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Not All Games Play the Same: Specifying How Components of Video Games May Be Associated with Creativity

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Title: Not All Games Play the Same: Specifying How Components of Video Games May Be Associated with Creativity
Language: English
Authors: Darian Stapleton (ORCID 0000-0003-1721-7663), Thalia R. Goldstein (ORCID 0000-0002-3892-0852)
Source: Journal of Creative Behavior. 2025 59(3).
Availability: Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 22
Publication Date: 2025
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Descriptors: Video Games, Creativity, Problem Solving, Play, Cognitive Processes, Fantasy, Computer Simulation, Visual Aids, Aesthetics, Creative Thinking, Interaction
DOI: 10.1002/jocb.1522
ISSN: 0022-0175
2162-6057
Abstract: Understanding the impacts of digital media such as video games is critical for scholarship during the digital transformation. While the literature on the effects of video games continues to grow, there is little work on positive effects, including creativity, either as an outcome from or process within games. Video games are a media type that often requires creative problem-solving and multiple idea generation. Importantly, adequately theorizing, measuring, and assessing creativity as both an action within video games and a possible outcome of engaging with video games necessitates a detailed understanding of what video games are. Here we propose and outline a taxonomy of the various components within video games that could impact different aspects of creativity interventions and creative processes. We then break down those components, including genre, graphics, mechanics, instructions, incentive systems, and multiplayer functionality. We apply this taxonomy briefly in several games, and "Minecraft" and "Baldur's Gate 3" are used in more depth to show how researchers can apply our proposed framework. Knowing which video game components affect which creativity outcomes can clarify our understanding of creativity and the creative process in a digital world, and identify how gameplay itself can be a creative artifact.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2025
Accession Number: EJ1483006
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0187843386;3u701sep.25;2025Sep11.06:34;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0187843386-1">Not All Games Play the Same: Specifying How Components of Video Games May be Associated With Creativity </title> <p>Understanding the impacts of digital media such as video games is critical for scholarship during the digital transformation. While the literature on the effects of video games continues to grow, there is little work on positive effects, including creativity, either as an outcome from or process within games. Video games are a media type that often requires creative problem‐solving and multiple idea generation. Importantly, adequately theorizing, measuring, and assessing creativity as both an action within video games and a possible outcome of engaging with video games necessitates a detailed understanding of what video games are. Here we propose and outline a taxonomy of the various components within video games that could impact different aspects of creativity interventions and creative processes. We then break down those components, including genre, graphics, mechanics, instructions, incentive systems, and multiplayer functionality. We apply this taxonomy briefly in several games, and Minecraft and Baldur's Gate 3 are used in more depth to show how researchers can apply our proposed framework. Knowing which video game components affect which creativity outcomes can clarify our understanding of creativity and the creative process in a digital world, and identify how gameplay itself can be a creative artifact.</p> <p>Keywords: video games; creativity; theory; technology; media</p> <p>Video games are a widespread form of digital media that can shape and show digital traces of creative cognition and behavior. While there is considerable psychological research focused on other outcomes related to video games (e.g., aggression and cognitive skills; Achtman, Green, & Bavelier, [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref1">2</reflink>]; Ballesteros et al., [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref2">10</reflink>]; Ferguson & Wang, [<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref3">39</reflink>]; Gentile, Li, Khoo, Prot, & Anderson, [<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref4">45</reflink>]), most studies do not account for variation within or between games. All video games, both serious and commercial, vary across components such as genre, multiplayer functionality, and graphics. This variation may predict one's use of cognitive and emotional skills while playing and, thus, possible subsequent external transfer effects.</p> <p>One concurrently engaged and possible transferable skill likely to vary as a result of video game components is creativity, in all its various forms and iterations. Here, we propose a taxonomy of video game components particularly focusing on creative behavior in games and the cognitive skills required for the creative process, emphasizing video games as an interactive digital medium with distinct and separable features for possible creative outcome transfer. While some research on the various forms of creativity in video games exists, critical flaws in the design and interpretation of results, including treating video games as one unified construct, prevent advancements in understanding how media and technology can shape creative processes and cognitive creativity outcomes. As video games continue to become increasingly prevalent in people's lives (Balci & Ahi, [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref5">9</reflink>]; Rideout & Robb, [<reflink idref="bib98" id="ref6">98</reflink>]), understanding video games' influence on creative cognition and behavior in its users is crucial to advancing research and knowledge on the digital transformation as a whole, and the future of possible interventions for the different aspects of creativity.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-2">VIDEO GAMES</hd> <p>Video games have continually grown in importance since their commercial introduction in 1971, reflected in how child and adult leisure time activities have changed over time. According to reports in 2020, children as young as 5 spend approximately 40 minutes a day playing video games, and more than 80% of America's teens play video games (Anderson & Jiang, [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref7">7</reflink>]; Balci & Ahi, [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref8">9</reflink>]; Rideout & Robb, [<reflink idref="bib98" id="ref9">98</reflink>]). Despite the popularity of many types of games, the largest body of gaming psychology literature focuses on violent video games and aggression, which has resulted in inconsistent findings, including null effects (Anderson et al., [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref10">6</reflink>]; Ferguson & Wang, [<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref11">39</reflink>]; Gentile et al., [<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref12">45</reflink>]). One possible reason for such inconsistencies may be that differing video game components (e.g., competition or violence) differentially affect aggression (Dowsett & Jackson, [<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref13">33</reflink>]). Additionally, the definition, operationalization, and measurement of "violent" is inconsistent across the literature. Despite this inconsistency of findings, the potential negative impacts of video games on players continue to be a widespread topic among parents, consumers, and news outlets, mainly because of the ubiquity of video games in our daily lives (Dupee, Thvar, & Vasan, [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref14">34</reflink>]; ProCon.org, [<reflink idref="bib93" id="ref15">93</reflink>]).</p> <p>However, not all video game studies focus on negative outcomes. Evidence suggests that serious games (i.e., educational and training games) effectively achieve learning goals such as patient education or curriculum content (Ling et al., [<reflink idref="bib71" id="ref16">71</reflink>]; Mezrar & Bendella, [<reflink idref="bib73" id="ref17">73</reflink>]; Zairi et al., [<reflink idref="bib117" id="ref18">117</reflink>]). Like serious games, commercial entertainment video games can also be effective teaching tools when considering specific game components (de Salas et al., [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref19">32</reflink>]). While commercial games do not have focused learning or skill‐building goals like serious games and instead prioritize player enjoyment, they are also available and used much more widely than serious games. Thus, this paper focuses on the possibility of commercial games' connection to creative engagement and creative outcomes, including fostering cognitive processes involved in creative thinking.</p> <p>Outside of aggression, video gaming has been associated with improvements in visual processing skills, spatial cognition, fitness, mental health, emotional training, and attention for a range of ages (Achtman et al., [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref20">2</reflink>]; Ballesteros et al., [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref21">10</reflink>]; Gao, Zeng, McDonough, & Su, [<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref22">42</reflink>]; Griffiths, Kuss, & Ortiz de Gortari, [<reflink idref="bib47" id="ref23">47</reflink>]; Pallavicini, Ferrari, & Mantovani, [<reflink idref="bib88" id="ref24">88</reflink>]; Spence & Feng, [<reflink idref="bib109" id="ref25">109</reflink>]; Villani et al., [<reflink idref="bib115" id="ref26">115</reflink>]). Not only are people motivated to play video games (Ferguson & Olson, [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref27">38</reflink>]; Olson, [<reflink idref="bib86" id="ref28">86</reflink>]), but evidence suggests they are more likely to adhere to video game interventions than traditional ones (Patzer, Chaparro, & Keebler, [<reflink idref="bib90" id="ref29">90</reflink>]). Additionally, video games incorporate characteristics important for self‐directed learning, such as a safe space for students to explore without fear of disappointing others (Toh & Kirschner, [<reflink idref="bib111" id="ref30">111</reflink>]). However, more research is needed on how video games elicit positive effects to utilize their potential for skill enhancement and interventions, particularly in creativity.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-3">CREATIVITY</hd> <p>Creativity, with its many facets and elements, is a 21st‐century skill necessary for academic and professional success, but more research on what creativity looks like in the age of digital transformation is needed to assess and shape creative potential. While creativity can be defined in multiple different ways (e.g., impact level or "size"; by process, product, place, and person; relevant cognitive skills; domain; etc.), for the purposes of this analysis of video games as related to the various aspects of creativity, we will focus primarily on creative behaviors in a game, the possibility of prior video game experience effects on creative potential and cognitive creativity including processes such as divergent and convergent thinking (Sawyer, [<reflink idref="bib102" id="ref31">102</reflink>]). Various components of creativity have been associated with video games both empirically and colloquially, making it a particularly compelling outcome to study in relation to video games (Barczak, Lassk, & Mulki, [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref32">12</reflink>]; Gabe et al., [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref33">40</reflink>]; Hewett, Zeng, & Pletcher, [<reflink idref="bib57" id="ref34">57</reflink>]; McWilliam, [<reflink idref="bib72" id="ref35">72</reflink>]) including both the idea that creative thinking can be primed by playing video games and that video games can act as a medium for creative production (Green & Kaufman, [<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref36">46</reflink>]). However, more work is needed to begin to separate out, operationalize, and individuate possible effects.