Genre preferences

Participants were asked to rate their enjoyment of games of the following eight genres: action, puzzle, educational, fighting/combat, sports, racing, role play/adventure, and simulation games. For each category a mean rating was calculated.  

In general, the sports, racing, action, and fighting genres were prefered, with 40 to 50 per cent of respondents saying they liked them, while 30 per cent said they disliked them. When asked to choose one favourite game, the choice was overwhelmingly within the dominant action-adventure meta-genre. Given the complexity of contemporary game designs which combines aspects of different genres, the old categories no longer serve to adequately characterize the aspects of games prefered by gamers.

Though no genre emerged as a favorite, male heavy players developed different preferences than light players. For example, male heavy players preferred games with lots of action (60 per cent) and fighting (61 per cent) compared to male light players (39 and 35 per cent respectively). In contrast, male light players were more likely to enjoy playing educational or puzzle solving games.

 

Characteristics of a good game

When asked to rate the importance of various elements of a game, teens were more explicit about their preferences. Teenagers agreed that the most important characteristics in a game were those that contributed to its realism. For example, more than 75 per cent of all respondents felt that realistic graphics, good sound effects, lots of control, and good characters to play were crucial to a good video game. Also considered important were the features of unpredictability (75 per cent or respondents), excitement (73 per cent), good weapons (72 per cent), and an interesting story (67 per cent).

Significant gender differences were found for many of the elements of a good game. In particular, boys felt each feature to be more important than girls did, however, the largest differences were found for action and weapons. Most boys felt good weapons (85 per cent) and lots of action (70 per cent) were necessary for a good game. In contrast, 55 per cent of women felt weapons were important and only 25 per cent of women felt action was important.  

Heavy players rated all elements, particularly the presence of excitement and good characters, as more important to a good game than did light players.

 

Young people's opinions on violence and addiction

  The youth surveyed were in agreement with much of the criticism made against the harmful effects of violent games on "other kids" and the potential for video game addiction among their peers.  

The majority (85 per cent) of teenagers concluded that games had some harmful influence on kids that played them. In particular, 25 per cent felt that violent games had a bad influence on vulnerable kids, 34 per cent felt they had a negative influence on some kids, and 27 per cent believed violent games to have a significant negative effect on many players. Only 15 per cent thought violent games had no harmful consequences at all. Girls were found to be significantly more critical of video games than boys.  

As there has been little empirical research on what makes a game violent, we asked teens to rate a variety of scenarios for their contribution to the violence of a game. Participants generally felt that the most violent scenarios were those of sexual assault (85 per cent of respondents) and gore (83 per cent). Teenagers also said that the use of weapons of any kind (65 per cent), punching and kicking (57 per cent), and verbal abuse (53 per cent) were important in making a game appear violent. Girls perceived all scenarios to be more violent, especially those of sexual assault, verbal abuse and kidnapping.  

Teenagers were also asked to comment on whether or not they felt kids became addicted to playing video games. The majority of respondents agreed that video games could be addictive. In particular, 24 per cent of the respondents felt that many were totally dependent on video games, 34 per cent believed that some kids played them obsessively, and another 30 per cent felt some played them too much. Only five per cent said that video games were not addictive. Again, girls tended to be much harsher critics of video games than boys.

There was no significant relationship found between the amount of play and concern around violence or addiction. However, we did find a slight tendency for heavy players to view video games less negatively than lighter players.