation in computer hardware and software, graphics and artificial intelligence, often pushing the limits of practical technology.
Behavioral Dynamics in the Digital Gaming Economy
Video games have become a vehicle for social commentary and political activism, with various games from This War of Mine to Undertale and many more exploring topics such as inequality, discrimination, climate change and ecological destruction. Many of these games include a moral choice that the player must make, which forces a confrontation with the player’s values. The importance of game representation is becoming a key subject for many game developers.
- With an eye toward ethics, we can harness the cultural energy of the gaming community to attract new consumers and customers.
- The DGR theory examines individuals’ engagement and relationship with the social world of digital gaming and was developed from the sport sociological theory of physical activity relationship (Koski, 2008) by Sokka (2021) and expanded by Meriläinen (2023).
- The expansion of cloud streaming technologies, NVIDIA GeForce NOW, further fueled the mass adoption.
- As younger generations seek out more interactive experiences, marketers must recognize the broad reach of the gaming community and the value inherent in this expanding group.
- Even when one is not directly socializing, they can be contributing to the co-construction and upkeep of the social world of gaming by, for instance, streaming game play, participating in a multiplayer game, or posting about games on social media.
- Shaw (2010) notes that in media, gaming has been largely depicted as an undesirable activity, and likewise those playing video games (see Kowert et al., 2014).
- Many gamers use multiple platforms, and they also demonstrate higher engagement retention.
One respondent expressed his views on how gaming companies’ control over their product was limiting players’ sense of agency (see also Blom, 2022). As Bergstrom’s (2019; see also Wiik, 2023) exploration of the players of the massively multiplayer game EVE Online demonstrates, quitting or actively gaming is not a binary, but a spectrum. In our data, changing life priorities and responsibilities were a common source of change in participation.
Negative views on gaming did not typically influence the respondents’ play activities, but rather how openly they would discuss their gaming. Earlier research has shown that people sometimes avoid talking about their gaming activities or identifying as a gamer due to gaming being perceived in a negative and stigmatized way (Shaw, 2012). Several respondents, however, also brought up that attitudes toward gaming had become more positive and accommodating. At the other end of the engagement spectrum, a single respondent mentioned that they did not play games at all, their gaming culture participation limited to occasionally watching Let’s Play videos (videos of commented game play) on YouTube (see Orme, 2021). Although engaging with gaming culture, their engagement is ephemeral and uninvested. Young people continuously form relationships with video games that go beyond playing games.
Gaming As Therapy
Inclusive design not only reflects the diversity of gamers but also encourages empathy and understanding between different cultures and backgrounds. With the influx of virtual reality (VR) technology, learning experiences can be made much more immersive. Through VR simulations, students can visit historical sites, “dissect” virtual organisms and engage with abstract concepts in ways that weren’t possible in the past. The current gaming landscape is an intersection of Artificial Intelligence, immersive design, and computational innovation. Gradually, the straightforward engagement between the machine and the player made way for a more calculated psychological architecture.
- While these developers only set out to build a game, they also created a network of support that served a member in dire need.
- At the other end of the engagement spectrum, a single respondent mentioned that they did not play games at all, their gaming culture participation limited to occasionally watching Let’s Play videos (videos of commented game play) on YouTube (see Orme, 2021).
- Think of virtual real estate tours, virtual concerts, remote meetings and immersive training programs.
- Michelle Jang, 29, leads Microsoft’s Xbox partnership efforts in Korea and started her own four-month educational course to empower indie developers from non-traditional backgrounds.
- While many respondents reported playing a wide range of games and genres, others focused on a single game or two.
- In this article, utilizing the digital gaming relationship (DGR) theory (Meriläinen, 2023; see also Sokka, 2021) as a lens, we draw on young people’s views on gaming to broaden perspectives on youth gaming.
Why The Future Of Gaming Is The Future Of Tech
Attitudes toward gaming and gaming cultures appear to be slowly shifting, yet seeing games in a very polarized way has a long history that still influences contemporary discourses about gaming (Rogers, 2013). Shaw (2010) notes that in media, gaming has been largely depicted as an undesirable activity, and likewise those playing video games (see Kowert et al., 2014). This goes hand in hand with how videogames have long been targeted by moral panics and viewed as a source of aggression, moral decay, and addiction (Rogers, 2013; Pasanen, 2017).
