内容来源：https://www.geekwire.com/2025/from-stress-relief-to-self-discovery-uw-researchers-reveal-the-deeper-impact-of-video-games/

内容总结：

（本报讯）电子游戏曾被视为"让人沉迷孤立的娱乐工具"，但最新研究表明，游戏对玩家产生的积极影响远超传统认知。华盛顿大学本月在匹兹堡"人机交互游戏年度研讨会"上发布的研究报告显示，近八成玩家通过游戏体验实现了人生重要转变。

研究团队对166名玩家开展的调研发现，78%的受访者表示在游戏过程中获得了改变人生的深刻体验。课题组成员德瓦西亚指出："在压力时期玩游戏与身心健康改善呈现显著正相关。疫情期间，《星露谷物语》等游戏就被玩家认为有效缓解了心理压力。"

该研究突破性地聚焦于"实现自我成长的游戏体验"，揭示了游戏作为互动媒介的独特价值。玩家通过角色扮演见证选择改变剧情走向，这种沉浸式叙事是小说、电影等传统媒介无法提供的体验。研究显示，部分玩家因体育类游戏培养出新的运动爱好，也有人通过游戏角色的成长历程加深对自我认知的理解。

课题组成员李珍河强调："现有研究多关注游戏短期效果，而本研究真正揭示了游戏改变人生的内在机制。"课题组负责人肯茨教授进一步指出："技术产品不应被简单定性，游戏既存在成瘾性等负面因素，也蕴含着促进成长与社会连接的积极力量。"

尽管游戏产业已发展为千亿美元级产业，其文化影响力仍是被忽视的讨论维度。在游戏媒体评论区，"不过是游戏而已"的论调仍时有出现，反映出社会对游戏文化价值的认知滞后。随着代际更替，电子游戏正与文学、电影一样，成为承载情感共鸣与思想启迪的重要文化载体。

中文翻译：

小时候，母亲总把我的任天堂游戏机称作"反社交白痴盒子"。当时普遍认为，电子游戏无论以何种形式出现，都是种既能虚度光阴又能挥霍金钱的新捷径，还会让人变成沉迷其中的孤僻者。

随后的几十年里，电子游戏已发展成为价值数百亿美元的产业，同时也成为更受社会接纳的爱好。虽然与其他媒介形式相同，游戏确实会吸引部分孤僻成瘾者，但据我观察，更多人因共同爱好而相遇相知才是常态。

无论是在《魔兽世界》等大型网游中结识战友，在格斗游戏里找到知己，还是被某段剧情或角色深深触动，亦或在Bluesky社交平台或论坛里与人分享游戏体验——电子游戏往往对玩家产生着积极影响。只不过这些正面效应在媒体报道中的能见度，远不及游戏负面影响的万分之一。

华盛顿大学最新发表的论文《"没有游戏就不会有今天的我"：论沉浸式游戏体验的积极影响》正着眼于这种正向影响力。这篇由五位学者联合撰写的论文，本月在匹兹堡举办的"人机交互游戏年度研讨会"上成为焦点。

研究团队对166位受访者开展了关于游戏带来"意义体验"的调研，包括：沉浸式叙事体验激发特定技能培养的兴趣、玩家操作改变剧情走向的互动体验等。论文摘要指出："尽管学界长期关注游戏带来的感官愉悦体验，近年来人们越来越重视游戏引发的沉浸式体验——这种混合情感体验往往与个人成长息息相关。"

根据校方新闻稿披露，78%的受访者表示在游戏过程中获得改变人生的意义体验。论文第一作者德瓦西亚表示："我们通过数据建模得出三大结论：首先，在压力时期玩游戏与身心健康改善呈强正相关。例如疫情期间，玩家普遍反映《星露谷物语》等游戏显著提升了心理状态。"

德瓦西亚还指出，部分受访者因游戏培养出体育等新爱好，也有人通过游戏主角的旅程获得对自我认知的启迪。"相较于小说电影，扮演角色并亲眼见证选择改变剧情走向是游戏独有的体验。"她补充道。

合著者李珍河教授表示："作为研究者，我们开发教育类游戏——比如传授辨识虚假信息或人工智能知识的游戏，推动数字公民参与——正是因为看重游戏创造意义体验的潜力。但现有研究多聚焦短期效果，这项研究真正帮助我们理解游戏改变人生的作用机制。"

