Expert reveals how gaming can improve mental wellbeing
- Meghan Blumsum
- Feb 2, 2023
- 3 min read
Video games have been shown to be particularly good outlets for mood control, with 89% of players reporting that games have the capability to help them relax. With many games attracting a loyal fanbase, creative and interactive video games can encourage a calm environment and community for those joining.
Interested to find out which video game makes players feel the most relaxed, TheSlotBuzz.com analysed the percentage of Reddit gaming comments containing swear words to reveal which video game generates the least anger from players.
The video games with the calmest fanbase
Professional gaming streamer, The Fierce Diva, shared his thoughts with TheSlotBuzz.com on how gaming can benefit your wellbeing.
‘Gaming can be great for our mental well-being. Whether it's through building a supportive community of online friends or serving as a moment to step away from the stress of the real-world, gaming can truly improve your mental health. By providing a path for escapism, gaming can often offer a meditative state that has a positive impact, as illustrated in peer-reviewed studies. It also offers innovative ways to develop analytical, critical, and team building skills that translate into real-world fulfilment and advancement.
#1:Minecraft has been found as the video game with the calmest gamers with only 1.55% of Reddit comments including swearing. It has become one of the most successful video games ever and with the games constant changes, it's easy to see why many enjoy playing in this three dimensional world.
#2: Zelda comes in second place with 3.38% of Reddit comments featuring swear words. First released in 1986, the game series has earned its reputation as one of the greatest video game series of all time with its mix of puzzles, action/adventure gameplay and battle mode.
#3: Pokemon is the third video game that gets us the least frustrated, with only 3.57% of comments containing swearing. The gaming series releases its core games in generations, each with different characters and storylines, and it has since become one of the highest grossing media franchises of all time.
How can game play improve mental wellbeing?
Tech blogger and cofounder of TechRT Rajesh Namase believes that gaming can have several positive health and wellbeing impacts such as:
1. Enhances cognitive function
According to research, brain-stimulating games have the potential to enhance cognitive performance, with many games requiring skills from players such as spatial awareness, problem-solving, and decision-making. It has been shown that playing video games frequently enhances attention and with that memory and processing speed.
2. Lowers anxiety and stress
By allowing players to escape from the strains of everyday life, playing video games can help users relax and unwind. Additionally, a number of games have been developed specifically to help people manage their stress and anxiety. Video games can be utilised as a therapeutic diversion to manage moods, reduce worrying, and even create joy.
3. Increases social connections
Players can meet people and develop relationships through playing video games, both online and offline. Video games foster connection, a crucial component of mental health, by making you feel like you belong to a group of like-minded individuals who value your participation and share your game's objective.
How can you control your anger whilst gaming?
Rajesh Namase also commented on reducing anger while playing video games:
‘One important way to manage stress and rage while gaming is to take breaks when needed. Set specific limits for yourself so that you don’t lose track of time or become too invested in the game. If you start feeling frustrated during the game, pause it and walk away for a few minutes before returning to it. This will give you some much-needed space from the situation and help clear your head so that you can return more focused on problem-solving rather than reacting emotionally. Additionally, creating boundaries for yourself during gameplay can help reduce frustration levels as well as promote healthier habits in general.’
Methodology:
TheSlotBuzz.com conducted an analysis of over 19,000 posts on 20 gaming subreddits to identify games with the most foul-mouthed users. The Reddit scraper built for this research utilised both the Pushshift and PRAW APIs.
A seed list of the most popular games with subreddits available were acquired from multiple authoritative sources.
For each subreddit, comments on up to 1000 of the most recent posts were scraped. A maximum of 50 top level comments were collected per post. The resulting dataset consisted of over 138,000 comments.
A list of swear words including variations and common adaptations accounting for the semantics of redditors were collected. A binary assignment was subsequently performed to label comments containing any of the defined keywords.
An aggregation performed by game resulted in a dataset detailing the sample size of posts and submissions analysed, together with the percentage of comments containing profanity.
This data is accurate as of the 26th of January 2023 and is subject to change.
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