Why are video games fun?

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 8 August, 2011

Research attempts to find out.

We enjoy video games the most when we share similarities with the characters we play as, a new study has found.

More generally, we love video games because they're the best way to try out characteristics we'd like to have, or they allow us to "try on different hats", a study by Essex University has found.

Dr Andy Przybylski's research involved hundreds of casual game players in a laboratory and studied nearly a thousand dedicated gamers who played everything from The Sims and Call of Duty to World of Warcraft. Players were asked how they felt after playing in relation to the attributes or characteristics of the persona they would ideally like to be.

His results are due to be published in journal Psychological Science as a paper titled Getting to the Heart of the Appeal of Video Games.

"A game can be more fun when you get the chance to act and be like your ideal self," Przybylski said.

"The attraction to playing video games and what makes them fun is that it gives people the chance to think about a role they would ideally like to take and then get a chance to play that role."

Enjoyment levels are highest, the research shows, when we play as characters we can identify with.

"I was heartened by the findings which showed that people were not running away from themselves but running towards their ideals," Przybylski continued.

"They are not escaping to nowhere they are escaping to somewhere."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (46) Latest comment 10 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • TheTrueSpin #1 10 months ago

    Humans have played games for thousands of years. Video games are not special or different.

  • ShiftyGeezer #2 10 months ago

    Why are any games fun...?

    Seriously, what a stupid question - why can't scientists stick to investigating stuff that matters and stop wasting our investment?

    Not to mention the quoted findings are poop. I really enjoyed PixelJunk Monsters, but didn't relate on a personal level to any of the odd little muchkins. I also loved Uncharted, but I'm nothing like Drake and wouldn't go around murderin' people. So we have here a pointless scientific investigation that reveals absolutely nothing necause the people holding it are incompetant. Research money well spent!

  • Gao #3 10 months ago

    So what does that say about all the guys playing as femsheppard? :)

  • bobfish09 #4 10 months ago

    That may well apply to the average gamer, but there are plenty out there who only give a damn about beating other people and being the best. They don't play for fun, they play to win.

  • the_dudefather #5 10 months ago

    Because in games I can murder people and get away with it, unlike real life

    ...most of the time

  • Architect_z #6 10 months ago

    Theres a University in Essex?

    How Ironic

  • Yuroko #7 10 months ago

    Running towards their ideals.

    I feel best when I'm a gun toting mad man, I relate to those types of characters cause that's what I really want to be doing with my life.

    Why are games fun? Why is anything fun? What a stupid study. They should have studied why the people of Essex are arrogant cunts instead.

  • SteelPriest #8 10 months ago

    exploration, collection, improvement, and of course, killing.

    there you go, done.

  • Kanjin #9 10 months ago

    Well that makes my multiple Saints Row 2 playthroughs look a bit bad.

    @Gao. If you're going to be a mass-murdering psychic warrior who gets to run around a galaxy full of weird aliens, why not change your gender too? Honestly, I don't know, maybe it's the butts.

  • EugenesLair #10 10 months ago

    I was playing as a femsheppard! Crap, now I have to question my sexual orientation ;)

    Now seriously, people play very different games for very different reasons. 'Escapism' is just one of those reasons. I wouldn't enjoy Tetris more if I wanted to have everything in my life sorted into perfect squares. Well, actually ...

  • cheeky_BILLY #11 10 months ago

    What a load of bollocks.

  • Snake_2011 #12 10 months ago

    god sake these research guys should be trying to find the cure to things that aren't fun like cancer ffs.

  • Bullet_Tunnel #13 10 months ago

    Video games are fun because they fill in for all the things that we used to do for thousands of years, before they were phased out, exausted, no longer needed, or taken away in our bovine corporate owned lives. We no longer need/ are able/allowed to hunt for food. our lives are so taken up by the grind-a-day week, iven if we wanted to do these things, they are too expensives/time consuming. The days of the plucky 20 something, opium addicted toff sailing of for fortune and glory are dead n gone. We need to simulate some sort of exiting existence, as we are all just cattle that are milked for money so trillionaires teenage daughters can have a pink porshe with dg logo printed seats. If i didnt have games to play, i would be off on shooting spree for real. Moooooooooo

  • FanBoysSuck #14 10 months ago

    "So what does that say about all the guys playing as femsheppard? :)"

    It means I don't need to alt tab to have a wank ;)

  • darc #15 10 months ago

    "Enjoyment levels are highest, the research shows, when we play as characters we can identify with."

    Then why is real life such a drag? ;)

  • Incarta #16 10 months ago

    Games are fun because they are.

    Now stop wasting time and money and find a cure for cancer.

  • Xardan #17 10 months ago

    They arent always fun.

  • spekkeh #18 10 months ago

    Przybylski (and Rigby and Ryan) has done some valuable research when it comes to motivation and games. That is, the results from my research mostly corroborate their findings. So whatever they say, they're probably right ;). I advise Eurogamers with access to university libraries to check their research out.

