Hi everyone,

I'm a games researcher and I'm currently conducting an online survey on how gaming and gaming-related activities may help people cope with difficult life experiences. I've received plenty of responses from people playing AAA games, but I want this study to take a diverse range of experiences into account. So it would be great to hear from people who are into itch.io games.

Personally I'm into oddball and sometimes emotionally difficult RPGMaker games, such as Hylics, Space Funeral or LISA The Painful RPG. And while I'm not sure they've helped, they definitely accompanied through some dark times.

The survey takes around 10 minutes to complete. Let me know if you have any questions.

https://ww2.unipark.de/uc/games_in_life/

Thank you all for your time.

Elisa / hadaly_habal

Hi,

I started your survey (possibly as I work in medical research and was intrigued) but stopped on the first question:

"All of us have times of – perhaps ongoing – personal difficulty. Please think of a stressful, confusing, troubled, or discouraging time in your life, during which you play(ed) video games. Please describe this difficult time in your life. What did you experience as stressful, confusing, troubling, or discouraging?". 

I felt that a) it was getting a bit too personal a bit too quickly (like I'd be writing a blank cheque about any struggles I've had before I knew the whole picture) and b) since I've been playing video games since my dad let me shoot with the space bar while he played the ZX Spectrum game Zythum, games have always been a constant in my life (along with music, books, films and other stuff you do to deal with difficult situations or while away the hours), so I can't particularly say that video games were a reaction to difficulties- but went alongside them.

I appreciate that you put in the effort of giving a pop up  with links for people who may need help, but this survey wasn't really for me.