Effects of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Studio Ghibli Films on Young People’s Sense of Exploration, Calm, Mastery and Skill, Purpose and Meaning, and Overall Happiness in Life: Exploratory Randomized Controlled Study (Preprint)

<sec> <title>BACKGROUND</title> Young people feel increasingly anxious and sad nowadays. Engaging with works of art and entertainment, such as playing open-world games or watching Studio Ghibli films, can be more than just a pastime. However, the extent to which, if at all, open-world games and feelings of nostalgia affect overall happiness in life remains unclear. </sec> <sec> <title>OBJECTIVE</title> This study aimed to examine the extent to which open-world games, such as &lt;i&gt;The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild&lt;/i&gt;, and nostalgia evoked by Studio Ghibli films, such as Hayao Miyazaki’s &lt;i&gt;My Neighbor Totoro&lt;/i&gt; or &lt;i&gt;Kiki’s Delivery Service&lt;/i&gt;, affect postgraduate students’ sense of exploration, calm, mastery and skill, purpose and meaning, and, ultimately, happiness in life. </sec> <sec> <title>METHODS</title> A controlled laboratory experiment was conducted using a 2 (playing an open-world game vs no open-world game) × 2 (nostalgia vs no nostalgia) between-subject design. Study participants (N=518) were randomly assigned to the study’s 4 conditions and answered a brief questionnaire, examining their sense of exploration, calm, mastery and skill, purpose and meaning, and, ultimately, happiness in life. As part of the study, we conducted univariate analysis and bootstrapping-based moderated mediation analysis with 5000 resamples. </sec> <sec> <title>RESULTS</title> The results showed a significant and positive impact of playing an open-world game on overall life happiness (mean [M]&lt;sub&gt;playedgame&lt;/sub&gt; 4.563, SD 0.072, vs M&lt;sub&gt;notplayedgame&lt;/sub&gt; 3.170, SD 0.072; F&lt;sub&gt;(1, 517)&lt;/sub&gt;=117.246, &lt;i&gt;P&lt;/i&gt;&lt;.001). Furthermore, the positive impact of open-world games on overall life happiness was significantly enhanced by nostalgia evoked by watching Studio Ghibli films (M&lt;sub&gt;nostalgia&lt;/sub&gt; 5.45, SD 0.102, vs M&lt;sub&gt;nonostalgia&lt;/sub&gt; 3.58, SD 0.102; SE 0.144, 95% CI 1.332-1.900; &lt;i&gt;P&lt;/i&gt;&lt;.001). Moreover, exploratory moderated mediation with bootstrapped-based analyses and 5000 resamples demonstrated that the effect of playing open-world games on happiness is mediated by a sense of exploration (effect=0.11; SE 0.05, 95% CI 0.04-0.21), sense of calm (effect=0.32; SE 0.09, 95% CI 0.15-0.51), sense of skill and mastery (effect=0.08; SE 0.05, 95% CI 0.01-0.18), and sense of purpose and meaning (effect=0.32; SE 0.14, 95% CI 0.06-0.60). </sec> <sec> <title>CONCLUSIONS</title> This study shows that playing an open-world game, such as The &lt;i&gt;The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild&lt;/i&gt;, and nostalgia evoked by Studio Ghibli films significantly foster a sense of exploration and calm in life, as well as a feeling of mastery and skill, and purpose and meaning, hence ultimately contributing positively to one’s overall happiness in life. </sec> <sec> <title>CLINICALTRIAL</title> ISRCTN ISRCTN14757739; https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN14757739 </sec>