Gaming can reduce stress, elevate mood and offer a form of social interaction for some players, acting as a valuable outlet for relaxation and self-expression. The connection between gaming and AI cuts both ways, as AI is becoming more integral to the video game experience. Some common uses of AI within gaming include altering in-game landscapes or changing the behavior of non-player characters (NPCs) based on human player decisions. Although the subject of problematic gaming was not very prominent in the data, mentions of occasional excessive gaming or unhealthy gaming habits featured in many responses.
Often this means that a product or franchise consists of multiple different artifacts, such as games, films, comics, and collectibles, rather than just a video game. Designing video games in a transmedial way has long been a part of gaming culture (see Koskimaa et al., 2021), and these design choices encourage multiple modes of participation. In addition to external influences, respondents also mentioned internal influences that affected their engagement with video games. Alongside the personal meanings discussed previously, we identified two distinct subthemes, one related to game accessibility and the other to worries over excessive gaming.
Consuming meanings is also often a social activity and socializing was part of most of the gaming activities discussed by our respondents. Even when one is not directly socializing, they can be contributing to the co-construction and upkeep of the social world of gaming by, for instance, streaming game play, participating in a multiplayer game, or posting about games on social media. Friends and social circles are an important part of young people’s life, influencing the way they spend their time, form their identities, and construct their values (Youniss and Haynie, 1992; Oransky and Marecek, 2009). Some respondents expressed a lack of friends playing some of the games they would like to play or a general lack of gaming friends. Another prominent societal discourse that influenced engagement with gaming was the perceived hostility of game communities and gaming culture in general. Overlapping with the previously discussed Game and genre attributes, this could lead to avoiding certain games or game types altogether.
These are not arbitrary; they are crafted by developers who embed values within the digital experiences they create. This makes game developers modern-day storytellers and cultural architects whose creations shape the worldview and ethical compass of their audience. As a qualitative study of young people’s gaming through a reasonably large sample, our study is to our knowledge the first of its kind in Finland and provides important new insights into the subject. The responses suggest that many young people expressed themselves quite freely—something that might not have been possible in the social context of a face-to-face interview. By drawing on young people’s own experiences instead of using standardized quantitative measures, we have highlighted aspects of gaming that are essentially not measurable but are nevertheless integral to understanding it.
The cutting-edge solutions pioneered in games are also often appropriated for other purposes, including research in virtual reality, autonomous vehicles, medical imaging and more. Not only does it generate billions in revenue every year, but it also employs hundreds of thousands of people across the globe. Whether it’s games development and publishing or esports and streaming, gaming is a sector that has gone global. The earlier discussion on the habit economy focused on the external mechanisms through which games influence user engagement.
For ease of reading, we have made minor grammar and punctuation changes to some of the quotes during the translation. Because of the contested nature of the word “gamer” (see Shaw, 2012; Paaßen et al., 2017), we have used the word “player” when referring to someone who plays games. We conducted a thematic analysis (see Braun and Clarke, 2021) on the responses, utilizing a combination of data and theory-driven approaches. We familiarized ourselves with the responses and, using the qualitative analysis software Atlas.ti, coded the responses, first individually and then together, going over the responses several times, coding and re-coding, combining notes, and discussing until we reached an agreement. By exploring new designs that incorporate social impact, we can shape a future where games are a central force in shaping a more connected, more inclusive and more innovative world. If we embrace the potential of games to make the world a better place and build supportive institutions to help them do so, we can create a world where games help lead us toward a brighter future.
Problems of inclusion and exclusion can also come about through skill differences, as players’ different levels of skill can make it difficult or even impossible to play certain games together. Exclusion can also stem from lacking resources (i.e., not affording to buy games and gaming devices), tying into larger societal issues of inequality (Apperley and Gray, 2020). Different levels of production of gaming cultures are not separate categories, but a continuum that can be examined on the scales of professionalization and labor. Video game content creation can be seen as a form of labor, often discussed through the term playbour (Törhönen, 2021).