Abstract
In the eleventh revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), Gaming Disorder (GD) is distinguished between disordered gaming occurring predominantly online, offline, and unspecified. Currently, no study has investigated whether such a distinction is meaningful in diagnosing disordered gaming. Therefore, a large group of gamers with varied tendencies towards disordered gaming was recruited to examine this issue. A large sample (N = 2,768) was recruited and data were collected on disordered gaming, along with information on their preferred gaming mode and device used to play. The present study shows that the distinction between online and offline gaming mode proposed by the WHO is meaningful because online gamers presented with the highest disordered gaming scores followed by mixed gamers (those stating to equally prefer online and offline gaming), and offline gamers. Finally, it was also observed that the type of device for gaming used associated with disordered gaming levels. Specifically, those reporting mostly to use their desktop computer for gaming showed the highest disordered gaming scores. The present study lends empirical support for the consideration of both gaming mode and gaming device in the study of disordered gaming.
Highlights
This study found that even though online and offline gaming were both related to Internet Gaming Disorder’ (IGD), online gaming showed significantly higher associations with IGD than offline gaming (Lemmens & Hendriks, 2016)
The sole perspective of Freemium games goes beyond the scope of this study and was not distinguished from online gaming. With this is in mind, the present study aims to examine the role of internet features within the WHO diagnostic framework for Gaming Disorder (GD) to investigate whether online, offline or mixed gamers differ in terms of their GD symptomatology
Since not all forms of gambling are problematic as online gambling presents with differential addictive potential depending on the medium in which the activity takes place, the present study aimed to investigate whether the device used to play video games would be associated with different patterns of GD
Summary
Video game playing is a popular leisure activity worldwide and an emerging psychosocial phenomenon. Concerns regarding po tential detrimental effects due to excessive and dysregulated gaming engagement leading to disordered gaming have been reported as video game play is a pervasive activity across the entire lifespan (Kircaburun, Pontes, Stavropoulos, & Griffiths, 2020; Pontes, 2018). As previously suggested (Pontes & Griffiths, 2020), the increased scholarly concerns about the potential addictive effects of video games coupled with the emerging body of empirical evidence supporting the clinical relevance of disordered gaming warranted the inclusion of ‘Internet Gaming Disorder’ (IGD) as a tentative mental health disorder within the fifth revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). For a GD diagnosis to be present, the WHO suggests that symptoms must occur within a 12-month timeframe and the gaming behavior must lead to significant impair ments in everyday life, creating difficulties and functional impairments in several areas of life (e.g., professional, academic, family, romantic) (World Health Organization, 2020)
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