🎮 Early bird rates end soon! Register to attend the Gaming the Mind Conference 2026, exploring the evolving relationship between video games, mental health, research, & game development. 📍 Royal College of Psychiatrists 📅 2 November 2026 🌍 Hybrid format; join us online!

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

"Your town will never outright collapse": How Croakwood captures the challenge of a townbuilder like Anno but avoids the stress and pressure

Townbuilders like Anno and Settlers series often scale into stress and pressure pots, cosy city builder Croakwood captures that complexity without the pressure

rockpapershotgun.com

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

Final Fantasy 14 devs looked to the MMO's best expansion to design the Arcadion series after feeling like "ensuring player comfort and stress reduction" limited creativity

Heavensward, beloved by fans and Square Enix alike

gamesradar.com

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

Visual novel Coffee Talk Tokyo serves up an image of 'Cool Japan,' but not much more

How VN sequel Coffee Talk Tokyo transplants itself to Japan - but fails to truly engage with the culture, or societal issues, of its new home.

rockpapershotgun.com

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

Review: Constance (Switch) - A Beautiful Metroidvania With Something To Say

Constance craving

nintendolife.com

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

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

Esports: The Science Behind the Thrill - Science View | NHK WORLD-JAPAN

Esports has evolved into a global phenomenon. Explore the science behind the excitement, from top players' skills to its potential for healthy aging.

www3.nhk.or.jp

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

Gaming the Mind@gamingthemind.bsky.social · 3mo ago

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

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

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

UK to ban social media and streaming platforms for under 16-year-olds, as full impact on gaming industry remains unclear

Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok, and more are confirmed on the list, as are streaming platforms.

eurogamer.net

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

The perfect video game exists and it's a $5 Pokémon Snap replacement

Flock around and find out

polygon.com

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

‘Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time’ music gets jazz remix album

Gentle Love have reworked 11 classics for this anniversary collection

nme.com

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

The most relaxing 'Minecraft'-style game soundtracks

The ultimate chill-out jams from your favourite video games

nme.com

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

'Filter of fantasy': Japan trials anime therapy to treat depression | New Straits Times

AS a teenager struggling to fit into life in rural Sicily, psychiatrist Francesco Panto found refuge in anime, where he discovered characters that resembled the kind of man he wanted to be.

nst.com.my

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

Call of Cthulhu's new Scout-themed book made me feel like a kid falling in love with tabletop RPGs again

Campfire Tales, or as I've been calling it, 'Cthulhu versus 11-year-olds', is a delightfully novel take on the top Lovecraft TTRPG.

wargamer.com

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

Tabletop games like D&D act as "drama therapy in the wild" to boost players' self-concepts

Immersing yourself in a tabletop role-playing game could boost your real-world self-esteem. According to a new Transcultural Psychiatry study, building strong, personal bonds with fictional avatars…

psypost.org

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

Zero Parades: For Dead Spies review: "Being built from Disco Elysium's bones is a blessing and a curse for this spy RPG"

As a successor, ZA/UM's spy-fi RPG is a little too fearful to roll the dice on something new

gamesradar.com

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

Not just a fun hobby: Board games can help build connections and reduce stress

Research demonstrates that playing board games helps develop socio-emotional growth, strengthens relationships and helps build community.

theconversation.com

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

The Disco Elysium Studio's New RPG Is Uneven But Absorbing

This follow-up to Disco Elysium is righteously angry at the state of the world, though sometimes its anger gets the better of it

kotaku.com

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

Zero Parades: For Dead Spies blurs the line between betrayal and survival

Disco Elysium studio's new spy RPG is an ode to career screw-ups

polygon.com

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

After five hours with its eagerly awaited early access release, Paralives feels like the opposite of The Sims - and in just the right way

Paralives gets off to a lovely start. We fade up to see the camera tracking a moving train as it winds serenely across …

eurogamer.net

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TTRPGs and Gender Identity

Online surveys is a powerful, easy to use tool for creating online surveys. Run by Jisc, online surveys is used by over 300 different organisations in the UK...

app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk

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

Consume Me review - difficult to finish, in a different kind of way

Jenny Jiao Hsia's dazzling, semi-autobiographical tale of teenage life finds wit and warmth in its WarioWare weirdness, even as it deals with difficult themes.

eurogamer.net