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Effects of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Studio Ghibli Films on Young People’s Sense of Exploration, Calm, Mastery and Skill, Purpose and Meaning, and Overall Happiness in Life: Exploratory Randomized Controlled Study

Background: Young people feel increasingly anxious and sad nowadays. Engaging with works of art and entertainment, such as playing open-world games or watching Studio Ghibli films, can be more than just a pastime. However, the extent to which, if at all, open-world games and feelings of nostalgia affect overall happiness in life remains unclear.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the extent to which open-world games, such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and nostalgia evoked by Studio Ghibli films, such as Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro or Kiki’s Delivery Service, affect postgraduate students’ sense of exploration, calm, mastery and skill, purpose and meaning, and, ultimately, happiness in life.

Methods: A controlled laboratory experiment was conducted using a 2 (playing an open-world game vs no open-world game) × 2 (nostalgia vs no nostalgia) between-subject design. Study participants (N=518) were randomly assigned to the study’s 4 conditions and answered a brief questionnaire, examining their sense of exploration, calm, mastery and skill, purpose and meaning, and, ultimately, happiness in life. As part of the study, we conducted univariate analysis and bootstrapping-based moderated mediation analysis with 5,000 resamples.

Falling water forms beautiful fluted films

When water drains from the bottom of a vertical tube, it is followed by a thin film of liquid that can adopt complex and beautiful shapes. KAUST researchers have now studied exactly how these “fluted films” form and break up, developing a mathematical model of their behavior that could help improve the performance, safety, and efficiency of industrial processes.

Cost-effective method developed for high-entropy alloy film production

A collaborative research team has developed a novel method for forming high-performance high-entropy alloy (HEA) films on various surfaces without using expensive alloy targets. This was achieved using a proprietary rotating target composed of multiple pure metal segments and pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technology.

This method uniquely enables not only the deposition of metal atoms onto the substrate surface through laser irradiation but also their implantation into the subsurface, forming robust films that integrate with the substrate material.

Traditionally, producing HEA requires expensive pre-made alloy targets. In contrast, the new method uses inexpensive pure metals, significantly reducing costs. The team also demonstrated precise control of film thickness and depth by adjusting the pressure during deposition.

How Zelda and Studio Ghibli inspire happiness and purpose

A new study published in JMIR Serious Games reveals that playing the open-world video game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and watching Studio Ghibli films can significantly improve young people’s overall happiness and sense of purpose in life.

Led by researchers from Imperial College London, Kyushu Sangyo University, and Georgia State University, the exploratory randomized controlled study, titled “Effects of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Studio Ghibli Films on Young People’s Sense of Exploration, Calm, Mastery and Skill, Purpose and Meaning, and Overall Happiness in Life: Exploratory Randomized Controlled Study,” involved 518 postgraduate students.

Participants were randomly assigned to either play Zelda or not and to either watch nostalgic Studio Ghibli films like My Neighbor Totoro or Kiki’s Delivery Service or not. Researchers then measured feelings of exploration, calm, skill mastery, purpose, and life happiness.

MXene as a frame for 2D water films shows new properties

Water still has unknown sides. When water is forced into two dimensions by enclosing it in appropriate materials, new properties, phase transitions, and structures emerge. MXenes as a class of materials offer a unique platform for exploring these types of phenomena. MXenes consist of transition metal carbides and nitrides with a layered structure whose surfaces can help them absorb water easily. The water forms an extremely thin film between the individual layers.

A team led by Dr. Tristan Petit, HZB, and Yury Gogotsi, Drexel University, has investigated a series of MXene samples containing enclosed water and different ions at BESSY II using various analytical methods. The work is published in the journal Nature Communications.

X-ray revealed the formation of amorphous ice clusters in the enclosed water, which increases the distance between the MXene layers. The previously metallic MXene film then becomes a semiconductor.

Ultrathin metallic films show tunable, directional charge flow using light at room temperature

In a major step toward next-generation electronics, researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have discovered a way to manipulate the direction of charge flow in ultrathin metallic films at room temperature using light. This discovery opens the door to more energy-efficient optical sensors, detectors, and quantum information devices.

The research is published in Science Advances.

The team showed that ultra-thin layers of ruthenium dioxide (RuO2), grown on (TiO2), can be made to behave differently depending on direction—both in how they respond to light and how electricity moves through them.

Game developers association decries ‘financial censorship’ amidst payment processor crackdown on NSFW games, calls for ‘greater transparency and fairness in how adult games are moderated’

The IGDA says the problem isn’t the rules themselves, but their “vague” enforcement.

AI can evolve to feel guilt—but only in certain social environments

Guilt is a highly advantageous quality for society as a whole. It might not prevent initial wrongdoings, but guilt allows humans to judge their own prior judgments as harmful and prevents them from happening again. The internal distress caused by feelings of guilt often—but not always—results in the person taking on some kind of penance to relieve themselves from internal turmoil. This might be something as simple as admitting their wrongdoing to others and taking on a slight stigma of someone who is morally corrupt. This upfront cost might be initially painful, but can relieve further guilt and lead to better cooperation for the group in the future.

As we interact more and more with and use it in almost every aspect of our modern society, finding ways to instill ethical decision-making becomes more critical. In a recent study, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, researchers used to explore how and when guilt evolves in multi-agent systems.

The researchers used the “prisoners’ dilemma”—a game where two players must choose between cooperating and defecting. Defecting provides an agent with a higher payoff, but they must betray their partner. This, in turn, makes it more likely that the partner will also defect. However, if the game is repeated over and over, results in a better payoff for both agents.

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