Don’t think we’ve given up to hyperbolic headlines, there really is a study saying open world games are good for our mental health. Really.
“It seems that both the autonomy given to players in open-world games, and the richness of the virtual worlds, may contribute to improvements in mental health – something game developers could take on board.” – Open-World Games Like Zelda Can Boost Your Mental Health, Study Says : ScienceAlert
Let’s temper the excitement a bit, because as we’ve pointed out before. These studies often use very small numbers of participants. This one, a mere 32 interviews with 609 surveys? Yeah, that’s pathetically insignificant.
But, hey, if you want to look at what hurts mental health, the same study cites social media. Note: other studies conflict these results about social media being bad like this one: New study challenges assumptions about social media’s harm to mental health
But the next time you get bummed out surfing Twitter/X/Insta, etc or word wrestling with a troll, just fire up an open world game like Zelda, or go the Steam/PC route, because they have an entire open world category: https://store.steampowered.com/category/exploration_open_world/
If none of your friends are online to play, don’t forget: Research Finds More Enjoyable Playing Games with Robots than Solo. Most open world games have some kind of NPCs. I’m thinking about the phantom racers in Forza Horizon 5 (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1551360/Forza_Horizon_5/), showing your friends playing when they really aren’t.
There is something calming about seeing another car with a friend’s name above it in the distance.
At PGM we care about your mental health so much that this will be the topic of Episode #4 of (No) Blue Monday Twitch Stream: going open world! Tune in today 1/5/2025 starting at/near 4:30am PST, it’s live as of the moment this was published right here: https://www.twitch.tv/playgamesmoredotcom
Stop by, say hello to the crew and start your Mondays off right!
Nothing better than fishing in Call of the Wild the Angler and seeing all the other people fishing as well.