Games have been around for as long as humanity, however, we only came to realize the effects of recreation on humans with the increase in popularity of video games. While they are ‘all fun and games’, there are also people who suffer from gaming too much. But what is ‘too much’? Is there a thin line between gaming happily and suffering from fun?
Games have been around for as long as humanity, however, we only came to realize the effects of recreation on humans with the increase in popularity of video games. While they are ‘all fun and games’, there are also people who suffer from gaming too much. But what is ‘too much’? Is there a thin line between gaming happily and suffering from fun?
Photo by Pika Ivana Kostanjšek
Photo by Pika Ivana Kostanjšek
World of Warcraft. I believe there is hardly any other game out there that is more widely known; everyone has either played the game before or has friends that have played it. The game developer, Activision Blizzard, reported in 2015 that there were 5.5 million global subscribers (Clement, 2016). With such a large player base, it is natural that there are a lot of people that play the game for various reasons; some play to relax and some play competitively. When asked about their motives for playing a game, 690 World of Warcraft players’ answers varied greatly, with answers such as: immersion, socialization and achievement (Billeux, 2013). However, there is also a lot of stigma around gaming. A report made by Pryzbylski (2014) states that across three demographically different cohorts, as the age of responders increased, so did the number of individuals that did not have any video game experience and that considered video games as violent. As this is also a prominent view in society, a question arises: Is there a way for gaming to provide solace, in a way that is completely free from the problematic effects that are in the concern of society?
We first have to understand that something being escapist does not inherently need to be bad. The APA Dictionary defines escapism as ‘the tendency to escape from the real world to the delight and security of a fantasy world’ (APA, n.d.), which is a very neutral description for a word that also includes people who enter a negative feedback loop and cannot go back to reality to face their problems. Moreover, a review by Kosa & Uysal (2020) argues that even though games can be inherently escapist, there should be a healthy amount of escapism that actually helps gamers go through life’s challenges. They identify four pillars of ‘healthy escapism’: emotional regulation, mood management, coping and recovery. According to this framework, given the fact that there are no problems with emotional regulation and addictive tendencies, individuals are able to find comfort by seeking shelter in an alternate universe.
Especially important in these pillars is coping, as it is integral to the process of finding solace. Iacovides & Mekler (2019) analyzed the results of an online survey about gaming during difficult stages in life. They performed a thematic analysis of the answers, and the decided overarching themes for the role of gaming in difficult stages of life were respite, connections, feelings, personal change and growth, gaming as a lifeline and gaming as an obstacle in life. With these themes in place with personal reports, it can be argued that gaming offers some much-needed comfort when life becomes difficult.
“Given the fact that there are no problems with emotional regulation and addictive tendencies, individuals are able to find comfort by seeking shelter in an alternate universe. ”
Especially important in these pillars is coping, as it is integral to the process of finding solace. Iacovides & Mekler (2019) analyzed the results of an online survey about gaming during difficult stages in life. They performed a thematic analysis of the answers, and the decided overarching themes for the role of gaming in difficult stages of life were respite, connections, feelings, personal change and growth, gaming as a lifeline and gaming as an obstacle in life. With these themes in place with personal reports, it can be argued that gaming offers some much-needed comfort when life becomes difficult.
However, there is a very thin line between seeking comfort and being problematically attached to games, which connects to one of the main themes being ‘gaming as an obstacle’. As video games are designed to keep you entertained and to come back to play again, it is highly likely that standard gaming behavior can turn problematic quickly. Research by Koepp et al. (1998) suggests that video games promote striatal dopamine release. Keeping in mind how addictive behavior is theorized to be associated with dopamine, this release can promote more video game play. Their study, while it provides a lot of personal anecdotes from participants, who report that gaming can ‘pull them from finding social interaction and seeking support’, however, does not report any common characteristics between the participants that have commented this way. Di Blasi et al. (2019) shine a light on this by analyzing 390 World of Warcraft players on their emotional regulation, escapist motives and problematic gaming behavior. By assessing emotional regulation performance, they hypothesized that they could successfully determine escapist tendencies and subsequently report problematic gaming behavior. Analyzing the results of multiple questionnaires, they found that players with worse emotional regulation had higher escapist motives and identified with items highly linked with problematic gaming behavior. With such an analysis, it becomes apparent that personal disposition can quickly change whether something brings solace or encourages problematic behaviour.
