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As the popularity of video games has risen so too has the worry about the problems associated with playing them. The authors review the research concerning problem gaming, its similarity to some clinical addictions like gambling and drug and alcohol abuse, and current treatment options. They conclude that, regardless of how researchers and medical professionals assess the nature of a gaming disorder, few who play video games experience negative consequences from doing so and, at best, only a small subset of players might be considered to suffer from an addiction to it. Keywords: addiction; internet gaming disorder; problem gaming; video games
The Rise of Video Games
Video games are now one of the dominant forms of entertainment in the modern world. According to recent estimates, over 1.2 billion individuals play video games worldwide, and over 150 million of these individuals live in the United States. These game players represent a wide variety of demographic categories. For instance, although the common stereotype depicts video gamers as young males exclusively, in fact 44 percent of gamers are female, and 27 percent are older than fifty (Entertainment Software Association 2015). Yet indisputably, video games are disproportionately popular among younger individuals. Ninety percent of teens play video games; boys aged eight to eighteen play an average of sixteen hours a week, and girls the same age average nine hours per week (Gentile et al. 2009).
As the popularity of video games has risen, so too has the amount of scientific research dedicated to investigating the effects of video game play. Researchers have explored the effects of video games from the perspective of essentially every subspecialty within psychology-including cognitive psychology, social psychology, developmental psychology, and clinical psychology. Perhaps not surprisingly given this breadth of research, the findings are complex, with the positives and negatives varying depending on the type of video game under investigation and the type of questions asked.
For instance, the majority of studies in cognitive psychology have found a positive relationship between playing a particular type of video game-action video games-and perceptual and cognitive abilities. The benefits associated with action video game play include everything from faster response times to improved vision to greater ease switching among tasks. Critically, these outcomes are not seen as a...