Passion & Social Connectedness

There is increasing empirical evidence that videogames lead to positive wellbeing outcomes (including social connectedness) for the majority of players. However, questions remain around the contextual factors that maximise the likelihood of a positive impact of videogames as well as when negative outcomes may occur. One of the key moderators of whether videogame play leads to positive outcomes is whether players have harmonious or obsessive passion for play. Initial work on this project explored this relationship among players of the Destiny with results supporting the idea that positive wellbeing outcomes and social connectedness result for those who have harmonious passion for the game. Ongoing work as part of this project is exploring these relationships in the context of other games.