Participants in a study played Cities: Skylines on Steam to test their complex problem-solving abilities.
What is this study about? Ulrike Kipman, a professor of educational sciences, wanted to investigate the relationship between personality and depressive disorders and complex problem-solving abilities (via gamesradar+).
To see these abilities in action, study participants were to play the city simulation Cities: Skylines. In the game by the Finnish development studio Colossal Order, the goal is to build a functioning metropolis as efficiently as possible.
Players are responsible for everything from infrastructure and taxes to the health and satisfaction of the residents. The game was chosen because it “continuously confronts players with new challenges that need to be overcome.”
Study participants were 242 individuals aged between 17 and 48 with 9 different personality disorders.
Individuals with more pronounced disorders struggle more
What were the findings of the study? The study indicates that participants with more pronounced disorders were less successful in playing Cities: Skylines and thus in solving complex problems. The personality traits that most significantly impacted player success were:
- schizotypal traits, characterized by social withdrawal
- histrionic traits, meaning tendencies towards melodrama
- depressive traits, including feelings of persistent sadness and loss of interest
Additionally, individuals with paranoid and dependent personality traits found the game more challenging, although the correlation was less pronounced. Conversely, traits such as resilience, action orientation, and design motivation had a positive effect.
Kipman is convinced of the usefulness of video games in research:
[The study shows] that we can best measure complex problem-solving abilities with simulation games and not with short tests.
Ulrike Kipman via psypost
If you want to prove your own problem-solving abilities, you can find Cities: Skylines, and you can get the city builder for PC or console. Highly recommended – and even mentioned in the study – is the Steam version, as the workshop offers countless additional buildings and content.
If you want to know how Cities: Skylines meets the parameters of a microworld according to Brehmer and Dörner and how it satisfies Funke’s standards of complex problems, you can read the entire study in English at Frontiers in Psychology.
The Swedish publisher Paradox Interactive is known for simulation and strategy games like Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, and Victoria. With their next title, they are tackling a life simulation in the vein of The Sims: without violence, but with nudity, as is customary in Europe:
New game on Steam will be Sims for adults – But with nudity, because it comes from Europe
