Video games as meaningful entertainment experiences.

We conducted an experiment to examine individuals' perceptions of enjoyable and meaningful video games and the game characteristics and dimensions of need satisfaction associated with enjoyment and appreciation.Participants (N ═12) were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups that asked them to recall a game that they found either particularly fun or particularly meaningful, and to then rate their perceptions of the game that they recalled.Enjoyment was high for both groups, though appreciation was higher in the meaningful-than fun-game condition.Further, enjoyment was most strongly associated with gameplay characteristics and satisfaction of needs related to competency and autonomy, whereas appreciation was most strongly associated with story characteristics and satisfaction of needs related to insight and relatedness.Popular conceptualizations of video games often tend to characterize this form of entertainment as a somewhat shallow or superficial diversion filled with adolescent fantasies of gladiator battles and zombie shootouts.As such, critics have questioned if games have merit beyond that of mere hedonistic entertainment.For example, Roger Ebert (2010) declared that video games can never be considered art to the same extent as other forms of entertainment such as films.Similar sentiments have also been echoed by prominent game makers such as Hideo Kojima (Gibson, 2006) and by science-fiction author Ray Bradbury who said-"Video games are a waste of time for men with nothing else to do.Real brains don't do that" (qtd. in Hibberd, 2001, pp., para.26).Likewise, in a ruling that was quickly overturned, U.S. District Court