</p> <p>Numerous elements of creativity are particularly relevant to video games. For example, video games may prime everyday creative cognition and problem‐solving by putting players in mindsets to think about their world and tools in unique ways or by fostering the creative learning process of new tasks (Kaufman & Beghetto, [<reflink idref="bib66" id="ref37">66</reflink>]). Video games can provide players with opportunities to build structures and environments, strategize battle plans or puzzle solutions, customize play with avatars and multiple choices for game decisions, and sometimes even evaluate players on their creative process and products. This makes video games potentially valuable in understanding both the creative processes and the evaluation of creative products.</p> <p>Video games can improve underlying foundational intelligence and cognitive skills, such as attention or processing efficiency (Corazza & Lubart, [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref38">27</reflink>]; Harris, Williamson, & Carter, [<reflink idref="bib54" id="ref39">54</reflink>]; Jackson et al., [<reflink idref="bib60" id="ref40">60</reflink>]; Jauk, Benedek, Dunst, & Neubauer, [<reflink idref="bib63" id="ref41">63</reflink>]; Sauce, Liebherr, Judd, & Klingberg, [<reflink idref="bib101" id="ref42">101</reflink>]) implicated in creative ability. Additionally, motivation and self‐belief are needed to pursue creativity and have been directly linked to creative production (Anderson & Haney, [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref43">8</reflink>]; Karwowski & Beghetto, [<reflink idref="bib65" id="ref44">65</reflink>]; Sternberg, [<reflink idref="bib110" id="ref45">110</reflink>]); video games have the functionality to promote motivation both in‐game (e.g., how to fully utilize a tool) and in the real world (e.g., problem‐solving or other skills like reading or math via educational games; Horban & Maletska, [<reflink idref="bib58" id="ref46">58</reflink>]; Jacques, [<reflink idref="bib61" id="ref47">61</reflink>]; Ribeiro, [<reflink idref="bib97" id="ref48">97</reflink>]). Taken together, this means video games can engage several different fundamental elements of creativity, including separation between creative process and product, divergent thinking for finding solutions to problems, and different applications of flexibility, originality, quantity, and quality of ideas across game types (Sawyer, [<reflink idref="bib102" id="ref49">102</reflink>]; Slavich & Svejenova, [<reflink idref="bib107" id="ref50">107</reflink>]).</p> <p>While not all links described above between video games and creativity's many facets have been tested, each proposes avenues for future research and possible mechanisms for successful interventions. However, fundamentally, it is not <emph>video games</emph> that may affect elements of creativity. Video games are not a monolith. Instead, factors <emph>within</emph> each game may cause differences in creative production and creative cognition. Different aspects of video games may affect players differently (Gentile, [<reflink idref="bib44" id="ref51">44</reflink>]; Egenfeldt‐Nielsen, Smith, & Tosca, [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref52">35</reflink>]; Wallinheimo et al., [<reflink idref="bib116" id="ref53">116</reflink>]). For example, genre (e.g., fantasy, racing, role‐playing) and mechanics of games (i.e., actions a player can take in a game such as driving or using tools to craft tools or objects) could cause differences in motivation, allowances for divergent thinking, creative actions, creative goals, etc. In a review of studies testing the effects of video games on creativity, Shute and Rahimi ([<reflink idref="bib105" id="ref54">105</reflink>]) found that there are several ways video games might influence creativity either directly or indirectly such as through changes in affect, and these links were found across a wide range of age groups. Additionally, they focus on the video game genre to detail some of the ways different games have had different impacts on creativity. Therefore, research on video games and creativity must consider, measure, control for, and manipulate elements within games to understand what is specifically causing outcomes to eventually understand the intersection of video games and creativity.</p> <p>To our knowledge, very few quality empirical studies directly investigate associations between video games and creativity in any operationalization of the term. We review several prominent studies in detail below, however, it should be noted that almost none took into consideration our major point, which is that video games are distinct and separable experiences by game and should not be grouped as a whole without considering the specific components of the game outlined in our taxonomy. For example, in a three‐year study with children between third and fifth grade (i.e., 9–11 years old), students who were assigned to a digital mind game intervention every week for three school years had an increased ability to come up with creative solutions for various problems, both in the games and in other situations encountered in the classroom, based on observer ratings of behavior during interventions (Ott & Pozzi, [<reflink idref="bib87" id="ref55">87</reflink>]). Games in this study were described as 45 different puzzle or strategy mini‐games, such as <emph>Battleship</emph> or <emph>Minefield</emph>. All games in this study were collapsed together for analysis. Therefore, differences like <emph>Battleship</emph> being multiplayer were not accounted for. There is no expectation that a mini‐game with a different strategy, such as a tower defense game with first‐person shooting, would result in the same outcomes.</p> <p>In one study investigating creativity and commercial video games, Hamlen ([<reflink idref="bib52" id="ref56">52</reflink>]) surveyed fourth and fifth‐graders gaming habits (time spent gaming, games played, and game learning norms). Creativity was measured using the <emph>Torrance Test of Creative Thinking</emph> (TTCT; Torrance, [<reflink idref="bib112" id="ref57">112</reflink>]), but the authors did not specify any subtests or specific aspects investigated. After controlling for gender and age differences, no correlation existed between time spent playing video games and TTCT scores. Despite collecting information about game type preferences, game‐based differences were not analyzed, leaving open whether children who played particular types of games may have shown different results. The most popular games in this age group include <emph>Minecraft</emph> (Mojang, [<reflink idref="bib76" id="ref58">76</reflink>]), <emph>Animal Crossing</emph> (Nintendo, [<reflink idref="bib84" id="ref59">84</reflink>]), and <emph>Fortnite</emph> (Epic Games, [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref60">37</reflink>]), which are all starkly different. While <emph>Minecraft</emph> and <emph>Animal Crossing</emph> have building and design elements in them, <emph>Fortnite</emph> is primarily a first‐person shooter game with little to no potential for creative engagement in the average player.</p> <p>In a similar study investigating correlations among various technology usages including computers, internet, cell phones, and video games for 12‐year‐old children, researchers found only video game use was related to higher scores on the figural subtests (egg drawing task and generating a story for an elf picture task) of the TTCT (Torrance, [<reflink idref="bib112" id="ref61">112</reflink>]) regardless of violent or involved interpersonal game content determined by researchers based on self‐reported game preferences (Jackson et al., [<reflink idref="bib60" id="ref62">60</reflink>]). However, no other genres or game characteristics were considered in the analyses. Critically, contradictions between Hamlen et al. and Jackson et al.'s findings may be clarified if analyses had included categorizing games.</p> <p>In addition to the above issues, these previous studies were all correlational. Experimental evidence on whether video games causally increase creativity is limited, with only two studies that we know of. In one study, Blanco‐Herrera, Gentile, and Rokkum ([<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref63">18</reflink>]) investigated differences in figural creativity through a drawing task and verbal creativity through an alternative uses task from playing <emph>Minecraft</emph> with or without instruction to be creative. Participants were undergraduates split into four groups. One group watched a TV show, one played a racing video game, a third played <emph>Minecraft</emph> with instruction to be creative, and the final group played <emph>Minecraft</emph> without instruction. Video game experience and trait creativity were measured beforehand. As Jackson et al. ([<reflink idref="bib60" id="ref64">60</reflink>]) found, more time spent playing video games generally correlated with higher trait creativity. In the experimental paradigm, results showed that fluency in an alternative uses task (i.e., number of answers) and creative production scores (i.e., how different drawings were from human norms) from an alien drawing task were significantly higher for participants in the <emph>Minecraft</emph> without creative instruction group compared to all other groups. However, this study only looked at one way <emph>Minecraft</emph> can be played: with a focus on exploration and building. <emph>Minecraft</emph> can also be a battle game, a puzzle game, and more.</p> <p>The other study, by Moffat, Crombie, and Shabalina ([<reflink idref="bib75" id="ref65">75</reflink>]) used the TTCT (alternative uses for fluency, "just suppose" for originality, and naming groups for flexibility) to compare how three different games from different genres, <emph>Minecraft, Portal 2</emph>, and <emph>Serious Sam</emph>, impact different parts of creativity. A group of 21 undergraduates completed the TTCT pre‐test, then were assigned to play 30 min of one of the three games on a laptop, and afterwards took the TTCT post‐test. It was found that those playing <emph>Portal 2</emph> and <emph>Serious Sam</emph> significantly improved their flexibility scores between the post‐test and pre‐test. Worth noting, the authors mentioned issues with not controlling for players' prior game experience, and that several players expressed frustration with not being able to make much progress during their 30 minutes of game play, especially in the <emph>Minecraft</emph> group. This study provides some preliminary evidence that different games will have different effects on creativity; however, the small sample size and lack of information about participants' prior gaming experience make it unclear how the findings about these specific games might replicate.</p> <p>Other studies have used video games to measure creative behavior but have not examined whether gaming is related to creative thinking or action outside of the game. Instead, these studies have measured creativity via scoring buildings in <emph>Minecraft</emph> using the consensual assessment technique (Shaw, [<reflink idref="bib103" id="ref66">103</reflink>]) or using coordinates from a game's input to measure the distance of puzzle solutions from average solutions in an educational physics game (Shute & Rahimi, [<reflink idref="bib105" id="ref67">105</reflink>]). These studies add strict guidelines to the gameplay, so participants are not using real‐world, natural video game engagement.</p> <p>Inchamnan, Wyeth, and Johnson ([<reflink idref="bib59" id="ref68">59</reflink>]) analyzed the creative behaviors in naturalistic gameplay from three different puzzle games: <emph>Portal 2, Braid</emph>, and <emph>I‐Fluid</emph>. They asked 19 young adults to play all three games in a lab space for 15 min per game and recorded each session. Raters then coded the gameplay videos for task motivation, domain‐relevant skills, and creativity‐relevant skills. Using the frequency of coded behaviors, they found that there were higher levels of creativity‐relevant skills demonstrated when participants played <emph>Braid</emph> compared to <emph>Portal 2</emph>, with <emph>I‐Fluid</emph> in between the two. However, they found overall the frequency of creativity‐relevant skills across games was relatively low. It is unclear what parts of the gameplay from each game were coded as creativity‐relevant skills, and therefor hard to determine why one game seemingly encouraged more creative behaviors than the others.