Science of Video Games
A games research lab for talented middle and high schoolers who play
In-person in Princeton, NJ · or hybrid from anywhere
The Opportunity
This lab studies games as systems: what a design does to the person playing it. Engagement, attention, learning and social play, and the design and monetization choices that shape them. You take a question about players, design a study that can answer it, collect your own data, and report what it shows.
Games are among the largest media people spend their time inside, and the questions a player notices from the inside are often the ones the research literature has not settled. You already know current games in a way most researchers do not, and that is a methodological advantage: you can tell what a mechanic actually does from what it is said to do.
Science of Video Games is one of the SoTS Research Labs, which follow the same methodology and format: see Princeton Labs for how semesters work and expectations from students participating in the program.
Recent Work in This Field
This field is active. Recent work measures how long people play against how they feel, what loot box spending tracks with, and what game training transfers to.
Recent publications
Play time and well-being
- Six weeks of objective play data for 38,935 players, provided by seven game publishers and matched to three waves of self-reported well-being, found little to no evidence of a causal connection between play and well-being, though motivations mattered (Vuorre et al., 2022).
- An earlier study using actual play behaviour from Electronic Arts and Nintendo of America, rather than players' own estimates of their play time, found play positively correlated with well-being (Johannes et al., 2021).
Spending and design
- Monthly loot box spending rose with problem gambling severity, from $11.14 among non problem gamblers to $38.24 among problem gamblers (Zendle & Cairns, 2019).
What game training transfers to
- A meta-analysis of 63 studies of game-based cognitive interventions found a moderate overall training effect, and that specific gameplay features predicted transfer where genre labels such as action or strategy did not (Smith & Basak, 2023).
Prerequisites
Open to high school, middle school, and home school students curious about games as systems, not just as entertainment. No prior research experience is required.
Full requirements
- Willing to read into a real literature and design your own study, not follow pre-made assignments
- Commitment to weekly meetings and work between sessions
- Studies involving other people need their informed consent, which the mentor helps you set up before any data is collected
Enrollment and Tuition
Tuition
- $3,500per semester
- Formats
- In-person in Princeton, NJ, or hybrid from anywhere
- Semesters
- Fall, Spring, and Summer
Same rate in every semester. See Princeton Labs enrollment for the schedule, the refund policy, and hybrid eligibility.