对于游戏文化浸润中成长的一代，这个结论似乎不言自明。特别是在西雅图这类极客文化浓厚的地区，总有一款游戏会对你的人生产生深刻烙印。但耐人寻味的是，这个维度在游戏文化讨论中始终处于边缘地位。某种程度上，游戏圈甚至存在刻意将游戏贬为快餐文化的倾向——任何探讨游戏文化内涵的评论文章下，总会出现"想太多，不过是个游戏"的论调。

尽管如此，当代电子游戏引发观众共鸣的能力已不逊于文学电影，伴随游戏成长的人们自会从中汲取养分。这个议题在业内讨论仍显不足——我们长篇累牍地讨论游戏的趣味性、社会认可度或商业价值，却鲜少深入剖析其文化影响力。

正如研究者肯特兹所言："人们总习惯将科技产品简单定性，但游戏的价值判断远非非黑即白。设计理念至关重要。这项研究的意义在于梳理积极要素——尽管存在成瘾性等负面因素，但我们更应看到成长与连接的无限可能。"

英文来源：

When I was a kid, my mom used to call my Nintendo the “anti-social idiot box.” The widespread assumption back then was that video games, in any format, were a new and particularly efficient way to waste time and money while also becoming an obsessed shut-in.
Over the course of the subsequent decades, video games have grown into both a multi-billion-dollar industry and a much more socially acceptable hobby. While gaming does attract its share of anti-social obsessives, just like any other form of media, I’ve found it’s much more common for people to meet and bond over their mutual enjoyment of the hobby.
Whether it’s friends you meet through MMORPGs or fighting games, finding stories and characters that deeply resonate with you, or discussing your latest game in a shared space like Bluesky or a message board, video games often have a positive impact on the people who play them. That impact simply doesn’t get a fraction of the press of gaming’s various downsides.
That ability is the focus of a new paper from the University of Washington, “’I Would Not Be This Version of Myself Today’: Elaborating on the Effects of Eudaimonic Gaming Experiences.” The paper, by Nisha Devasia, Georgia Kenderova, Julie A. Kientz, Jin Ha Lee, and Michele Newman, was the focus of a presentation this month at the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI-PLAY) in Pittsburgh.
For the paper, the authors surveyed 166 respondents about the “meaningful experiences” they’d had as a result of playing video games, such as rich storytelling, becoming interested in specific skill development, or the experience of watching a narrative shift based upon the player’s in-game actions.
According to the paper’s abstract, “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.”
Of the 166 respondents, 78% reported that they’d had meaningful, life-changing experiences from their time playing video games, the researchers said in a UW News story about the paper.
“We highlighted three conclusions drawn from modeling the data,” Devasia told UW News. “The first is that playing games during stressful times was strongly correlated with positive outcomes for physical and mental health. For example, during COVID, people played games they felt strongly improved their mental health, such as Stardew Valley.”
Devasia also noted that other respondents had developed new interests, such as sports, due to video games they’d played, or gained insight into themselves or their identities from the journeys undertaken by video game protagonists.
“Playing as a character and seeing your choices change the course of events is pretty unique to games, compared with other narrative media like novels or movies,” Devasia said.
“As researchers, we develop games for learning, for instance, for teaching people about misinformation or AI, or promote digital civic engagement, because we want to foster meaningful experiences,” Lee added. “But a lot of the existing research just focuses on the short-term effects of games. This study really helps us understand what actually caused a game to make a difference in someone’s life.”
It sounds obvious at first glance if you’re someone who grew up around video games. It’s almost a given that there’s at least one game that made a serious mark on you somehow, especially if you live in a heavily nerd-coded space like the greater Seattle area.
Anecdotally, that strikes me as an underexplored part of the hobby. If anything, there’s a strange critical drive in the space to deliberately treat gaming as disposable pop culture, without any real meaning or lasting value. If you read any op-ed in the gaming press that discusses the cultural or political meaning of a video game, someone will inevitably show up in the comments to accuse the author of overthinking something that isn’t meant to matter. It’s “just a game.”
Even so, modern video games have just as much ability to resonate with their audience as any novel or film, and people who’ve grown up with them will take lessons away from that. It’s something we don’t discuss often enough in the field; we’ll talk at length about how video games are fun or socially acceptable now or a surprisingly big business, but their influence as culture is less discussed.
“People have a tendency to treat technology as a monolith, as if video games are either good or bad, but there’s so much more nuance,” Kientz told UW News. “The design matters. This study hopefully helps us untangle the positive elements. Certainly, there are bad elements — toxicity and addictiveness, for example. But we also see opportunities for growth and connection.”