</p> <p>Looking at observational evidence from intervention‐based studies, the use of Minecraft in classroom settings has been investigated in both the United States and Spain (Checa‐Romero & Pascual Gómez, [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref69">23</reflink>]; Hewett et al., [<reflink idref="bib57" id="ref70">57</reflink>]). In Hewett et al.'s ([<reflink idref="bib57" id="ref71">57</reflink>]) qualitative study they recruited 13 high schoolers at a Texas high school. The animation and game design elective students participated in a class project, building a virtual world in <emph>Minecraft</emph>. One of the most common emerging themes from teacher observation and student interviews was "thinking outside the box," which the author interprets as creativity in the design process while playing Minecraft. Checa‐Romero and Pascual Gómez ([<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref72">23</reflink>]) followed 85 students in a Spanish secondary school during an 8‐week workshop where Minecraft was introduced as a teaching tool for the technology class. In comparing CREA Creative Intelligence Test pre‐test and post‐test results, it was found that creativity scores significantly increased after the <emph>Minecraft</emph> workshop. Additionally, teacher ratings of the creativity of the final <emph>Minecraft</emph> movie projects were very high across the board. These two studies suggest the potential of video games, such as <emph>Minecraft</emph>, to be used in targeted ways within a classroom context, although they do not touch on the potential other video games may hold as similar tools.</p> <p>There is also evidence that video game players feel that video games allow them to behave creatively. In a study using reflexive photography, a method of having participants reflect on their thoughts and feelings by taking and reviewing photographs, Hall, Stickler, Herodotou, and Iacovides ([<reflink idref="bib51" id="ref73">51</reflink>]) asked players to reflect on their gaming and what game design elements they use to be creative. The players reported that they felt most creative when playing games with a high degree of flexibility, including affordances in the linearity of the narrative, the variety of tools available to use for larger goals, open‐world environments, and the ability to create their own unique content in games. As seen above, the previous research is somewhat haphazard in its use of video games for measuring and promoting creative cognition and creative behaviors, and no study that we know of has begun to isolate which components of video games may be linked to different elements of creativity. Therefore, a taxonomy of how video games differ and how differences between games may impact creativity is necessary to guide future research. In what follows, we provide this taxonomy.</p> <p>Below, we outline the various components of games that are distinct between individual video games and how each component may make a difference for creativity, including both creative behaviors in‐game and creative cognition skills transferred to the real world. We outline five major areas, each with multiple subcomponents that vary among popular digital games played on consoles, computers, and phones. These are:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> Genre, including presence of narrative and fantasy;</item> <p></p> <item> Graphics and stylization, including 2D versus 3D and level of realism;</item> <p></p> <item> Gameplay mechanics, including quality of mechanic implementation and opportunity for open choices in gameplay;</item> <p></p> <item> Instructions and incentives, including the openness of game goals and rewards systems; and</item> <p></p> <item> Social and multiplayer functionality, including NPC (non‐player character) behavior and online multiplayer settings.</item> </ulist> <p>Considering the different levels of creative impact outlined in the commonly used 4‐C model of creativity (Kaufman & Beghetto, [<reflink idref="bib66" id="ref74">66</reflink>]), we primarily focus on examples of mini‐c and little‐c levels of creativity to address the broader impacts of video games on players' creativity even though it is certainly possible that video games could be related to pro‐C (and maybe eventually big‐C) levels of creativity in professional streamers and e‐sports players.</p> <p>It is worth noting that while we will be discussing these components separately, in any given video game, each component is deeply interwoven to create an overall experience, so it will be complicated for future research to determine when game effects are a result of one component or the combination of multiple. Studies comparing similar games that vary on only one component may help us better understand these dependencies, but elaborating on all the possible combinations and their unique effects is a large task beyond the scope of this paper. Once all components are defined and outlined below, we then apply our taxonomy to two specific games, <emph>Minecraft</emph> and <emph>Baldur's Gate 3</emph> (Larian Studios, [<reflink idref="bib70" id="ref75">70</reflink>]), summarized in Table 1. Finally, we connect these components to constructs in psychology with existing video game research and extend to research on creative outcomes.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-4">VIDEO GAME COMPONENTS: A TAXONOMY</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0187843386-5">GENRE</hd> <p>A common way to delineate video games is genre; although genre is a loose term, one game can fall under several genres based on the content, and most genres do not have clear limits (Egenfeldt‐Nielsen et al., [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref76">35</reflink>]). Some game genres are similar to standard literary genres, such as science fiction or romance, but games can also be broken into many other categories, such as <emph>adventure, strategy</emph>, and <emph>puzzle</emph> (Rahimi & Shute, [<reflink idref="bib95" id="ref77">95</reflink>]).</p> <p>Various cognitive skills, such as selective attention and working memory, may be engaged by game genre. For one example, when participants were randomly assigned to play strategy games versus non‐action games, genre showed some training effects on adult participants who improved marginally more in working memory after playing non‐action games (Ballesteros et al., [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref78">10</reflink>]). Similarly, the genre could affect which cognitive component of creativity is recruited. Cognitive skills involved in figural creativity (i.e., drawings and design) could be more influenced by building games, where players have to think about constructing buildings and objects, while cognitive skills involved in verbal creativity (i.e., words, sentences, and narrative) could be more influenced by visual novel games, where players focus on word choice (as some game characters will respond differently to slight word variations) and story direction.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-6">Narrative</hd> <p>One form of game content varied by genre is narrative, both its presence and importance. As with literature, narrative is the story surrounding a game, which can be one linear path from beginning to end or multiple diverging paths where players can choose which path and how far they experience it (Egenfeldt‐Nielsen et al., [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref79">35</reflink>]). There is a continuum of games here, from entirely narrative‐driven, allowing players to experience first‐person stories, to not having any narrative, where play relies purely on game mechanics. Previous work has found that the presence (versus absence) of narrative within games has been shown to impact other non‐creativity outcomes such as the theory of mind (Bormann & Greitemeyer, [<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref80">21</reflink>]).</p> <p>Narrative games could limit creative behavior within the game because of the number of options given to players for actions, exploration paths, customization, and the like. For example, <emph>Eastward</emph> (Pixpil, [<reflink idref="bib92" id="ref81">92</reflink>]), a role‐playing (RPG) adventure game, revolves entirely around a single narrative. RPGs allow players to experience and interact with game worlds as a specific character or an avatar embodying a specific lifestyle (such as knights in medieval times). <emph>Eastward</emph> follows two pre‐determined characters as they uncover mysteries behind their world's destruction. There are few, if any, mechanics not tied to narrative and character development. Options for creative behavior in <emph>Eastward</emph> are limited to slight variations in attack patterns at each level.</p> <p>Other games have little or no narrative. In <emph>Overwatch</emph> (Blizzard Entertainment, [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref82">19</reflink>]), players are grouped in teams to overtake another team's goal, giving players many ways to be creative. These include character choice, team collaboration for optimal character composition, and selection of battle strategies. <emph>Overwatch</emph> is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) that emphasizes letting players develop and test their skills against other players, with no narrative necessary to play. Genres of games heavily influence the amount of narrative expected while playing. As such, the genre of a game may be a good determinant of narrative‐based effects on in‐game creative behavior.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-7">Fantasy</hd> <p>Games can also vary in how fantastical and magical their worlds are—some are fully classified as fantasy (e.g., <emph>Skyrim;</emph> Bethesda Game Studios, [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref83">16</reflink>]) while others replicate the real world (e.g., <emph>Nintendogs</emph> dog care simulation; Nintendo, [<reflink idref="bib82" id="ref84">82</reflink>]). <emph>Stardew Valley</emph> (Barone, [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref85">13</reflink>]) is primarily about country life and farming, but it has occasional fantastical elements such as forest sprites and a wizard a player can interact with. In contrast, <emph>Monster Hunter</emph> (Capcom, [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref86">22</reflink>]) is based entirely in a fantasy world, focusing on slaying wild imaginary beasts designed by developers.</p> <p>The level of fantasy in a game may be tied to both cognitive creativity skills and in‐game creative behavior, as engagement with high levels of fantasy in other mediums and activities has been connected to higher creativity scores. For example, in an experimental setting, simply being exposed to fantastical and dreamlike virtual environments correlated with higher divergent thinking scores in children between ages 7 and 11, compared to children who had been exposed to virtual re‐creations of school environments (Guegan, Brechet, & Nelson, [<reflink idref="bib48" id="ref87">48</reflink>]). Viewing and feeling transported into sci‐fi TV shows (which contain many elements of fantasy) is correlated in adults with increased originality in an alternative‐uses task, but this is not true for shows based on realism (e.g., police dramas and family‐oriented sit‐coms; Black & Barnes, [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref88">17</reflink>]). Importantly, Black and Barnes ([<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref89">17</reflink>]) reported that fantasy only increased creativity when participants reported feeling transported into stories. Therefore, video games may be effective activities to utilize the effects of fantasy to prime creative thinking, as they are colloquially known to fully absorb players (Cowley, Charles, Black, & Hickey, [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref90">28</reflink>]).