“Just for fun?”: An exploration of digital games’ potential for eudaimonic media experiences among Flemish adolescents

ABSTRACT

Research shows that media entertainment can induce eudaimonic or meaningful experiences, such as being emotionally moved or being stimulated to reflect about oneself. While these studies have primarily focused on adults’ eudaimonic media entertainment experiences, the current study explores whether games can lead to eudaimonic experiences amongst adolescents, for instance, via characteristics like emotionally deep stories and moral choices. Games are very popular among adolescents, while eudaimonic experiences may possibly fulfill key needs of identity development and peer relatedness as well as prove to be beneficial for adolescents’ well-being and overall development. To explore adolescents’ eudaimonic game experiences, we performed a qualitative study existing of six focus groups (N = 33) and 20 individual in-depth interviews (total N = 53). Results indicate that adolescents do experience eudaimonic game moments. Specifically, they experienced socially bonding, reflective (about oneself and society), emotionally moving, and elevating moments. These were considered particularly meaningful when they were somehow connected to real life. Finally, adolescents mostly mentioned narrative aspects (i.e., the game’s story, characters, moral choices), other real players, and audiovisual aspects like graphics and soundtrack as important elicitors of eudaimonic game experiences. Limitations and future research suggestions are further discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital games
• adolescents
• eudaimonic media entertainment
• positive media psychology
• qualitative research

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rowan Daneels

Rowan Daneels, MSc in Communication Sciences at the University of Antwerp (2014) and Ghent University (2015), is currently a PhD Researcher at the MIOS research group, University of Antwerp (Belgium). His research interests include topics such as digital games, positive media psychology, eudaimonic media entertainment, and elevation; specifically focusing on adolescents as a target group. Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2299-7369. Twitter handle: @R_Daneels

Heidi Vandebosch

Heidi Vandebosch, PhD in Communication Sciences, is Professor at the Department of Communication Studies, University of Antwerp (Belgium). Her research focuses on cyberbullying among children and adolescents: prevalence, profiles of bullies and victims, impact, and the development of evidence-based interventions (e.g., serious games, narrative interventions,…). Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6779-3170. Twitter handle: @HeidiVandebosch

Michel Walrave

Michel Walrave, PhD in Communication Studies, is currently Spokesperson of the MIOS research group and Professor at the Department of Communication Studies, University of Antwerp (Belgium). In his research, he investigates individuals’ self-disclosure and privacy in interpersonal online communication and consumers’ entrusting of personal data to businesses for marketing purposes. Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5214-0393. Twitter handle: @MichelWalrave