Violence is not necessarily the most important ingredient needed in video games for players to enjoy them. Instead, a new study suggests, it is the feeling of power and mastery that creates the enjoyment in most cases, say researchers at the University of Rochester (N.Y.)

Many players actually prefer non-violent game action, according to the study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

The study involved two surveys of 2,670 frequent game players and four experiments using standard and lower-violence versions of two Mature-rated games with more than 300 college students.

"Our findings indicated that games were immersive and enjoyable when players felt the games offered them chances to feel a sense of achievement, progress, and interesting choices," says lead author Andrew Przybylski, who is a graduate student at the university. "On average, violent content did not increase game enjoyment."

The survey responses suggested that participants preferred immersive games that made them feel "as if I am actually there." A small subgroup of gamers who did prefer violent content scored higher aggressive traits after playing.

"We found support for the idea that for most people it was not the violent content per say that was driving enjoyment and interest, but the needs that are satisfied by the experience of things like mastery and overcoming challenge – satisfactions that are not dependent on violence or gore," says Scott Rigby, a co-author and president of game think tank Immersyve.

The message for game developers is that they need not lean on violence in creating their games just because they think there's a craving for it from the gaming public. "This is the element of our findings that some might think is counterintuitive," Przybylski says. "Although there are a lot of games that are popular and are violent, our research indicates that they are not necessarily popular because they are violent."

Source.