</p> <p>In childhood, self‐directed fantasy elements in play and pretense have been correlated with higher creativity scores, with the level of fantasy being especially important at younger ages (i.e., 4–9 years old; Mottweiler & Taylor, [<reflink idref="bib78" id="ref91">78</reflink>]; Russ, Robins, & Christiano, [<reflink idref="bib99" id="ref92">99</reflink>]). While video games set a minimum or maximum amount of fantasy for players, if fantasy video games are similar to childhood fantasy play via incorporation of fantasy environments, we hypothesize the fantasy genre would have a higher probability of improving creativity than other video game genres. Specifying and determining content within video games within particular genres can make it easier to pinpoint which genre games may be better for priming creativity, providing broader cognitive effects to increase an individual's capacity to be creative or providing more space to be creative within games.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-8">Exemplar: Minecraft and genre</hd> <p>As an exemplar, let us expand on how <emph>Minecraft</emph>'s genre may impact the game's effect on the creative behaviors of its players. <emph>Minecraft</emph> is typically described as an open‐world sandbox game and a survival/craft game. "Open‐world sandbox" means players have a high degree of freedom to explore and interact with the game world in a non‐linear way and create anything they want (similar to a real‐life sandbox), survival/craft means that players must balance certain needs (usually health, stamina, and hunger) the player has to continuously meet to keep their character alive, by finding various materials in the game that can be gathered to craft new items.</p> <p>Some positive implications of these genres for in‐game creative behaviors include having a large variety of materials and items for players to use, allowing players to make many unique and inventive combinations to meet their goals in the game. Players can decide their own goals for each play‐through, as there is no narrative or set path the player has to follow, which also means players can continuously come up with new problems they want to solve. The endless possibilities for players to create goals and solve them increase the replay value of the game and the ability to engage in creative problem‐solving and creative process behaviors over and over again. The survival mode of the game, however, provides some basic problems for the players to solve in each playthrough (e.g., figuring out how to have a constant food source), which can help act as a springboard for players who are not sure exactly what they can or want to do at first in the game.</p> <p>A possible negative side effect of the survival mode in the game is the heightened difficulty for new Minecraft players. For players who do not already know common ways to find resources in the game, focusing on just trying to keep their character's needs met may prevent them from being able to engage cognitive creativity skills and produce in‐game creative behavior until they can make their character stronger or gain enough experience in the survival mode. While there are also some fantasy elements in <emph>Minecraft</emph>, it is not a major focus of the game and is unlikely to produce any additional effects for creative behaviors in the game.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-9">Exemplar: Baldur's Gate and genre</hd> <p>A second game we will use as an ongoing example is <emph>Baldur's Gate 3</emph>, a primarily fantasy adventure role‐playing game (RPG). The game is based on the very popular tabletop game <emph>Dungeons & Dragons</emph>, with very heavy fantasy elements, including the use of magic, mythical creatures such as dragons, and a roughly medieval setting. Regarding the RPG aspect of the game, the player creates their character to control during the game, with the ability to make several choices throughout the game that impact how the narrative plays out. Additionally, the overall narrative revolves around the player going on an adventure across several different areas because they have been infected by a creature called a <emph>mind flayer</emph> or <emph>illithid</emph>, with the choice of trying to become a hero and stop the antagonists and remove the infection or to take a darker route and utilize the power the infection gives them.</p> <p>The positive effects that <emph>Baldur's Gate 3's</emph> genre might have on creative cognition skills and in‐game creative behavior start with the heavy fantasy elements in the game. As mentioned previously, fantasy exposure has been linked to higher scores on cognitive creativity tasks, especially when there is high transportation into the fantasy narrative. Character creation and customization can improve player identification with the game and enjoyment (Trepte & Reinecke, [<reflink idref="bib113" id="ref93">113</reflink>]), which contributes to narrative transportation (Van Laer, De Ruyter, Visconti, & Wetzels, [<reflink idref="bib114" id="ref94">114</reflink>]), and combined with players having control of the narrative progression, should further maximize possible benefits that the game's fantasy elements have on creative cognition and in‐game creative behavior.</p> <p>A possible negative of <emph>Baldur's Gate 3's</emph> fantasy genre for creativity outcomes is that because it is so different from the real world, players may not realize their creative behaviors in‐game can correlate to general creative cognition. As a result, their creative self‐efficacy in the real world may not change.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-10">GRAPHICS AND STYLIZATION</hd> <p>A second component of video games, graphics and visual style, varies wildly from one game to another. Visuals impact a player's in‐game mindset (Egenfeldt‐Nielsen et al., [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref95">35</reflink>]) and, as a result, impact possible behavioral creativity within and cognitive creativity skill building from games. In related research, games rendered in 3D as opposed to 2D (i.e., <emph>Super Mario 3D World</emph>; Nintendo, [<reflink idref="bib83" id="ref96">83</reflink>]) provide effects similar to an enriched home environment for measures of recognition memory for a series of familiar, similar, and novel objects (Clemenson & Stark, [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref97">26</reflink>]). Yet in a separate study measuring visuospatial competency in adolescents aged 10–18 after playing a randomly assigned video game, mental rotation was improved for individuals playing 2D games, while spatial visualization was improved for those playing 3D games (Milani, Grumi, & Di Blasio, [<reflink idref="bib74" id="ref98">74</reflink>]). Differences in cognitive effects based on graphics style may not be isolated to just basic cognition, and more research is needed to determine if 2D/3D differences also affect cognitive creativity outcomes.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-11">Stylization</hd> <p>Other differences in game visuals include stylization and aesthetic design choices. Some games are rendered to be as realistic as possible, while others are more similar to caricatures or cartoons. Similarities between a game's visual style and other forms of media (e.g., television shows or popular franchises) may prompt players to make specific connections between games and prior media experiences. Connections can force players to consider specific sets of possibilities for how a game should be played based on other norms and, in turn, negatively impact creative behavior in‐game.</p> <p>With static art, perceptual fluency and aesthetics influence creativity judgments. People with higher fluency in an art style are more likely to judge art within that style as creative (Christensen, Ball, & Reber, [<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref99">25</reflink>]). The visual style in video games has been shown to impact players' empathy and immersion depending on whether appearance is congruent with expectations, specifically whether animal characters are natural or robotic, which impacts emotional expression expectations (Sierra Rativa et al., [<reflink idref="bib106" id="ref100">106</reflink>]). It is possible that if a player has more fluency in a specific graphical style, their perceptions and beliefs about creativity in stylized games could change as well.</p> <p>Realistic game appearances may prompt players to think about realistic solutions to problems in games, whereas a game with visuals similar to Japanese anime may inspire players to think about common tropes in those types of shows and stories, and solutions relevant to those tropes. Other visual styles may put players in specific mindsets, too. Effects of graphics on creativity may be a balancing act between visuals complex and new enough for cognitive enrichment, while also considering how readily graphics are perceived by players and related to other media.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-12">Exemplar: Minecraft and graphical style</hd> <p>Looking again at the game <emph>Minecraft</emph>, its graphical style has become iconic and clearly distinguishes the game from others. <emph>Minecraft</emph> is known for its pixelated and blocky imagery, making it appear very low resolution. The art also has a more cartoon style as opposed to realism for people, animals, monsters, and the environment. Many games have even tried to copy the visual style of <emph>Minecraft</emph> to encourage players to try their games as well (Harkin, [<reflink idref="bib53" id="ref101">53</reflink>]).</p> <p>Positive impacts this visual style might have on creative behavior include the use of the blocky style to inspire and create specific visual expressions. It is common for players to create murals in the game that look like pixel‐style art by placing thousands of blocks down in specific patterns. Additionally, as mentioned earlier, the lack of realism may help players separate their expectations for the game's world from how the real world works. For example, players can enter lava‐filled chambers as long as they do not directly touch the lava, while in real life, humans cannot survive going that deep underground. Exploration is encouraged by removing real‐world expectations, and because other games have tried to recreate the style of <emph>Minecraft</emph>, players trying those games will likely assume the game world functions the same way as <emph>Minecraft</emph>. While creating a mindset surrounding the blocky graphics may not impact creative behaviors in <emph>Minecraft</emph>, it could impact players' willingness to try different actions in similar games.</p> <p>The primary potential negative side effect of <emph>Minecraft's</emph> visual style is that because there is a lack of realism, players may not think to connect their ability to express themselves creatively in the game to their broader capacity for creative cognition in the real world, limiting any possible training effects of the game. More research is necessary to know how much realism has impacted the transference of creative skills to real‐world problem‐solving.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-13">Exemplar: Baldur's Gate and graphical style</hd> <p>Looking at our second game, <emph>Baldur's Gate 3</emph>, the visuals are highly realistic, even with the fantasy content of the game. Characters are made to look like real humans and even the added fantasy details are done in a way that makes it look like they could exist in the real world. The terrain is also made to look relatively realistic. However, the world is crafted in such a way that only certain paths are accessible to players, and other areas are made impossible to traverse, making it still feel like a game map as opposed to a truly open world. The game is played from a third‐person point of view, and the camera angle zooms out even further during battle sequences so that the player can easily observe the world around them and make decisions about how to interact with the game. The menus and other user‐interface aspects of the game are styled in a way that matches the game's overall dark and medieval aesthetic.