  • spekkeh #19 10 months ago

    @tjtj I'm not sure I buy this. I enjoyed Halo but I couldn't give a shit about the characters. In fact, beyond their appearance and the manner in which they move, for the most part I don't care who I'm playing as.

    The way research like this works, to put it simply, is they let people play a number of different games, ask them how much they liked it and then let the participants fill in a range of disagree/agree questions on numerous propositions such as 'i felt that i had control over the choices i made'. Then they group items together on their relatedness and see how much they influence enjoyment. From this they (previously, haven't read this paper yet) found two main drivers of enjoyment of a game: feelings of autonomy and feelings of competence. That's all quite vague (but it fits in pretty well with previous research on motivation), and it certainly doesn't mean that games where you don't feel highly autonomous are per definition not fun; it just means that, on average, if you do this right in a game, you will have a game that is enjoyed more than if you implement it wrongly.

  • mr2ange #20 10 months ago

    Bollocks I play games for the challenge - wether single player/online or otherwise.

    I love the Mentally engaging and problem solving aspects and the thrill of surviving against all odds.

    atleast for me it has fuck all to do with wanting to be the character, although sometimes i do wish i was pacman.

  • bobfish09 #21 10 months ago

    @tjtj

    Maybe, but only if you found winning and playing to be fun. But I've met enough sore losers in COD, etc that I know they don't get any fun out of playing unless they are winning. Which means only winning is fun to them. :)

  • DrStrangelove #22 10 months ago

    "We enjoy video games the most when we share similarities with the characters we play as, a new study has found.

    More generally, we love video games because they're the best way to try out characteristics we'd like to have"

    Uhm, isn't the second the opposite of the first?

  • SalarymanDaishi #23 10 months ago

    Considering how many of us gamers are so ready with rakes and torches whenever anything negative is published about gaming, I'm quite surprised at the reception of this article. Granted, it might sound like a simple finding but at the same time it also sounds right and something to feel happy about as a gamer, even if just to appreciate how games aren't demonized for a change.

    As for the study itself, just think of the games with a built-in morality system of any kind. I'd dare say most people choose the "good" option simply because it feels like the proper thing to do in real life. I might be alone on this one but even if it's just a game, I shy away from the evil options simply because they don't... I dunno... Feel right.

  • olmaz #24 10 months ago



    Anyone notice that this kind of "scientific argument" is just there to help people to say that "videogames make kids violent"... I mean, if they were true then the true inner goal of any of us players would be to become a muscular ultra-violent semi-god, a soldier shooting terrorists (or the other way), a crazy super-powered fighter, etc... yeah right! Even if I can admit that playing games is sometimes a way to realize a fantasm you have, well, I'm pretty sure most player just have fun with the innerent fun coming from a games : a competition with oneself or others, without any risks of losing health or money...

    And I'm not going into the way girl-gamers should feel after that statement... How many games gives you the opportunity to be a fully growned, intellectually and personally developped woman? Would that mean that all girl-gamers want to be like Bayonetta or Mileena???

  • olmaz #25 10 months ago

    @SalarymanDaishi :
    Sorry, and without any aggressivity I would like to say I disagree... Most players chose the Evil side of the game in their first playthrough when they got the choice... And that's understandable because game developpers (who are quite receptive when it comes to that) are generally putting more "interesting" or "cool" moments and actions in the Evil side of the game...

    Here a few exemple to clarify what I mean :
    - Fallout 3 : not that far from the start of the game, you can ever detonate the nuclear bomb or not... of course more than a few did detonate it, because then they could see a game-world changer nuclear explosion on their screen... that's not something you can see frequently and a good exemple that developper want to "shock" you or just a little "push" you toward the dark side of the game

    - Infamous (you can put almost all open-world games in there) : the most fun we have when we start the game is to destroy everything and everyone around, just to see how much the game allows us to affect our surroundings, and because it's fun to see flying cars, blowing windows, etc... Again, if you are a "good boy", you can say "hi" to the passing cop car and continue to walk calmly... sometihng you can do already in the real world.

    Most games today, with their realistic representation of different worls, allow us some evasion. With them, we can see, hear and wonder at things we only saw in our imagination.

    But other games are just, I think, challenges, as a sport or a professional goal can be... We just want to be better than our former self or than the others...
    Edited by olmaz at 08/08/11 @ 20:28

  • King_of_Hyrule #26 10 months ago

    if we play videogames to "try on different hats" then surely Team Fortress 2 is the best game ever

  • copy_artist_jon #27 10 months ago

    ..My favourite game is Shenmue, a story about a japanese high school student whose father was murdered Jackie Chan style by some "foreign guys". I spend all my time searching for sailors and testing my bosses patience by racing fork lift trucks. I should be saving up for a ticket to Hong Kong, but I've blown all my inheritance trying to complete my toy capsule collection.

    That pretty much sums up my formative years :)

  • TexMurphy01 #28 10 months ago

    "Przybylski"? Nobody's going to pick up on this? The Wire...?

