I'm feeling so great right now. No, I'm not throwing back painkillers and I didn't just inject myself with a syringe filled with goodness, but rather I just got done playing some Resistance online and won a game of deathmatch. Ahh, feels good. In a recent survey, it turns out that games can make you feel good. Well, not exactly shocking results though.

From the article:

A lot of bad things get attributed to video games.

But, as reported in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, a new study at the University of Rochester indicates that games can make you feel good about your accomplishments. In a report published in the December issue of Motivation and Emotion, Professor Richard Ryan and colleagues observed college students as they played older and, presumably, less challenging video games.

Similar to the euphoria from scoring a hole-in-one, or the sense of satisfaction in finishing an important project, Ryan described what keeps gamers gripped to their controllers:

Games either afford people challenges that help them feel competent or give them a sense of freedom maybe that they are not experiencing elsewhere or opportunities to connect with players… Those are a lot of the things that people seek in other avocations, from their hobbies or sports or from other things.

Read the full article over at gamepolitics.com