</p> <p>The positives of this graphical style for creativity components are that the high‐quality realism of the fantasy elements will likely maximize any environmental enrichment effects that can be transferred from the game to broader creative cognition skills. Additionally, realism, in general, may improve players' abilities to relate their creative behavior in the game to their creative self‐efficacy in the real world. The similarities between the visuals and real‐world people and objects could also act as a way to inspire players about innovative ways they can play the game as opposed to just focusing on typical video game sequences of action. An example of this can be seen when the player must take down a goblin fortress with three different bosses in it. The player can just charge in, and attack, which is pretty normal for most video games, but the player can also do actions like lure characters into a room and close the door so that they do not alert the rest of the castle when a fight starts. Players are encouraged to think about how they can realistically interact with the environment around them when deciding how they want to progress in the game, and the realistic visual style helps guide this thought process.</p> <p>Potential negative side effects of the realistic visual style for creative behaviors in the game are that players may limit themselves to their expectations of the real world and not try to act more creatively in the game. Additionally, the dark and medieval influences in the game's visuals may prime players to think about situations in a specific way that matches the game's atmosphere, such as pursuing more basic violent solutions to problems presented in the game. Taking into consideration how graphics and stylization, such as the blocky pixel style in <emph>Minecraft</emph> or the more realistic style of <emph>Baldur's Gate 3</emph>, may impact creative behaviors in the game and transference to creative cognition skills outside of the game through the creation of mental sets regarding certain styles and fluency in a style is prudent to determining why certain games regardless of the actual content and mechanics of the game could produce certain outcomes.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-14">GAMEPLAY MECHANICS</hd> <p>Aside from the content of a game and how it looks, another important component to consider is actual gameplay functions, that is, how easily a game is played. Some games are maximized in terms of efficiency of play while others are clunky and difficult for players to navigate due to poor design. If a game is hard to play, it is more difficult for players to fully engage and focus. This may prevent creative behaviors in‐game because players are focused on trying to make games do basic actions and not considering further intricacies. A smooth functioning game allows players more time and energy to devote to how mechanics are manipulatable.</p> <p>Familiarity with controls and the rate of challenging but manageable tasks to complete in a game may be particularly conducive to a flow state achieved from gaming (Cowley et al., [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref102">28</reflink>]). Games with clunky and inconsistent mechanics, like an old golfing game, <emph>Kirby's Dream Course</emph> (HAL Laboratory, [<reflink idref="bib49" id="ref103">49</reflink>]), which has poor alignment guides and unpredictable physics when trying to hit the ball, may make it hard for players to feel in control and involved in the game. We hypothesize games with smooth and comprehensive mechanics allow players to spend more time exploring and generating ideas instead of being impeded by frustration when nothing works as it should. In addition, differences based on ease of mechanics and absorption may vary not only by game but also by person, as can be seen on most online discussion forums about gaming (AlbionBard, [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref104">3</reflink>]; JeffereyFrancis54, [<reflink idref="bib64" id="ref105">64</reflink>]; Mrmehmeh243, [<reflink idref="bib79" id="ref106">79</reflink>]).</p> <p>There are likely individual differences in which mechanics people enjoy most and what feels easy. More experienced players or those with higher technology‐related self‐efficacy may engage in more creative behaviors in a game with poorly designed mechanics because they can problem solve and find new ways to accomplish their goals that the intended mechanics do not allow, similar to how increased video‐game self‐efficacy impacts learning outcomes and motivation to play games (Klimmt & Hartmann, [<reflink idref="bib69" id="ref107">69</reflink>]; Pavlas, Heyne, Bedwell, Lazzara, & Salas, [<reflink idref="bib91" id="ref108">91</reflink>]). Findings from the field of human‐computer interaction on how technology and technology‐related self‐efficacy can impact creative behaviors and creative cognition could provide additional perspectives and more details in the development of future research on video game mechanic quality (Bereczki & Kárpáti, [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref109">15</reflink>]; Shneiderman, [<reflink idref="bib104" id="ref110">104</reflink>]).</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-15">Primary functions</hd> <p>Aside from the quality of implementation, there are different types of mechanics and game functionality unique to a game or group of games. Different primary functions in a game will impact if a player has room for creative behavior. For example, a platformer game where players jump from one platform to another and a first‐person shooter game where players aim at and shoot down enemies will require different action considerations. Platformer games may allow for strategizing to find optimal routes, but shooting enemies relies more on quick reflexes. Therefore, strategizing jumps and making different action plans will likely foster and recruit creative thinking about the game more than quick shooting in a game.</p> <p>A game with a closed world and fixed choices (e.g., <emph>Super Mario Brothers</emph>; Nintendo, [<reflink idref="bib80" id="ref111">80</reflink>]) where players can only jump around platforms at a fixed level and cannot veer off intended paths offers less room for variance in how players navigate. As a result, players may be less likely to believe they can engage in creative behavior in‐game. In one study using a physics game, <emph>Physics Playground</emph> (designed specifically to measure and facilitate creative thinking), several mechanisms were tested to encourage players to try new puzzle solutions. A combination of inspiration from others' designs and specific instructions on generating creative solutions helped promote more creativity, measured by individual distance from average solutions (Rahimi & Shute, [<reflink idref="bib94" id="ref112">94</reflink>]). In contrast, open‐world games (e.g., <emph>Skyrim</emph>), which provide basic mechanics that players can decide how and when to use, tend to also let players decide what their end goal will be. For example, players can decide whether they want to sneak around and quietly accomplish a quest without disturbing other characters or if they want to charge in and fight everyone around them. We theorize an open world would encourage players to believe they are more capable of creativity because they have a long list of possibilities for what they can do. However, in‐game creative behavior differences between these mechanic types may not transfer to the real world because both types of games require problem‐solving and deciding which possible solution is best.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-16">Customization</hd> <p>Transfer of various types of creative thinking in games to creative outcomes and creative cognition in the real world may also depend on customization and personalization mechanics available in a game. Customizing an avatar aids players in experiencing transportation into a game world and feeling personally connected to in‐game actions (Hart, [<reflink idref="bib55" id="ref113">55</reflink>]; Trepte & Reinecke, [<reflink idref="bib113" id="ref114">113</reflink>]). Like connections between narrative transportation and creativity, feeling transported via mechanics and ownership of in‐game actions could impact creative transfer from ideas to real‐world tasks (Black & Barnes, [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref115">17</reflink>]). Considering several facets by which game mechanics could influence in‐game creativity and transfer to real‐world creativity is important in understanding how and why one game might produce increased creativity while another game, even within a genre, might not.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-17">Exemplar: Minecraft and gameplay mechanics</hd> <p>Returning once again to the exemplar of <emph>Minecraft</emph>, the basic mechanics revolve around building objects and buildings with blocks, combining items to craft something new, and exploring a large world map. Additionally, players can fight monsters, farm and care for animals, and even create and execute minigames within the larger game. Even just from this basic description, it is obvious there is a large variety of mechanics players can choose to engage in, and players can choose which aspects of the game they want to focus on when they play.</p> <p>These mechanics could have a positive relationship with in‐game creative behavior by giving players multiple ways to experience the game and different combinations of mechanics they can use to meet their goals. The more playstyles and mechanics available, the more chances players have to find unique and novel solutions for obstacles they encounter in the game, such as how they want to build a shelter. Players could build the shelter out of wood or stone or mine underground until they find enough gold and make their house out of gold blocks. Additionally, these seemingly limitless options allow for continual growth in creative behavior in the game; players can keep trying to find new ways to achieve their goals compared to previous times they have played. A game with different or fewer mechanics than <emph>Minecraft</emph> may only stimulate creative behavior for the first couple of times someone plays it.</p> <p>A major possible negative impact of the mechanics in <emph>Minecraft</emph> is particularly relevant to new players, who may be overwhelmed with trying to learn how everything works. New players may find themselves frustrated with trying to remember all the different tools and keeping track of what materials they need, or could even get bored if they do not explore the right locations or objects in the game to find out new mechanics (such as enchanting objects to give them different powers, which requires combining several inconspicuous items to obtain an enchanting table). Many people who attempt to play the game may lose interest in playing before they get a grasp of all the mechanics to use them creatively.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-18">Exemplar: Baldur's Gate and gameplay mechanics</hd> <p>In our other example, <emph>Baldur's Gate 3</emph>, there are many different mechanics in the game, most of which are based on the popular tabletop role‐playing game <emph>Dungeons & Dragons</emph>. The game relies on a turn‐based combat system where the player must decide what their characters will do each time their turn comes around, whether that is attacking, healing, casting a buffing spell to improve future attacks, moving around the map to position for a better attack or defend against enemy attacks. As they level up their characters, players can choose what attacks and spells to equip them with and what type of fighting their character specializes in; they can choose from several options at any turn during combat. When not in combat, the player can choose between still operating in turn‐based mode or exploring the world in real‐time, which allows for more freedom of movement in the game. Depending on their character's skills, players can navigate the game world in several ways, including walking, jumping, and flying. Players can also choose which other game characters they keep in their group "party" as they travel, and can even switch between controlling any of the characters in their party at any time.