    "Fuck you, Mr. Presbo!"

  • natureboy #29 10 months ago

    I love playing games as a way to chillax after a long and hectic day. I feel free to swear at that annoying end game boss who throws cheap shots at me

  • CaptainKid #30 10 months ago

    "We enjoy video games the most when we share similarities with the characters we play as, a new study has found."
    That's why the protagonist is almost always a white man.

    And I agree with this statement because I like to roleplay (pretending I'm the main character), even if it's just a little, when playing a game.
    I had to get used to playing a black man in GTA San Andreas.

  • the_merchant #31 10 months ago

    I REALLY enjoyed Arkham Asylum...Does that mean I'm like Batman??

  • Cosmoskramer #32 10 months ago

    Why are games fun ? seriously ? why is the sky blue and water wet,have we got time for this ? lol.Games have been around for more than two decades now,hell even pong,pacman and Invaders were fun,back in the day even without the sweet graphics,sound and the rest some games are fun others are a nightmare depending how you play what you like.

    Some people's lifes are so boring and crap games are nearly all they have got,I'm boardering on that line at the moment,Some of these games are so realistic and well made yeah sure they are fun,SSFIV,Just Cause 2,GTA,Mario,FiFa,Pro Skater what ever you like its like a dream,hours roll on and with Online now its taken over.

    But are games Fun ? Er yeah sort off ,some are buget,buggy timewasters other are just crap,some I get bored of very quickly
    FPS shotters at the moment I buy one play it for a week and I can't continue can't be arsed seen it got the T shirt other I just love started playing Pilotwings 64 again yesterday what an amazing game what happened Nintendo ? they Won but Sold out
    All three Sony Microsoft and Sega.kidding ,lol, The Mighty Nintendo have made some trully great games and the rest...

    Gamers keep Rolling ....The End...

  • Slipstream #33 10 months ago

    if you play a plot driven game through to the end it's often because you feel compelled to see it through to the end. I don't believe half of the posts here saying it has nothing to do with 'characters' or 'plot', especially if you play a variety of games frequently.

  • Bander #34 10 months ago

    "Enjoyment levels are highest, the research shows, when we play as characters we can identify with."

    So apparently I mostly identify with indestructible cars, cute things that jump really high, and small spaceships which only face forwards.

    Escapism ≠ playing games.

  • mkreku #35 10 months ago

    I think they may be right. Every time I start up Fallout, I think to myself, "This time I'm going to be a murderous asshole". But as soon as I enter the game and have to murder some innocent pixel person I just can't do it.

  • Vortextk #36 10 months ago

    I play a lot of female characters, and I'm a straight male. What does that mean?

  • repeater #37 10 months ago

    "god sake these research guys should be trying to find the cure to things that aren't fun like cancer ffs"
    "Now stop wasting time and money and find a cure for cancer."

    Your faith in the power and reach of the science of psychology is impressive.
    Edited by repeater at 09/08/11 @ 08:03

  • handsonhips101 #38 10 months ago

    I've been playing games for twenty odd years. I don't think I fond them fun anymore. Just habitual. Games are too complex these days. I play them to fill time. Sad really.

  • TheApologist #39 10 months ago

    My femshep is a bad-ass universe saving cougar. I like me.

  • G5ANDY #40 10 months ago

    As the author of the paper I'd like to weigh in. Some of the comments are missing the point of the research and I think that might be because the story is based on a press release and not the actual research. I would be happy to do a Q&A interview with Eurogamer and address questions you have, or the staff have.

    The research paper, is actually titled "The ideal self at play: The appeal of videogames that let you be all you can be". I do a lot of research on gaming and these studies are part of one project based on me applying my research skills to something that's always interested me as a gamer. It doesn't conclude this is the only reason "why" people enjoy gaming, but is a contributing cause.
    Edited by G5ANDY at 09/08/11 @ 10:56

  • 5h1nj1 #41 10 months ago

    This is really high on the "top 100 stupidest studies in the world" ladder.

  • Bander #42 10 months ago

    @G5ANDY Oops. Looks like a half-arsed Wesley Yin-Poole article again, written to just generate negative comments. Although the press release is certainly to blame as well.

    I'm off to role-play as a guy who likes chucking bricks into a well now.

  • abzddon #43 10 months ago

    hmmm, interesting.

    I would like to know why playing sports is so fun as well. I normally question myself when I enjoy things xD
    Edited by abzddon at 09/08/11 @ 14:32

  • Tiberius_Gracchus #44 10 months ago

    Would have loved to have got a research grant for this!

  • G5ANDY #45 10 months ago

    @Tiberius_Gracchus

    Haha me too, I did it out of pocket on a graduate student stipend.

  • KrazyFace #46 10 months ago

    If it's true that videogames effect our inner-selves so vehemently then surely we'd all be running around darkened rooms, munching on pills and listening to repetitive music!?

    Oh wait...