Leveling Up: A Review of Emerging Trends and Suggestions for the Next Generation of Communication Research Investigating Video Games’ Effects

Abstract

Research involving the uses and effects of video games has been published for nearly three decades. Despite the medium’s rich potential for a broad range of societal applications and effects, the bulk of communication research dealing with video games has focused on a relatively narrow range of conceptual problems. This chapter presents an analysis of the advancement and evolution of four emerging areas of games research: gaming and cognition, gaming and health, alternative responses to anti-social gaming content, and social dimensions of gaming. In addition to reviewing the literature for each of these areas, directions for future research are suggested.