RESEARCH QUESTION:

How have online games

helped students (of age
group 16-20) in the COVID-
19 pandemic?

-Nidhi Tiwari
 THESIS STATEMENT:
COVID-19 has had a huge impact on the world due to which students’

mental health was highly affected. The pandemic has not only distanced

people physically, but also resulted in a massive increase in depressive and

anxious symptoms in students indicating a sense of loneliness. This

research paper will talk about how online games have helped students of

age group 16-20 keep a healthy mental state, learn with fun and stay in

touch with friends during these tough times.

 Annotated Bibliography
1. Primary Source:

I conducted a survey for the students in APU and all my school friends
who are actively involved in gaming. There were 8 questions, 7 MCQs
and 1 short answer type question, all related to online gaming and
views students have about them.

I got 75 responses in total. I will be using the results to prove my thesis

statement in the final paper.
Here are some of the questions and responses from the survey:
 2. Secondary resources:
● International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, (Dec 2020),
How is COVID-19 impacting mental health of children and
adolescents?

Highlights how COVID-19 affected students and how even serious

conditions such as anxiety, depression, and post traumatic symptoms were
observed in children and adolescents. It also talks about why children are
susceptible to having long term consequences in mental health. This source
was identified for its brief overview about how negatively the pandemic
affected students and how serious this whole issue is.

(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212420920313479)
● The Economist, (2020, Nov 30), Covid 19: Playing video
games during lockdown can be good for mental health.

Provides data for a research done by researchers at the Oxford

university, talks about how games provoke certain feelings like a
sense of freedom and competence in students and improved the
players’ sense of well-being while they played. A greater feeling of
social connection from playing also boosted their mood.

(https://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/games/300170969/covid19-playing-
video-games-during-lockdowns-can-be-good-for-mental-health)
● Lin Zhu, (2020, sept 09), The psychology behind video games
during COVID-19 pandemic: A case study of Animal Crossing:
New Horizons

Animal crossing is a social simulation video game series. New horizons is

the fifth main series title in the animal crossing series, which was
developed and published by Nintendo Switch, released in all regions on
March 20, 2020. The article briefly explains how their players in some
ways were benefited by finding calm in the game and escaping from the
suffering of reality to alleviate psychological anxiety and depression.

(https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hbe2.221)
● Sean Gregory, (2020, April 22), Video Games Benefit Quarantined
Kids in COVID-19 Pandemic: Time

The article highlights the platform gaming provides to maintain social interaction
with having the element of fun in the times of isolation during pandemic. The
quote “What games are able to do for people in mental health recovery, all of
society now needs” shows how it helped people maintain good mental health
during this time. “It’s all about the social interaction” says the professor of
developmental psychopathology at Radboud university. In a survey of 900
people in 45 countries, who play online multiplayer role playing games, it was
observed that approx. three quarters of the players reported making good friends
while playing games.

(https://time.com/5825214/video-games-screen-time-parenting-coronavirus/)
SUB-CLAIMS:

1)Survey: Around 73.3% of the respondents say that online gaming has had
a positive influence on them during the lockdown. 81.3% of them believe
that isolated environment has been a factor that has contributed to increasing
their game time.

2)COVID-19 impacted students of all age groups but the adolescents

were prone to some serious mental health issues such as anxiety and
depression during these isolated times. This sets the foundation for
my research and highlights the need of some source of entertainment
that students need during these tough times. (secondary source 1)
3) Online gaming (Among Us, CS:Go) helped students stay in
contact with their friends not just by providing them a platform
for social interaction but also gave them a sense of
connectivity, be it virtually. Hence, they proved to be a boon for
many students throughout the pandemic. The player count also
increased tremendously during the lockdown. (linking relevant
texts from secondary sources 2 and 4 including the case
study)

4) Research shows that gaming helps students develop

understanding of certain subjects such as mathematics and
science. It has been proven that some games can result in
numerous cognitive benefits for the online gamers and have
positive effects on one’s basic mental processes like attention,
perception and memory. (additional sub-claim)
Structure of final research paper
● Introduction to Online games (establishing context, related terms
and definitions)
● Research question
● Thesis statement
● Sub claims-
1. Survey- Primary source (results obtained)
2. Three more sources while giving examples as evidence
● Providing quotes from an article being used as a secondary
source.
● Conclusion
Conclusion:

Online games have their own positive and negative aspects. But
they proved to be a boon for many students during the lockdown by
serving a platform for social interaction.

If one tries to strike a balance and use these games only as a source
of entertainment, it is evident that they can help students a lot
during isolated times such as the COVID-19 lockdown.
THANK YOU! :)