This study examines how playing a video game featuring a player-character with mental illness can positively impact mental illness stigma. We hypothesized that interactive gameplay would positively predict transportation into the story world. Then, transportation would predict identification with the main character. This identification should then reduce stigma in two ways: by lowering stereotyping and limiting participants’ desire for social distance. A two-factor, yoked experiment was designed utilizing Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, a game praised for its accurate portrayal of psychosis. The main character, Senua, suffers from psychosis and must navigate her quest along with her own mental health. Players either played the first 45 min of the game or watched gameplay footage of other participants’ sessions. Transportation into the story world, identification with Senua, and the two aspects of stigma – stereotyping and social distance – were measured. Consistent with hypotheses, a structural equation model found an indirect path from gameplay to reduced social distance through first transportation and then identification. Players also reported higher levels of transportation than non-players, and that heightened transportation led to greater identification and then a lowered desire for social distance from the mentally ill. The indirect path to stereotyping was not significant. These results and implications are discussed in detail.

Recent scholarship has begun to theorize “eudaimonic” media gratifications – gratifications regarding meaningfulness, including thoughts about the human condition, human values, and questions of virtue. In this chapter, we examine the intersection of narrative absorption and eudaimonic gratifications from a variety of vantage points. First, we provide a brief discussion of how we are using these two concepts. Second, we consider eudaimonic motivations as trait-like and state-like measures that are used to describe viewers’ use of media in their search for meaning, and how this motivation heightens the likelihood of absorption during subsequent viewing. Third, we explore theoretical and conceptual accounts of how absorption into narrative worlds may ultimately serve to satisfy eudaimonic goals, resulting in feelings of heightened well-being. Finally, we will outline ideas for how future scholarship may account for evolving technologies in the examination of these relationships.

In video games, complicated stories which can branch in multiple ways are possible, giving the player a great sense of control over the story. This study’s purpose was to determine how choice and morality interact to affect narrative engagement. For this, a 2 (choice vs. no choice) × 2 (moral vs. immoral) experiment was conducted utilizing a modified version of a Fallout: New Vegas to examine the role of moral choice. Results indicated that very few individuals preferred the bad option when given a choice, with most participants choosing good actions. Thus, the bad by choice condition was dropped, resulting in three conditions: good by choice, good by force and bad by force. Although there were no significant differences found between conditions on transportation or parasocial interaction, the study revealed significant differences for identification such that those who committed more moral actions identified less with the main character. Additionally, those who chose good actions felt more moral than those who were forced to commit good actions. Implications of these findings are discussed.