Overview

The 80 studies that were published related to participation in role playing games and their effects on participants. Most of these studies have relied solely on meta-research, correlative data, individual case studies, case studies or at best very small sample groups with the few controlled studies of the time, and most did not clearly prove causality.

Since 2004 there has been a rapid growth in research on role-playing games from many different disciplines.

While most of the existing meta and correlative data currently accumulated appears to strongly indicate many possible therapeutic and educational corolaries for participants, there needs to be far more properly controlled studies to help clearly delineated causality through rigorous scientific experimental research, observation, clear metrics, controlled groups, large samples, and longitudinal tracking.

Role-playing gaming overlaps with a number of other domain benefits, specifically recreation, education, therapeutic, and socialization, as illustrated in the Venn diagram below.