"I hadn't considered the reason I play Anno as a cosy experience. When work is stressful, I often reach for a game where you create and manage a complex economy. Anno 1800 forces all thoughts of the day out of my head" www.rockpapershotgun.com/how-croakwoo...

FFXIV "In previous series... our emphasis was on a policy of comprehensively ensuring player comfort & stress reduction. This approach did help make content more accessible... There was less room for individual players to demonstrate their true abilities" www.gamesradar.com/games/final-...

(On salaryman Kenji): "Coffee Talk Tokyo has no interest in pursuing the threads of how Japan’s strict and strenuous overwork epidemic could affect him, prospectively obliterating his mental wellbeing... as is depressingly not an infrequent occurrence" www.rockpapershotgun.com/visual-novel...

"Constance is a game about overstimulation and concentration, following the titular character as she escapes her overwhelming reality in favour of a fantasy realm of her own mind’s creation" "the game is making you focus."

🎮 Booking open! You can now register to attend the Gaming the Mind Conference 2026, exploring the evolving relationship between video games, mental health, research, & game development. 📍 Royal College of Psychiatrists 📅 2 November 2026 🌍 Hybrid format; join us online!

Watch: "Explore the science behind esports, from top players' skills to its potential for healthy aging." Including an esports team for over-60s, and a professor who found that oxytocin levels rise in participants playing multiplayer games. www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/...

I attended the inaugral event last year and it was incredibly informative and eye opening 🎮🧠✨

🎮 SAVE THE DATE! 🎮 We’re excited to announce the Gaming the Mind Conference 2026, exploring the evolving relationship between video games, mental health, research, and game development. 📍 Royal College of Psychiatrists 📅 2 November 2026 🌍 Hybrid format; join us online!

Under-16 social media ban: "you can boot up RuneScape, Arc Raiders, and thousands of other games right now and talk to people you don't know there. Will the UK force developers of online games to implement these blocks?" www.eurogamer.net/uk-social-me...

"Flock Around acts as a perfect digital gateway into the relaxing world of birdwatching... you need to become a patient observer... All of this works as a relaxing single-player experience, but it also translates perfectly to a multiplayer hangout game."

"The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time soundtrack has been given a soothing jazz remix... ‘Prescription For Sleep: Ocarina Of Time’ is a jazz lullaby tribute album to Koji Kondo’s iconic score, designed for chilling, relaxing, sleeping or studying."

Relaxing video game soundtracks Including Breath of the Wild, which among the Zelda soundtracks is "easily the most mellow. Press play and imagine yourself riding through endless green fields on the back of Link’s trusty steed Epona."

"Psychiatrist Francesco Panto thinks anime can benefit others and is trialing whether it could be used as a method of therapy, particularly for people who would otherwise struggle to ask for help."

"When [we] put together seventh edition Call of Cthulhu, we made a conscious effort to move away from real-world depictions of mental health conditions... altering the language of sanity so it's more in tune with how things are portrayed these days"

"A recent study... suggests that using TTRPGs in clinical settings could be an effective way to help patients build self-esteem and process personal struggles."

Zero Parades "The way you're encouraged to use drugs to pass the buck from fatigue to anxiety (caffeine), anxiety to delirium (alcohol), delirium back to fatigue (cigarettes) feels stingingly real, too."

"Researchers at the University of Plymouth recently confirmed what board game fans and RPG enthusiasts have known for decades: tabletop games “enhance well-being, foster inclusion, & support learning, with strong evidence that games improve engagement.”"

Zero Parades "Hershel partakes in the occasional drunken cigarette... I keep coming back to these acts of self-medication and destruction... they’re a way for Hershel to balance Zero Parades’ three competing gauges... fatigue, anxiety, and delirium."

Zero Parades "Cascade has meters that determine her level of anxiety, delirium, and fatigue... [If] one of those meters hits 20... You have to force her to chill out — whether by sleeping, downing some alcohol, or petting a payphone dolphin mascot" www.polygon.com/zero-parades...

"Paralives [opts] for a sort of cosy-game-adjacent level of lower-stress, lower-stakes tranquility. It's an ambience reflected in its aesthetic, as Paralives Studio adopts a muted, sketchbook-watercolour artstyle that's just inherently chilled" www.eurogamer.net/paralives-pe...

𝐕𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡: 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐬𝐲𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧 is one of the week’s more academic arrivals. ☝️ This collection looks at games and mental health through both psychology and design. #GameStudies @gamingthemind.bsky.social @sebgenvo.bsky.social @federicoalvarez.bsky.social

The BCI Game Jam 2026 is here (Feb 27 – Mar 7) 🧠🎮 Build a brain-controlled video game in just a week: no prior game dev or brain-computer interface experience needed! Join online, get expert support, and help shape the future of accessible gaming... bci.games/jams/2026

We are at the National Student Psychiatry Conference at University of Kent, showing off extracurricular volunteer activities that psych trainees can engage in through the charity, to support mental health in the gaming community! @rcpsych.bsky.social @kmmsmedschool.bsky.social

We're still at @MCMComicCon with the Reset Room! If you need to take a break for any reason, come by. It's quieter in here! We also have mental health information and lo-fi activities. It's run by today's awesome crew right here! 🧠🎮 Find us at the end of Artist Alley!

Last day of #MCMComicCon! We're here with the Reset Room, a chill space to take a break! We have lo-fi activities to unwind with, and we've got mental health info available, too. It's staffed by our awesome crew, so do say hello! 🧠🎮 Find us upstairs in the Platinum Suite!

