Play Meter

LIGHTS OUT AT THE ARCADE
RESTRICTED EMOTIONAL APPEAL LIMITS VIDEO-GAME POPULARITY
By Albert Mehrabian and Warren W ixen
he arcades are closing, the
quarters are flowing more
slowly and the craziness
appears to have gone out of the
video-game craze. According to an
analysis of the video-game industry
by Bernstein Research, the number
of arcades is down from 10,000 in
1982 to approximately 8,000 this
year. Industry representatives are
hoping that new technologies, such
as interactive touch screens and
laser-disc images, will put a stop to
the current downward trend, but if
the results of our research are cor-
rect, the problem has more to do
with psychology than technology.
One reason for the surprising drop
in the popularity of these games
may be that they do not provide
players with the kinds of emotional
fixes they want.
To study the psychological factors
involved in video game preferences,
we asked students to play 22 com-
monly available arcade video games
and report their emotional reactions
in terms of pleasure-dis pleasure,
arousal-nonarousal and dominance-
submissiveness. The three aspects
of emotion that make up the palette
from which all feelings are created
(see "The Three Dimensions of
Emotional Reaction," Psychology
Today, August 1976 ).
The typical emotional response to
the games was found to be displea-
sure, arousal and dominance-that
is, feelings of aggression, anger or
hostility. Considering the broad
range of games tested, it is sur-
prising that their emotional effects
were consistently limited to such a
narrow segment of emotional
experience. Nevertheless, the find-
ing is understandable . One goal-if
not the main goal- of the majority
T
of games is the destruction of the
"enemy" or conflict with a violent
opponent. Is all this violence neces-
sary for games to achieve high popu-
larity? Is it necessary to limit the
emotional impact of games to
feelings of aggression and hostility?
The answer to these questions was
provided in part by the second stage
of our study. When a different group
of students rated their preferences
among the 22 video games, it was
found that they had greater prefer-
ence for games that made them feel
dominant (that gave them feelings
of control, mastery, competence,
power and expertise) and games
that made them feel aroused (that
were complex, multifaceted and full
of novelty, surprises and rapid
changes). For example, the games
Pole Position, Galaga and Warlords,
which were among the most
preferred, made players feel highly
dominant and aroused.
One of the least preferred games,
Moon Patrol, was below average in
making players feel dominant
and/ or aroused. The preference for
this game could be increased, how-
ever, by having the jeep-like vehicle
travel over a complex and unpre-
dictable· terrain and by increasing
the variety of ways in which players
can control the direction, range and
type of attack.
Within the limited emotional
realm tapped by current video
games, our findings show that
dominance and arousal responses
are most important, and that many
of the games could be redesigned
readily to increase their emotional
appeal.
In addition, our other studies
suggest two basic types of games
that so far have been neglected by
manufacturers: games that make
players feel pleasure, arousal and
dominance (excited, exhilarated,
invigorated and masterful) and
games that yield feelings of plea-
sure, low arousal and dominance
(relaxation, contentment and lei-
surely feeling ). These "exciting" and
"relaxing" games can be more fun
and possibly educational, and they
ought to be highly preferred .
Different personality types or
persons with different daily routines
would prefer one or the other.
For example, in our video-game
study, women showed greater pre-
ference than men for more pleasant
and less arousing games. Since
strictly relaxing games are practi-
cally nonexistent, this finding
explains why so few women play
video games. There are probably
large numbers of men who also
would enjoy relaxing games. Con-
sider the air-traffic controller who
has been directing planes all day and
making highly arousing split-second
decisions. This person is not likely
to seek entertainment that involves
continued high arousal; an unarous-
ing and pleasant ( relaxing ) game
might be just the right medicine
after a hectic day's work .
The absence of such designs in
video games is very surprising. One
wonders how many people are
excluded from the arena of video
games because of the restricted
emotional effects these games cur-
rently provide.
•
Albert Mehrabian is a professor of
psychology at the University of Cali-
fornia, Los Angeles, where he works
with UCLA g raduate Warren
Wixen and others on public atti-
tudes toward video games.
Reprinted from Psychology Today Magazine
Copyright © 1983 American Psychological Association
10
PLAY METER. A ril 15. 1984