Now, as a person that plays games in his free time as well, I don’t want to end this on a bad note. Following up on emotional regulation, it was found that personality is another detriment to this. As found by aforementioned studies, most problematic gaming behavior arises from personality disposition, and there are articles that find problematic gaming behavior to share a lot with higher scores in neuroticism and lower scores in extraversion and openness to experience in the Big 5 Scale (Dieris-Hirche et al., 2020). Along with emotional regulation, this solidifies common behaviors that are observed in problematic gamers. Maybe this could be an area of research in the future, whether we will be able to detect the probability of developing problematic gaming habits through gaming behavior.
All in all, gaming, while it may make you throw your controller in rage, is still a way to find solace in hard times. And I remain positive that taking some time for yourself, whether in a fantasy world or not, is a sure way to find comfort.
References
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APA. (n.d.). APA Dictionary of Psychology. American Psychological Association. Retrieved November 3, 2022, from https://dictionary.apa.org/escapism
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Billieux, J., Van der Linden, M., Achab, S., Khazaal, Y., Paraskevopoulos, L., Zullino, D., & Thorens, G. (2013). Why do you play World of Warcraft? An in-depth exploration of self-reported motivations to play online and in-game behaviours in the virtual world of Azeroth. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(1), 103–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.07.021
-
Clement, J. (2016). WOW player count 2015-2023. Statista. Retrieved November 3, 2022, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/276601/number-of-world-of-warcraft-subscribers-by-quarter/
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Dieris-Hirche, J., Pape, M., te Wildt, B. T., Kehyayan, A., Esch, M., Aicha, S., Herpertz, S., & Bottel, L. (2020). Problematic gaming behavior and the personality traits of video gamers: A cross-sectional survey. Computers in Human Behavior, 106, 106272. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106272
-
Iacovides, I., & Mekler, E. D. (2019). The role of gaming during difficult life experiences. Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300453
-
Koepp, M. J., Gunn, R. N., Lawrence, A. D., Cunningham, V. J., Dagher, A., Jones, T., Brooks, D. J., Bench, C. J., & Grasby, P. M. (1998). Evidence for striatal dopamine release during a video game. Nature, 393(6682), 266–268. https://doi.org/10.1038/30498
-
Kosa, M., & Uysal, A. (2020). Four pillars of healthy escapism in games: Emotion Regulation, mood management, coping, and recovery. Game User Experience And Player-Centered Design, 63–76. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37643-7_4
-
Przybylski, A. K. (2014). Who believes electronic games cause real world aggression? Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 17(4), 228–234. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2013.0245
World of Warcraft. I believe there is hardly any other game out there that is more widely known; everyone has either played the game before or has friends that have played it. The game developer, Activision Blizzard, reported in 2015 that there were 5.5 million global subscribers (Clement, 2016). With such a large player base, it is natural that there are a lot of people that play the game for various reasons; some play to relax and some play competitively. When asked about their motives for playing a game, 690 World of Warcraft players’ answers varied greatly, with answers such as: immersion, socialization and achievement (Billeux, 2013). However, there is also a lot of stigma around gaming. A report made by Pryzbylski (2014) states that across three demographically different cohorts, as the age of responders increased, so did the number of individuals that did not have any video game experience and that considered video games as violent. As this is also a prominent view in society, a question arises: Is there a way for gaming to provide solace, in a way that is completely free from the problematic effects that are in the concern of society?
We first have to understand that something being escapist does not inherently need to be bad. The APA Dictionary defines escapism as ‘the tendency to escape from the real world to the delight and security of a fantasy world’ (APA, n.d.), which is a very neutral description for a word that also includes people who enter a negative feedback loop and cannot go back to reality to face their problems. Moreover, a review by Kosa & Uysal (2020) argues that even though games can be inherently escapist, there should be a healthy amount of escapism that actually helps gamers go through life’s challenges. They identify four pillars of ‘healthy escapism’: emotional regulation, mood management, coping and recovery. According to this framework, given the fact that there are no problems with emotional regulation and addictive tendencies, individuals are able to find comfort by seeking shelter in an alternate universe.
Especially important in these pillars is coping, as it is integral to the process of finding solace. Iacovides & Mekler (2019) analyzed the results of an online survey about gaming during difficult stages in life. They performed a thematic analysis of the answers, and the decided overarching themes for the role of gaming in difficult stages of life were respite, connections, feelings, personal change and growth, gaming as a lifeline and gaming as an obstacle in life. With these themes in place with personal reports, it can be argued that gaming offers some much-needed comfort when life becomes difficult.
