This is the study:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12357126/

I'm going to say it's very poorly designed such that any conclusions are manufactured.

They split 500 volunteers into 4 groups: with or without BotW and with or without nostalgia movies.

The obvious problem is that only people who have a pre-existing appreciation for this type of media would volunteer.

There's a bunch of other problems. The studies author(s) are very clearly fans of the games and movies. It' s impossible not to see that from the study design.

There's no effort to control for external factors. For example, if you stop studying all night and do anything else, your mental health will probably improve. Given that the study ran for 3 weeks, my guess is that it was conducted over a semester break.

These are just the obvious problems.

If you enjoy games that's great. You don't need a study to tell you that doing things you enjoy is good for you.

Equally so with TOTK. I had given up on gaming for a long time but gave BOTW a shot.

„New Study Finds Even More Evidence That Gaming Can Improve Overall Happiness” - unless you’re playing Silksong :)

I feel like a lotta games would have these benefits. Those are all reasons I play soulslikes, myself.

In rare double-study, scientists find playing Drakengard inflicts the exact opposite feelings, sparking misery, lowering life satisfaction, and building feelings of ineptitude and impotence

BOTW helped me process my depression.

I was born in 1986, and ever since I had been doing what was expected of me. Immediate family were all aggressively opposed to me ever making a decision or having any agency, yet somehow I always ended up doing the wrong thing, even when I did the exact opposite of the wrong thing.

I'd always liked games, but had started to feel like I was just going through the motions, acting out a predetermined path. Then, in 2018, I played BOTW. Holy crap. "Your goal is to save the princess. How you go about that is up to you."

And there was so much freedom! I could go anywhere, do anything I wanted. I could run off to look at something twitching off the path. I could be a berserker, a knight, or a ninja (ninja wherever possible). There were no guardrails, no predetermined paths, just a vast, beautiful world where I could do as I pleased.

I was also getting therapy at the time and working out my feelings. I had been thinking a lot about being a supporting character in my own life story, but when I played BOTW, I was truly in control in a way I had never experienced in real life. Seeing and feeling this freedom, comparing it with my own life, really clarified a lot about where my depression arose from and how I could manage it.

(My depression is fortunately mild enough that drugs would do more harm than good. I'm no longer suicidal and have a few personal strategies I use when I have an attack).

I never finished it.

I hated that my weapons constantly broke. I didn't find the world particularly interesting to explore. The puzzles felt tedious.

I keep trying to get into and enjoy BOTW, but I just can't get into it. I think it might not be a game for me. Which is sad because I've thoroughly enjoyed all the other Zelda games, and I date back to the NES. I feel like I've lost something.

Nah. While I enjoyed both games, weapon endurance and needing to play magical k'nex caused more frustration than joy.

Gamepot is slop, this article is trash, and the study is idiotic to begin with. The same could be said of any game or hobby, can be filed under no duh.

Maybe if they removed weapon degradation.

Interesting. I just find it aggravating. No matter where I go I die in 5 minutes or less. It isn’t fun. It’s objectively not relaxing. I want to say the game is trash but a lot of people like it.

Damn Nintendo going straight corporate

Nice try, Nintendo, I will not buy your wares.