</p> <p>The amount of customization and time allotted to players for carefully considering their moves in the game provides a lot of room for creative behavior in <emph>Baldur's Gate 3</emph>. Players can find unique ways to build up the skills and attacks of each character in their party to make novel combinations while progressing through the game. Additionally, because the game allows players to go back to previous save points at any time, players can experiment with different ideas about solving a problem in the game and retry if they do not like the initial outcome. There are also a large number of side quests and or tasks not completely relevant to the main story of the game that players can choose whether or not they complete, and so in each new playthrough of the game, a player may encounter new situations or problems to solve that they missed in previous playthroughs, providing more opportunities for players to practice in‐game creative behavior with the variety of mechanics available to them.</p> <p>Based on this surface‐level analysis of <emph>Baldur's Gate 3</emph>, there are no obvious ways the mechanics of the game might hinder creative behavior in the game or creative cognition skills. This is not to say the game's mechanics are perfect for creativity, but it is unclear what possible negative side effects may be. With <emph>Minecraft</emph> and <emph>Baldur's Gate 3</emph> examples in mind, it becomes clear that gameplay mechanics play a key role in the amount of creative freedom a player has and what creative behavior looks like in a given game.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-19">INSTRUCTIONS AND INCENTIVES</hd> <p>One way video games show promise for learning a variety of materials and skills is their use of gamification techniques for various goals. "Gamification" is using characteristic game features like point systems and competition to motivate participation, often used in education and marketing (Garcia‐ Marquez & Bauer, [<reflink idref="bib43" id="ref116">43</reflink>]; Moseikina, Toktamysov, & Danshina, [<reflink idref="bib77" id="ref117">77</reflink>]; Sailer & Homner, [<reflink idref="bib100" id="ref118">100</reflink>]). A specific function of video games that may benefit learning (i.e., the alignment of game design elements and education models) is individual instruction pacing and reward systems (Kiili, [<reflink idref="bib67" id="ref119">67</reflink>]). Such instructions and rewards impact creative behavior in‐game.</p> <p>Deeper, clearer, and more adaptive task instructions have been linked to higher creativity and divergent thinking scores across studies and cultures (Acar, Runco, & Park, [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref120">1</reflink>]; Chen et al., [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref121">24</reflink>]; Davies et al., [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref122">30</reflink>]). In a study of Chinese high schoolers, creativity scores based on final products of collage‐making and story‐completion tasks were higher when students were given thorough instructions about a task but not by being told to merely "be creative" (Niu & Liu, [<reflink idref="bib85" id="ref123">85</reflink>]). Games with clearly explained goals and mechanics may allow players to be more creative than games without guidance.</p> <p>One example, <emph>Pokémon Emerald</emph> (Game Freak, [<reflink idref="bib41" id="ref124">41</reflink>]), contains several points where players hear characters explain various mechanics and possible strategies, including how to catch <emph>Pokémon</emph> or how different types match up in battle. Multiple points of instruction are paired with optional demonstrations for clarity, providing both quantity and quality in instructions. It is up to players to decide how to navigate those rules, personalize their play‐through, choose teams, and how to use them. Players not only have many choices, but multiple options are also viable for reaching a goal. Players can go beyond simply problem‐solving and try to manipulate rules creatively compared to their and others' past attempts. Therefore, this game may allow for more creative gameplay and may prime participants to be more creative outside the game.</p> <p>In comparison, a game like <emph>Terraria</emph> (Re‐Logic, [<reflink idref="bib96" id="ref125">96</reflink>]) has no instructions or guides for using game functions, which may put too much pressure on players to be creative because the gameplay is so open‐ended, with no initial starting goals. Variance in instruction quantity and quality can create an individualized learning curve between games, and the impact of instructions on creativity could also be moderated by an individual's experience with similar games. Differences in instruction within games for theorizing creative output should also be considered with the availability of online guides communally written about the game (e.g., Bulbapedia for <emph>Pokémon</emph> and the <emph>Stardew Valley</emph> Wiki site). The presence and use of online guides may moderate the relationship between in‐game instructions and creativity.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-20">Reward systems</hd> <p>Along with instruction are reward systems motivating players to continue engaging. In one study, 5th‐ and 6th‐grade children in the United States (aged 11–12 years) were offered rewards for a drawing task either with or without a clear connection between creativity and reward. Students showed increased creativity scores when creativity was connected to rewards either through explicit statements or experience in prior divergent thinking training in the experiment (Eisenberger, Arrneli, & Pretz, [<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref126">36</reflink>]). Rewards systems in games, which act as a key motivator for players to continue engaging, may also help encourage creative behavior in games if rewards are gained through creative action (Hamlen, [<reflink idref="bib52" id="ref127">52</reflink>]; Jakobsson, [<reflink idref="bib62" id="ref128">62</reflink>]). Games also vary in how frequently rewards are received and how valuable each reward is, changing player motivation and reinforcement. Some games may only offer rewards at the end of levels; others reward players continuously for completing tasks. All of these different systems may differentially affect how rewards moderate creative output.</p> <p>One game that specifically rewards creativity is <emph>New Pokémon Snap  </emph>(Bandai Namco Studios, [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref129">11</reflink>]), where players post photographs taken in‐game for others to see in their games. Based on preliminary observation of the online sharing space, players with creative or unique photos get more likes. This likely encourages players to try and be creative while playing to get more likes. Even without posting photos, photos with more interesting angles and poses will score more points using the games' AI internal rating system to progress.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-21">Exemplar: Minecraft and instructions and incentives</hd> <p>Using the ongoing example of <emph>Minecraft</emph>, we see that this game has no instructions or incentives built into it. It is completely player‐directed, and the player gets to decide what goals they use to feel a sense of accomplishment in the game. A positive side of having no built‐in instructions or preset goals is that nothing will prevent players from pursuing their own goals, creative or not, in the game. There are no quests or specific points of progression a player has to fulfill before they can get to the parts that interest them, which is especially helpful for encouraging the creative behavior of experienced players, as players are not burdened by spending time on the same beginner tutorials every time they want to try something new.</p> <p>On the flip side, however, the lack of prompts in the game may leave players feeling uninspired and uncertain about what to do. There are no basic quests or goals that the player can build off of, so each player has to come up with their own problems to solve in the game and their own restrictions to be creative within. This, combined with the lack of tutorials for the large variety of mechanics discussed in the previous section, may make it difficult for beginners to express creative behavior. Worth noting is the large online presence of content creators (e.g., on YouTube) focused purely on posting about <emph>Minecraft</emph>, which may supplement the lack of instructions built into the game, assuming a player has the knowledge and capability to look online for external guides.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-22">Exemplar: Baldur's Gate and instructions and incentives</hd> <p>Looking at <emph>Baldur's Gate 3</emph>, the instructions and tutorials are very clear initially to help players understand how the game works. The first area of the game, a flying ship, is designed to kickstart the game's plot and slowly introduce players to different mechanics and characters in the game. Once the player clears this area, they are given more freedom, and many quests do not tell the player exactly where they need to go or what they need to do to progress, leaving it up to the player to explore and progress at their own pace. For incentives, players gain experience for various actions in the game, mostly from combat situations. After players have enough experience, they can level up their characters and unlock more skills and abilities. Additionally, many items in the game can be found throughout, including in abandoned buildings and random caves, encouraging players to take their time exploring in case they find something valuable or useful equipment.</p> <p>The instruction systems in <emph>Baldur's Gate 3</emph> positively impact creative behavior in‐game by striking a balance between giving players a basic guide for mechanics and providing them with quests to work towards, but not giving too much guidance, so the player can experiment with how they accomplish these goals. This is likely especially helpful for encouraging creative behavior from new players who might not be able to come up with goals in the game all on their own, while still giving them the tools they need to not be overwhelmed by all the options in the game. The incentives in‐game also promote creative behavior, especially the placement of items all over the game world. This lets players know early on that they should try new activities in the game, even if they do not seem directly relevant to the main story, as finding useful items can still help them progress in the long run.</p> <p>However, the instructions and incentives in <emph>Baldur's Gate 3</emph> may hinder creative behavior in‐game by overwhelming players with several different quests and goals they can pursue at once. Once a player interacts with certain characters, it will automatically add their quests to the quest log, which can quickly fill up with multiple different actions the player could be doing at any given point. This may make it hard for players to choose which goal they want to work towards at any given moment. As a result, they may just meander through the game until they happen to progress without intentionally thinking about how they want to solve a quest in any unique or novel way. Instruction and incentive quality in video games, or the total lack thereof like in <emph>Minecraft</emph>, can have a sizable impact on a player's likelihood to exhibit creative behavior, just like in other creativity tasks seen in previous research, and as such, should be carefully considered when deciding what games would be ideal for creativity research.