We're still at #MCMComicCon with our Reset Room! If you need to take a break for any reason, come by. It's quieter in here! We also have mental health information and lo-fi activities. It's run by today's awesome crew right here! 🧠🎮 Find us upstairs in the Platinum Suite!

Are you at #MCMComicCon and want to relax? Come to our Reset Room, a calm oasis where you can chill, do lo-fi activities, & re-energise before heading back to the show! We have mental health information too! Staffed by this cool crew. Find us upstairs in the Platinum Suite! 🧠🎮

If you are trans or gender non-conforming, and play TTRPGs, you may be interested to take part in this study by answering questions on if your gender identity impacts the gender of your characters, and if your gaming has impacted your own gender identity app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/nhslothian...

Consume Me is a semi-autobiographical work that deals openly and honestly with some pretty tough themes, including dieting, disordered eating, and fatphobia... but Jiao Hsia's slice-of-life adventure adopts a format that's immediately, winningly approachable. www.eurogamer.net/consume-me-r...

If you are trans or gender non-conforming, and play TTRPGs, you may be interested to take part in this study by answering questions on if your gender identity impacts the gender of your characters, and if your gaming has impacted your own gender identity app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/nhslothian...

Thanks so much for inviting me to speak at Gaming the Mind Conference. So many interesting speakers and an engaged audience. Long may this conference continue.

It's so invigorating to meet academics and clinicians to talk about our industries and share thoughts and hopes. This panel discussed how academics & experts can work with game devs. We both need to approach these moments as collaborations not limiting factors. Thank you @gamingthemind.bsky.social

Gaming the Mind Conference Prof Paul Fletcher delivers the day's keynote. As a clinical neuroscientist sees the potential of games to measure stress responses from players, and to use biofeedback for training self-regulation - explored through The Insight Project with Ninja Theory

Gaming the Mind Conference Dr Victoria McCloud chairs a panel featuring @chellaramanan.bsky.social from @3foldgames.bsky.social, Dom Matthews from Ninja Theory, and Dr Andrew Howe

Gaming the Mind Conference Ninja Theory Studio Head Dom Matthews discusses the development of Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. The studio worked with people with lived experience of psychosis, aiming to create a truthful representation of the symptoms in lead character Senua.

Gaming the Mind Conference @chellaramanan.bsky.social speaks about @3foldgames.bsky.social's Before I Forget, and depicting dementia in a non-cliched, respectful way. She and the team worked with psychiatrists for input, including our own Dr Donald Servant.

Gaming the Mind Conference Dr Andrew Howe, Consultant Psychiatrist & Psychodynamic Psychotherapist, speaks on Jungian archetypes in The Legend of Zelda, and using the mythology of games in psychological therapy. He guides us through active imagination based on Ocarina of Time 💭

Gaming the Mind Conference Malachi Gow showed us his game "i love me, i love me not", a relaxing game focusing on teaching mental health habits. He is the recipient of our first Independent Developer Award, and £1,000 for further development. 🏆 malgow.net

Gaming the Mind Conference at @rcpsych.bsky.social Addictions Psychiatrist Dr Stephen Kaar on research looking at longitudinal research into gaming disorder. Evidence suggests young people with depressive, anxiety, ADHD symptoms are at higher risk of developing gaming disorder symptoms.

Gaming the Mind Conference at @rcpsych.bsky.social @leonxiao.com on loot boxes and regulations related to odds disclosure, minimum age requirements, and advertising, as well as countries where they are recognised as gambling, and the myriad cases where games don't comply with regulations!

Gaming the Mind Conference at the @rcpsych.bsky.social Prof Henrietta Bowden-Jones on the establishment of the gaming disorder diagnosis and the range of presentations seen at the The National Centre for Gaming Disorders.

Gaming the Mind Conference Dr Stone Hsieh on the neurological benefits of exercise. He and Bread Lab's ActiGamer project looks to see if active video games can reduce ADHD symptoms, and the feasibility if introducing this as an intervention.

Gaming the Mind Conference Elin Festøy delivers a talk about My Child New Beginnings, about raising a Lebensborn child dealing with trauma in a hateful environment. The game aims to build empathy with the child, to create a strong motivator for transformation.

Preparing for the launch of the first ever Gaming the Mind conference! Hosted at the @rcpsych.bsky.social Ready for a day talking about the exciting growing field of gaming and mental health!

Today I'll mostly be talking about videogames at the Royal College of Psychiatrists @gamingthemind.bsky.social conference #BeforeIForget @3foldgames.bsky.social

Gaming the Mind Conference 2025. A must if you are interested in video games and mental health! 🎮🧠 Monday 29th September at the Royal College of Psychiatrists in London. Early-bird rates till 1st September. We look forward to seeing you there! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gaming-the...

Sword of the Sea (and Abzû) "...when you're actually scuba diving... You're floating. You just hear your own breath. It's like you're meditating. You're forced to just relax... it's nothing like what you see in video games. I was like: where is that?" www.eurogamer.net/sword-of-the...

"the "cosy" tag gets thrown around a lot, and lately I feel like more games are being branded with a title they don't necessarily suit." "Not every single task that can be simulated is going to be relaxing and fun (or more importantly, worth playing)." www.pcgamer.com/games/i-love...

How can video games help mindfulness and reducing stress? Read how games can put you "in the zone" (a meditative flow state), offer a break from stress, and provide social connection. www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/vide...

Nigerian students beating exam stress with video games. “I play FIFA soccer games with my friends during breaks between classes. It’s a great way to relax and take our minds off our studies, even if it’s just for a short while” focusgn.com/africa/niger...