Time spent playing video games has no effect on people's wellbeing, a study from the University of Oxford has found, countering fears that gaming could be harmful to mental health. Unlike the vast majority of previous studies on the effect of video games on wellbeing, the Oxford team were able to track actual gameplay, rather than relying on self-reported estimates. With the cooperation of seven different game publishers, who agreed to share data without control over publication, they were able to track the gameplay habits of almost 40,000 individual gamers, all of whom consented to join the study. The scale of the study provided strong evidence for the lack of an effect on wellbeing, said Andy Przybylski, one of the researchers. "With 40,000 observations across six weeks, we really gave increases and decreases in video game play a fair chance to predict emotional states in life satisfaction, and we didn't find evidence for that – we found evidence that that's not true in a practically significant way."

This paper presents a new anytime incremental search algorithm, AD*-Cut. AD*-Cut is based on two algorithms, namely, Anytime Repairing A* (ARA*) and the novel incremental search algorithm, D* Extra Lite. D* Extra Lite reinitializes (cuts) entire search-tree branches that have been affected by changes in an environment, and D* Extra Lite appears to be quicker than the reinitialization during the search utilized by the popular incremental search algorithm, D* Lite. The search-tree branch cutting is a simple and robust technique that can be easily applied to ARA*. Consequently, AD*-Cut extends D* Extra Lite in the same manner, as the state-of-the-art Anytime D* (AD*) algorithm extends D* Lite. The benchmark results suggest that AD*-Cut is quicker and achieves shorter paths than AD* when used for path planning on 3D state-lattices (a 2D position with rotation).

Playing video games could have a positive impact on a person's wellbeing, scientists at the University of Oxford have claimed. Researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute accessed the data of two games, Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, in order to investigate the relationship between game play behaviour and mental health. The scientists, who worked with Electronic Arts and Nintendo of America, found that players experiencing genuine enjoyment from the games saw an improvement in their mental health. Professor Andrew Przybylski, lead author of the study and director of research at the Oxford Internet Institute, said the findings show'video games aren't necessarily bad for your health' and there are other psychological factors which have a significant effect on a person's wellbeing. Scientists at the University of Oxford found that the players experiencing genuine enjoyment from the games experienced a more positive wellbeing.

There is no strong evidence to support fears that screen time is inherently bad for children, experts have warned, adding that the recognition of so-called gaming disorder by the World Health Organisation is premature. Time spent using devices ranging from computers to smartphones and televisions has been the subject of debate after the UK's culture secretary Matt Hancock called for parents to set boundaries for their children on the use of tech. "Unlimited and unsupervised access to smartphones can be a portal to some very serious risks. And the chief medical officer has highlighted growing concerns around the impact on children's mental health. This backs up every parent's instinct; that children must be protected," he said.

Hours of screen time can be good for teenagers' brains, according to new research from the University of Oxford. The study insists many parents may be too concerned about computers harming their children. In fact, they calculated the'sweet spot' at which point young people get the most out of online activity: 257 minutes. According to their calculations, four hours and 17 minutes is the Goldilocks number, providing enough time to develop social connections and skills. It is only after that point that devices could begin to cripple teenage brains.