Playing for Health: How Video Games Can Improve Mental Well-being

Abstract

This paper analyses how video games can be used to improve a player’s mental health and be uniquely adapted to their circumstances. Video games have immense potential to be used as tools for all kinds of education, specifically building on the user’s mental health awareness. To understand this topic in depth, this paper provides a thorough examination of some video game characters and also study games like Elude, Abzu, Flower, Depression Quest, and Actual Sunlight, specifically that might help serve this purpose. Previous research in this field does not arrive at a specific quantitative conclusion about how video games can positively impact mental health. They tend to focus on the negative aspect of video games on the player’s health. This paper aims to highlight the positive features of video games by analysing the available research on this topic.