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-23">SOCIAL AND MULTIPLAYER</hd> <p>A newer popular function of video games, especially since the COVID‐19 pandemic in 2020, is playing in‐person and online with other people (Barr & Copeland‐Stewart, [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref130">14</reflink>]; Pallavicini, Pepe, & Mantovani, [<reflink idref="bib89" id="ref131">89</reflink>]). Video games allow for collaboration, competition, and co‐creation, sometimes all at once and sometimes across different games. Not every game can be played in multiplayer modes, and different games have different approaches to how multiplayer modes work. However, even without live concurrent multiplayer functionality, some games can still create a social atmosphere using non‐player characters (NPCs). The type of multiplayer functionality in games (e.g., whether players are competing or cooperating as a team) can influence a player's enjoyment and game‐based intervention adherence (Souders, Boot, Charness, & Moxley, [<reflink idref="bib108" id="ref132">108</reflink>]). Competitive games are rated higher for self‐reported enjoyment than cooperative games, and both have been rated higher in enjoyment than single‐player games (Souders et al., [<reflink idref="bib108" id="ref133">108</reflink>]). Even when playing competitively in popular MOBA games, players elect socialization as their primary motivation for playing (Bonny & Castaneda, [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref134">20</reflink>]).</p> <p>A review of positive effects of video games found that having multiplayer interactions through a video game mimicked typical effects of real‐world social interaction in several studies, including increased prosocial skills, such as cooperation and maintaining relationships in school, and a positive social outlet for those with psychological difficulties or limited access to in‐person interactions (Halbrook, O'Donnell, & Msetfi, [<reflink idref="bib50" id="ref135">50</reflink>]). While we do not know of evidence here, social influences found in video games and social influences found to impact motivation and creative behavior in the real world may be equivalent (Amabile, [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref136">4</reflink>]; Amabile & Pillemer, [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref137">5</reflink>]; Cropley, [<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref138">29</reflink>]; De Dreu, Nijstad, Bechtoldt, & Baas, [<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref139">31</reflink>]; Hennessey, [<reflink idref="bib56" id="ref140">56</reflink>]). In games with cooperative multiplayer settings, such as <emph>Animal Crossing New Horizons</emph>, where each player has an island to develop and invite other players to visit and help complete tasks, it is possible a player will think creatively and engage in more creative actions to satisfy other players. In purely competitive games (e.g., <emph>MarioKart</emph>; Nintendo, [<reflink idref="bib81" id="ref141">81</reflink>]), the desire to outperform other players may inhibit creativity for the sake of acting efficiently.</p> <p>Aside from cooperative multiplayer games, some games have other types of prosocial content (e.g., help and share with NPCs and online players). We hypothesize prosocial activity in games may impact creativity in ways similar to how social environments can motivate and change the creativity of individuals in a group (Amabile, [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref142">4</reflink>]). Being prosocial towards other game characters (either NPCs or those controlled by other real people) may encourage players to exercise creativity for the benefit of the group. In this sense, prosocial content in a video game may act as an added motivator for players to be creative.</p> <p>However, some games have no social atmosphere and lack any characters for players to interact with. Many mobile games like <emph>Candy Crush</emph> (King, [<reflink idref="bib68" id="ref143">68</reflink>]) are based on simple mechanics and puzzles. Whether a game has any social elements and the structure of those elements will affect the applicability of social influences. However, different applications of creativity, including creativity for the sake of others in social situations, in‐game creativity, and free generative, creative thought outside of the game, could be affected differently due to gameplay. More research is needed to understand how social components of video games might change creative output in a game and their necessity to motivate creative thinking.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-24">Exemplar: Minecraft and social play</hd> <p>Taking a final look at the game <emph>Minecraft</emph>, there are many opportunities to engage in social play and interact with a larger community. <emph>Minecraft</emph> allows online multiplayer modes with a few friends or on a larger scale in multiplayer servers. Both ways involve players interacting in the same game world but still maintaining the same freedom for each player to do as they please. Due to the game's popularity, there are also numerous online forums, videos, and communities dedicated to <emph>Minecraft</emph> for players to engage in, even if they play the game alone.</p> <p>The vast amount of social engagement possible with <emph>Minecraft</emph> can positively impact creative behavior by giving players opportunities to find inspiration for what to do in the game and get help when they are unsure how something works. This could combat some of the negative sides of the lack of instructions and the large variety of mechanics in the game. Additionally, while playing the game with others, players may be more motivated to try and exhibit creative behavior to impress or help those they are playing with. This could include them trying to find unique ways to design structures or new ways to gather large amounts of needed materials, such as automated farming or mining systems.</p> <p>One negative impact of the popularity and size of the <emph>Minecraft</emph> community, however, is that players may resort to replicating what others have done instead of trying to figure it out for themselves or making something unique. Not only does this reduce the amount of practice with engaging cognitive skills involved in creativity, but it also makes judgment of creativity in the game more difficult. Researchers may struggle when evaluating <emph>Minecraft</emph> gameplay if something appears unique and more effective than other players' efforts within the sample, but in reality, it was just copied from a guide posted online.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-25">Exemplar: Baldur's Gate and social play</hd> <p> <emph>Baldur's Gate 3</emph> taps into online multiplayer socialization and NPC characters with great depth that provides a social atmosphere in single‐player modes. The game allows up to four players to play simultaneously, all participating in the same party and progressing the story together. Additionally, a large online community surrounds the game, which provides tutorials and guides and shares theories on parts of the story. The NPC characters are a vital part of the game, and many have in‐depth backstories and character arcs throughout the game. Players can even check their approval rating with the NPC characters in their party to see if their choices align with the morals of each character. If the approval is high enough, the player's character can enter a romantic relationship with the NPC.</p> <p> <emph>Baldur's Gate 3</emph> can take advantage of the social motivators for creative behavior already mentioned by having online multiplayer components but also by having an in‐depth simulation of social interaction with the NPCs, many of which rely on the player to help solve their problems. While the NPCs may not directly require the player to be creative to complete their quests, they still act as a motivator to keep the player invested in the game, while the other previously discussed components may push them to behave creatively. When players work together using multiplayer functions in the game, they are also afforded the opportunity to collaborate and find creative ways to engage with the game world together, allowing them to maximize their creative behavior more than they would have done playing alone.</p> <p>Looking at the negative side of socialization surrounding <emph>Baldur's Gate 3</emph>, similarly to <emph>Minecraft</emph>, the large online community and the number of guides available to the community may make it hard to determine when a player is behaving creatively in the game versus when they are just following what they watched someone else do before. Additionally, when multiple players are completing the story together, it may make it hard for slower players to find novel ways to engage with the game if the friends they are playing with progress the story before the slower players have a chance to think about what they want to do. Social aspects of creativity are important to consider in any video game, particularly for motivation and inspiration of players, and for more popular games like <emph>Minecraft</emph> and <emph>Baldur's Gate 3</emph>, the sheer size of the online community presents both positives and negatives when observing creative behavior in a video game.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-26">CONCLUSION</hd> <p>Video games are not uniform—individual video game components should be considered when conducting research. In Table 1, we present the exemplar games of <emph>Minecraft</emph> and <emph>Baldur's Gate 3</emph>, for each component including possible positives and negatives of each game for creativity. This table can be used to break down other games for various creativity outcomes, but it can also be applied to other outcomes as needed.</p> <p>1 Table Application of Game Components for Creativity in Minecraft and Baldur's Gate 3</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><th align="left">Component</th><th align="center">Game description</th><th align="center">Positives for creativity</th><th align="center">Negatives for creativity</th></tr><tr><th align="center">Minecraft</th><th align="center">Baldur's Gate 3</th><th align="center">Minecraft</th><th align="center">Baldur's Gate 3</th><th align="center">Minecraft</th><th align="center">Baldur's Gate 3</th></tr></thead><tbody valign="top"><tr><td align="left">Genre</td><td align="left">Open‐World Sandbox, Survival Craft</td><td align="left">Fantasy, RPG, Adventure</td><td align="left">Large variety of materials and items to use; No set path or narrative player has to follow; Survival mode gives players problems to solve; All possible benefits for creative behavior</td><td align="left">Improved fantasy transportation from character customization; Fantasy elements correlated with improved creative cognition</td><td align="left">Survival mode difficulty may make it hard to show creative behavior until the player is able to become stronger</td><td align="left">Difference from reality may hinder cognitive creativity transfer and creative self‐efficacy improvements</td></tr><tr><td align="left">Graphics and Stylization</td><td align="left">Pixelated and Blocky, Cartoonish</td><td align="left">High realism even with fantasy elements; Third‐person point of view; Dark and medieval aesthetic</td><td align="left">Players won't go in expecting real‐world limitations; Can use stylization as a tool for visual expression; All impacts for creative behavior</td><td align="left">Improve environmental enrichment effects for cognitive creativity skills; Easier to link creative behavior in‐game to creative self‐efficacy in the real world; Inspire players to innovate in ways different from typical video game formulas for creative behavior</td><td align="left">Players may not be able to relate in‐game creativity to real‐world tasks</td><td align="left">Limit to expectations of real‐world environments; Aesthetics may prime players to act in certain ways limiting creative behavior</td></tr><tr><td align="left">Gameplay Mechanics</td><td align="left">Building with blocks and combining items to craft something new, exploring a large world map, fighting monsters, farming and caring for animals, creation and execution of minigames within the larger game</td><td align="left">Turn‐based combat; Character skill customization; Multiple movement types depending on character; Different party members with different skill sets; Changing character perspective</td><td align="left">Give