Gaming was found to be especially appealing for boys who not only spent more time playing but reported higher levels of interest and enjoyment in video games. At present, however, we have only a limited understanding of the reasons that games are so much more attractive to boys. But based on patterns of play preference we feel that video games have been designed to appeal to the kinds of emotional experiences that boys more than girls seek for their leisure activities.  

It is hard to draw conclusions from this survey concerning the social dimension of video game play. For many of the male "gamers", video gaming was part of a network of friendships and social affiliations making gaming into a cool thing. Yet for others playing was an isolating and solitary activity -- undertaken alone or within the sibling relationships when there was nothing better to do. One limitation of the present survey, however, was that it did not assess the quality of these relationships nor did it explore what kids got out of them. Future qualitative research is needed to develop our understanding of these issues.  

We found that the industries genre classifications were not very helpful in distinguishing the games that teens most enjoyed. We think that although gamers do form preferences for certain kinds of games, this only stimulates an interest in video game play in general. This blending of genres reflects trends in game design, which blends features of many genres making older distinctions seem obsolete to players. As such, we think researchers need to develop a better understanding of the distinctions and criteria that gamers themselves use to differentiate between games.  

The survey revealed that the emotional experience of game play was intense, characterized by strong feelings of pleasure, excitement, and involvement. As such, it would appear that much of the appeal of video games lies in the feelings of emersion that are acheived when television is made "interactive".  

Overall, the study suggests that for the majority of BC teens, electronic entertainment has not displaced those traditional social recreational pursuits of teenagers - sports, malls, and hanging in groups. For the majority of teens, social and physical activities remained the most desirable diversions. However, the study also found that for some teens, these preferred recreational activities weren't always possible; when friends and planned activities were not possible TV and video game use absorbed a significant amount of their leisure time.  

The main suprise came from the fact that the young people we surveyed were largely in agreement with the criticism of harmful effects of violent games and the potential for video game addiction. Many of them felt that there were some negative consequences associated with playing violent games and that many kids played too much. It was also surprising that given these concerns parents did not monitor or control their children's game play. Parents rarely played video games with their kids and they set fewer rules around gaming than they did for TV. Whether this reflects a belief that their children's video game play is educational, unproblematic or just uncontrollable is not clear; but when it comes to heavy players who report letting go of homework and chores, this reluctance to get involved needs further exploration.