Studies link gaming to improved mood, less smoking

Despite what you may have been told, playing games may actually be good for you after all. Two recent studies linked casual gaming to real-world health benefits as diverse as reduced smoking, lower stress, decreased anger, and better eating habits.

First out of the game is a study from none other than Big Fish Games, maker of the celebrated Mystery Case Files series, who tells us in a press release that 54% of players of their games reported a decrease in snacking, 23% smoked less, and 85% of responders who cited a disability felt the games improved their general health.

Must be the season for gaming studies, because close on the heels of Big Fish's news came the announcement of a set of results from a study we've been following for a while now. East Carolina University's Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies just completed a six-month, randomized and controlled study measuring the mood-lifting effects of three PopCap Games classics, Peggle, Bejeweled 2, and Bookworm: Adventures. If you want to cheer yourself up, then, the best choice is Peggle, which Science indicates should raise your overall mood by an impressive 573%.

Before you brush it off as cod science, consider that the data came from "state-of-the-art technologies and methodologies to measure heart-rate variability (HRV), electroencephalography (EEG) and subjects' mood states pre- and post-activity (POMS)", and the results will be presented at the annual Games for Health conference later this week, and published in a gen-u-ine peer reviewed scientific journal later in the year. In other words, it sounds like the real deal.

So next time you get busted playing Peggle at work, you have the perfect excuse: tell your boss you're trying to lower the company's health insurance bills by improving your state of health. Don't come whining to us when you get fired, though.

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