players multiple ways to experience the game and combine different mechanics for an end goal; Endless options for how to execute different goals give more space for continual cognitive creative skill growth</td><td align="left">Many opportunities to find novel combat and skill combinations; Time between turns to carefully think about actions; Save points allow experimentation with different actions; Choice of tasks to focus on making each playthrough unique; All impacts for creative behavior</td><td align="left">Too many options may overwhelm new players before they can really explore any ideas and prevent creative behavior</td><td align="left">N/A</td></tr><tr><td align="left">Instructions and Incentives</td><td align="left">No instruction or goals are set by the game, player decides their own rewards</td><td align="left">Initial tutorial section; Many vague quest instructions; Experience points to level up and unlock new skills; Valuable items hidden throughout the entire map</td><td align="left">No pre‐set goals or rules to prevent players from pursuing their own goals in the game helping creative behavior</td><td align="left">Instructions strike a balance by giving a goal but not holding a hand to complete it; Items encourage players to explore all possible routes and options; All impacting creative behavior</td><td align="left">No instruction or tutorial for players to build off may limit creative behavior</td><td align="left">Too many quests at once may be overwhelming; May complete some quests without actively thinking about solutions limiting practice with cognitive creativity skills</td></tr><tr><td align="left">Social and Multiplayer</td><td align="left">Can play with friends or on a large multiplayer server, has lots of dedicated videos and forums online</td><td align="left">Multiplayer with up to 4 friends all in the same party; NPC characters with depth to simulate social interaction; Approval and dating mechanics for NPCs; Popular game with large online community</td><td align="left">Can receive inspiration from other players on how the game can be utilized; playing with others can encourage creative behavior</td><td align="left">Collaboration and motivation from playing with friends; NPC characters and character relationships act as motivators to engage more deeply with the game; All impacting creative behavior</td><td align="left">Builds that may look cool or creative could just be copies of what others posted online limiting actual creative behavior and engagement with cognitive creativity skills</td><td align="left">Online guides make it hard to identify creative behavior; One player may dominate the decision process in multiplayer games preventing others from thinking about creativity</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>Experiments that control across multiple components to look at both individual and cumulative effects will take time and effort but are necessary to understand and predict how games affect creativity enhancement, measurement, and our understanding of the creative process through creative behaviors that occur in‐game, as well as broader creative cognition skills. Differences could be based on content within a game, genre, graphical quality and artistic style, mechanics for navigation and game actions, clarity of instructions and established goals, reward systems, and the social atmosphere of the game through multiplayer and NPC interaction. Across all games, impacts on cognitive function, sense of agency, and learning suggest video games have a strong potential to train creativity.</p> <p>It is worth noting the limitations of the claims throughout this paper regarding specific ways different video game components could impact creative outcomes. Due to the lack of research surrounding the topic of video games and creativity, it is not possible to make these claims with absolute certainty. It should be noted that this paper is theoretical in nature, and utilizes related research and the authors' expertise and experience with video games and creativity research when necessary. Future research is needed to further validate exactly how this video game taxonomy interacts with creativity.</p> <p>Video game components can be critical for creativity research but can also be applied to all video game research and outcomes. Without being conscientious of the idiosyncrasies in video games, researchers will not know the true role digital media plays in shaping creative outcomes and processes, particularly media as complex, engaging, and highly interactive as video games. We hope the taxonomy described here can act as a guiding foundation for future research on video games' impact on the different facets of creativity and the types of creative artifacts that can be generated within video games. This taxonomy can also be a point of inspiration for researchers to consider the particularities within other forms of digital media and how they intersect with individual differences in creative behavior and the creative process. Video games as a form of digital media are changing the world of creativity and how we can conceptualize it, and being able to harness the multiple directions a game can take players will undoubtedly be necessary for researchers to keep pace with the rapid rate at which digital media is transforming our world.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-27">ACKNOWLEDGMENTS</hd> <p>There are no additional acknowledgments.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-28">CONFLICT OF INTEREST</hd> <p>We have no conflicts of interest to report.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-29">FUNDING</hd> <p>There was no funding to report for this paper.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-30">ETHICS</hd> <p>No human subjects were used in this paper.</p> <hd id="AN0187843386-31">DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT</hd> <p>Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.</p> <ref id="AN0187843386-32"> <title> REFERENCES </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref120" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Acar, S., Runco, M.A., & Park, H. 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Header DbId: eric
DbLabel: ERIC
An: EJ1483006
AccessLevel: 3
PubType: Academic Journal
PubTypeId: academicJournal
PreciseRelevancyScore: 0
IllustrationInfo
Items – Name: Title
  Label: Title
  Group: Ti
  Data: Not All Games Play the Same: Specifying How Components of Video Games May Be Associated with Creativity
– Name: Language
  Label: Language
  Group: Lang
  Data: English
– Name: Author
  Label: Authors
  Group: Au
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Darian+Stapleton%22">Darian Stapleton</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1721-7663">0000-0003-1721-7663</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Thalia+R%2E+Goldstein%22">Thalia R. Goldstein</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3892-0852">0000-0002-3892-0852</externalLink>)
– Name: TitleSource
  Label: Source
  Group: Src
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Journal+of+Creative+Behavior%22"><i>Journal of Creative Behavior</i></searchLink>. 2025 59(3).
– Name: Avail
  Label: Availability
  Group: Avail
  Data: Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
– Name: PeerReviewed
  Label: Peer Reviewed
  Group: SrcInfo
  Data: Y
– Name: Pages
  Label: Page Count
  Group: Src
  Data: 22
– Name: DatePubCY
  Label: Publication Date
  Group: Date
  Data: 2025
– Name: TypeDocument
  Label: Document Type
  Group: TypDoc
  Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research
– Name: Subject
  Label: Descriptors
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Video+Games%22">Video Games</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Creativity%22">Creativity</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Problem+Solving%22">Problem Solving</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Play%22">Play</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Cognitive+Processes%22">Cognitive Processes</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Fantasy%22">Fantasy</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Computer+Simulation%22">Computer Simulation</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Visual+Aids%22">Visual Aids</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Aesthetics%22">Aesthetics</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Creative+Thinking%22">Creative Thinking</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Interaction%22">Interaction</searchLink>
– Name: DOI
  Label: DOI
  Group: ID
  Data: 10.1002/jocb.1522
– Name: ISSN
  Label: ISSN
  Group: ISSN
  Data: 0022-0175<br />2162-6057
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
  Group: Ab
  Data: Understanding the impacts of digital media such as video games is critical for scholarship during the digital transformation. While the literature on the effects of video games continues to grow, there is little work on positive effects, including creativity, either as an outcome from or process within games. Video games are a media type that often requires creative problem-solving and multiple idea generation. Importantly, adequately theorizing, measuring, and assessing creativity as both an action within video games and a possible outcome of engaging with video games necessitates a detailed understanding of what video games are. Here we propose and outline a taxonomy of the various components within video games that could impact different aspects of creativity interventions and creative processes. We then break down those components, including genre, graphics, mechanics, instructions, incentive systems, and multiplayer functionality. We apply this taxonomy briefly in several games, and "Minecraft" and "Baldur's Gate 3" are used in more depth to show how researchers can apply our proposed framework. Knowing which video game components affect which creativity outcomes can clarify our understanding of creativity and the creative process in a digital world, and identify how gameplay itself can be a creative artifact.
– Name: AbstractInfo
  Label: Abstractor
  Group: Ab
  Data: As Provided
– Name: DateEntry
  Label: Entry Date
  Group: Date
  Data: 2025
– Name: AN
  Label: Accession Number
  Group: ID
  Data: EJ1483006
PLink https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=eric&AN=EJ1483006
RecordInfo BibRecord:
  BibEntity:
    Identifiers:
      – Type: doi
        Value: 10.1002/jocb.1522
    Languages:
      – Text: English
    PhysicalDescription:
      Pagination:
        PageCount: 22
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Video Games
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Creativity
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Problem Solving
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Play
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Cognitive Processes
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Fantasy
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Computer Simulation
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Visual Aids
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Aesthetics
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Creative Thinking
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Interaction
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: Not All Games Play the Same: Specifying How Components of Video Games May Be Associated with Creativity
        Type: main
  BibRelationships:
    HasContributorRelationships:
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Darian Stapleton
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Thalia R. Goldstein
    IsPartOfRelationships:
      – BibEntity:
          Dates:
            – D: 01
              M: 09
              Type: published
              Y: 2025
          Identifiers:
            – Type: issn-print
              Value: 0022-0175
            – Type: issn-electronic
              Value: 2162-6057
          Numbering:
            – Type: volume
              Value: 59
            – Type: issue
              Value: 3
          Titles:
            – TitleFull: Journal of Creative Behavior
              Type: main
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