Nisha Devasia

In recent years, interest in eudaimonic player experiences (PX) - concerning reflection, meaning-making, and personal growth - has increased. However, most games user research methods are not well-suited to study eudaimonic PX, as they have been developed to evaluate features of hedonic PX, such as flow, immersion, and playability. To more deeply explore eudaimonic PX, we require methods that can 1) investigate how moment-to-moment PX shapes player reflection and 2) explore how players reengage and reinterpret their experiences longitudinally. In this paper, we present SAVEstate , a method that uses documentation as a means of studying player reflection. SAVEstate consists of two phases: reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action, which allow researchers to probe players’ in-situ reflections and how they reengage with their gameplay, respectively. Using SAVEstate, we were able to observe in-situ meaning-making and connect it to post-game reflection-on-action, and view synchronous sensemaking across multiple participants. We also developed an open-source desktop application for researchers to adapt in their own SAVEstate deployments. We discuss implications for how researchers might use SAVEstate to conduct future research in meaningful PX.

We investigated romantic partners’ shared gaming through semi-structured interviews with a majority-heterosexual participant group of 13 co-located couples ( N = 26). We employed the Sound Relationship House, a Gottman Method Couple Therapy framework that describes seven characteristics of happy, stable romantic relationships, to analyze our participants’ perspectives on their joint gaming experiences. We conclude that shared gaming can support romantic couples in strengthening their relationships through contributing to the friendship and shared meaning systems of the Sound Relationship House. Gaming experiences that afforded these relationship-building aspects were characterized by congruence between couples’ joint needs, their play strategies, and game design. In contrast, when game designs failed to address couples’ joint needs or accommodate their play strategies, shared gaming could prompt frustration and relational challenges. Taken together, we suggest design provocations to enrich relationship-supportive opportunities in shared gaming through facilitating congruence between couples’ joint needs, their play strategies, and game design.

Games are sites where players construct meaning through their interactions with the game system and with one another. Yet, while existing work describes why players make meaning, less is known about the mechanisms by which players collectively decide what counts as evidence during play. We present a 2.5-year Research through Design study, conducted through co-design with youth, that investigates these evidentiary meaning-making processes via the design of a misinformation-based game. Drawing on formal game analysis and qualitative analysis of design documentation and co-design sessions, we develop the Documentation-in-Play (DiP) Framework, presenting four mechanisms researchers and designers can use to observe and design for how players produce and stabilize evidence in collaborative play. We also present design heuristics for scaffolding these mechanisms, organized across cognitive, social, material, and time-based dimensions. While our design probe centers a misinformation game for youth, DiP is positioned as a transferable lens for any inquiry-oriented game context where interpretation, validation, and inscription are central to play.

Video games have increasingly been used to support mental health through various game-based interventions (GBIs), including exergames, virtual reality therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy-based games. While these approaches often emphasize novel game mechanics and gamification, such features may undermine intrinsic motivation, which is critical for meaningful internalization of mental health messaging. Narrative, a well-studied mechanism in communication theory for fostering engagement and persuasion, remains underexplored in GBIs for mental health. This systematic review investigates narrative GBIs (NGBIs) using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. Seventeen studies met the inclusion criteria. The majority addressed depression and anxiety, and CBT was common as an evidence-based grounding. However, few of the studies investigated the narrative factorially, and the disparate measures used to evaluate success made it difficult to determine the overall efficacy of NGBIs for mental health. We conclude with suggestions for future directions for research and design of NGBIs.

While much of the research in digital games has emphasized hedonic experiences, such as flow, enjoyment, and positive affect, recent years have seen increased interest in eudaimonic gaming experiences, typically mixed-affect and associated with personal meaningfulness and growth. The formation of such experiences in games is theorized to have four constituent elements: motivation, game use, experience, and effects. However, while the first three elements have been relatively well explored in the literature, the effects - and how they may influence positive individual outcomes - have been underexplored thus far. To this end, in this work, we investigate the perceived outcomes of eudaimonic gaming and how different components of the experience influence these effects. We conducted a survey (n = 166) in which respondents recounted meaningful gaming experiences and how they affected their present lives. We used a mixed-methods approach to classify effects and identify significant subcomponents of their formation. We contribute an empirical understanding of how meaningful gaming experiences can lead to positive reflective, learning, social, health, and career effects, extending current theoretical models of eudaimonic gaming experiences and offering implications for how researchers and practitioners might use these findings to promote positive outcomes for players.