The Main Quest: Promoting Digital Wellness

Note: This blog article is for information only and is not for use for diagnosis or treatment. Reading this blog does not establish a professional relationship.

I have been studying gaming as a researcher for many years, working with my colleagues across the globe to answer questions about risks and resilience factors related to Internet gaming and mental health. My journey into studying gaming starts in a place you might think — I have personally enjoyed gaming for years. Back in 2013, when Internet Gaming Disorder was introduced as a condition for further study for the United States’ primary resource for psychological diagnosis (the DSM-5), a part of my “gaming self” was alarmed. The culture of gaming can be a rich, psychosocially rewarding, connective place, and stigma about who gamers are and what they are doing was, and still is, pervasive. I considered a crusade against the diagnosis — but before I could, I looked a little deeper. In fact, I dedicated my graduate studies to the cross section between Internet gaming and mental health. When I shared my area of interest people frequently shared anecdotes about their college roommate, their sibling, or a friend who was so engrossed in the online world that they lost their job, their place in school, or myriad other things that make life rich. The research pointed out that most people who play internet games are not addicted and this is still true, with the best prevalence estimates around 2% worldwide. However, for the small amount of people who identify as addicted gamers, few resources were available. Even fewer resources were available that were specifically made for gamers by people who understood the community.

The World Health Organization officially recognized Gaming Disorder in the most recent diagnostic categorization (ICD-11). The signature features are, put simply: impaired control, increased prioritization of gaming over other tasks, and continuation of gaming despite negative consequences. Even more straightforwardly, imagine a gamer who says, “I want to stop but I can’t; everything else has to come second; and this is ruining my life.” As you can see, these criteria don’t apply over just a day of binge-gaming with friends. High engagement (e.g., playing a lot of hours per week) and addiction have some overlap, but they are not the same. If a person is displaying problematic patterns and missing out on important life events for over a year, then it is possible that their gaming is disordered.

Thus, I took on a quest with a purpose: Create a place for our community of gamers when the risks start outweighing the benefits.

This quest led to the creation of OpenWorld, an organization aimed at providing mental health services to gamers and consultation for gaming companies. I also hope to offer this blog as a way to start discussion about internet gaming risks and resilience factors.

It is important to remember that games can facilitate wellbeing, including increasing a sense of community, a place to explore motivation and prosocial experiences, an outlet for creativity and imagination, and an occupational choice in the modern world. Gamers coming together can help harness these strengths, find alternatives when needed, and find ways to address unmet needs in day-to-day life that might leave people finding fulfillment in games instead.

References and Further Reading

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 5th edition: DSM-5. American Psychiatric Publishing.

Beard, C. L., & Wickham, R. E. (2016). Gaming-contingent self-worth, gaming motivation, and Internet Gaming Disorder. Computers in Human Behavior, 61, 507–515. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2016.03.046

Brack, G., Lassiter, P. S., Kitzinger, R., Hill, M., McMahon, G., & Fall, K. A. (2013). Individual Psychology on the Virtual Frontier : Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Gaming. The Journal of Individual Psychology, 69(1), 24–40.

Charlton, J. P., & Danforth, I. D. W. (2007). Distinguishing addiction and high engagement in the context of online game playing. Computers in Human Behavior, 23(3), 1531–1548. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2005.07.002

Fauth-Bühler, M., & Mann, K. (2017). Neurobiological correlates of internet gaming disorder: Similarities to pathological gambling. Addictive Behaviors, 64(November), 349–356. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2015.11.004

Higuchi, S., Nakayama, H., Matsuzaki, T., Mihara, S., & Kitayuguchi, T. (2021). Application of the eleventh revision of the International Classification of Diseases gaming disorder criteria to treatment-seeking patients: Comparison with the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Internet gaming disorder criteria. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 10(1), 149–158.

Király, O., & Demetrovics, Z. (2017). Inclusion of Gaming Disorder in ICD has more advantages than disadvantages: Commentary on: Scholars’ open debate paper on the World Health Organization ICD-11 Gaming Disorder proposal (Aarseth et al.). Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 6(3), 280–284.

Stevens, M. W., Dorstyn, D., Delfabbro, P. H., & King, D. L. (2020). Global prevalence of gaming disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 0004867420962851.