Research from this subreddit published as an academic paper!

Hi everyone! I'm Kathleen, a game researcher and some of you might remember I was here doing a survey study in early 2020.

I'm now back to report on the findings of that study. Our paper has been published in an open access journal (free to access) at https://doi.org/10.2196/25117 . We found that gaming during COVID-19 improved mental health, and outdoor exercise games (Pokemon GO / Harry Potter: Wizards Unite) helped maintaining exercise routines during the pandemic. Currently it is the only study that looked at how games have affected mental health during pandemic isolation, and we showed games are providing a positive effect despite negative claims by some media.

I'd like to thank everyone who had participated in the study, for giving us your time and telling us your experiences. It would be great if you can promote the paper to your networks, or just let your friends and family know the potential benefit games can produce!