“Given the fact that there are no problems with emotional regulation and addictive tendencies, individuals are able to find comfort by seeking shelter in an alternate universe. ”
Especially important in these pillars is coping, as it is integral to the process of finding solace. Iacovides & Mekler (2019) analyzed the results of an online survey about gaming during difficult stages in life. They performed a thematic analysis of the answers, and the decided overarching themes for the role of gaming in difficult stages of life were respite, connections, feelings, personal change and growth, gaming as a lifeline and gaming as an obstacle in life. With these themes in place with personal reports, it can be argued that gaming offers some much-needed comfort when life becomes difficult.
However, there is a very thin line between seeking comfort and being problematically attached to games, which connects to one of the main themes being ‘gaming as an obstacle’. As video games are designed to keep you entertained and to come back to play again, it is highly likely that standard gaming behavior can turn problematic quickly. Research by Koepp et al. (1998) suggests that video games promote striatal dopamine release. Keeping in mind how addictive behavior is theorized to be associated with dopamine, this release can promote more video game play. Their study, while it provides a lot of personal anecdotes from participants, who report that gaming can ‘pull them from finding social interaction and seeking support’, however, does not report any common characteristics between the participants that have commented this way. Di Blasi et al. (2019) shine a light on this by analyzing 390 World of Warcraft players on their emotional regulation, escapist motives and problematic gaming behavior. By assessing emotional regulation performance, they hypothesized that they could successfully determine escapist tendencies and subsequently report problematic gaming behavior. Analyzing the results of multiple questionnaires, they found that players with worse emotional regulation had higher escapist motives and identified with items highly linked with problematic gaming behavior. With such an analysis, it becomes apparent that personal disposition can quickly change whether something brings solace or encourages problematic behaviour.
Now, as a person that plays games in his free time as well, I don’t want to end this on a bad note. Following up on emotional regulation, it was found that personality is another detriment to this. As found by aforementioned studies, most problematic gaming behavior arises from personality disposition, and there are articles that find problematic gaming behavior to share a lot with higher scores in neuroticism and lower scores in extraversion and openness to experience in the Big 5 Scale (Dieris-Hirche et al., 2020). Along with emotional regulation, this solidifies common behaviors that are observed in problematic gamers. Maybe this could be an area of research in the future, whether we will be able to detect the probability of developing problematic gaming habits through gaming behavior.
All in all, gaming, while it may make you throw your controller in rage, is still a way to find solace in hard times. And I remain positive that taking some time for yourself, whether in a fantasy world or not, is a sure way to find comfort.
References
-
APA. (n.d.). APA Dictionary of Psychology. American Psychological Association. Retrieved November 3, 2022, from https://dictionary.apa.org/escapism
-
Billieux, J., Van der Linden, M., Achab, S., Khazaal, Y., Paraskevopoulos, L., Zullino, D., & Thorens, G. (2013). Why do you play World of Warcraft? An in-depth exploration of self-reported motivations to play online and in-game behaviours in the virtual world of Azeroth. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(1), 103–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.07.021
-
Clement, J. (2016). WOW player count 2015-2023. Statista. Retrieved November 3, 2022, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/276601/number-of-world-of-warcraft-subscribers-by-quarter/
-
Dieris-Hirche, J., Pape, M., te Wildt, B. T., Kehyayan, A., Esch, M., Aicha, S., Herpertz, S., & Bottel, L. (2020). Problematic gaming behavior and the personality traits of video gamers: A cross-sectional survey. Computers in Human Behavior, 106, 106272. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106272
-
Iacovides, I., & Mekler, E. D. (2019). The role of gaming during difficult life experiences. Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300453
-
Koepp, M. J., Gunn, R. N., Lawrence, A. D., Cunningham, V. J., Dagher, A., Jones, T., Brooks, D. J., Bench, C. J., & Grasby, P. M. (1998). Evidence for striatal dopamine release during a video game. Nature, 393(6682), 266–268. https://doi.org/10.1038/30498
-
Kosa, M., & Uysal, A. (2020). Four pillars of healthy escapism in games: Emotion Regulation, mood management, coping, and recovery. Game User Experience And Player-Centered Design, 63–76. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37643-7_4
-
Przybylski, A. K. (2014). Who believes electronic games cause real world aggression? Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 17(4), 228–234. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2013.0245
