Phenomenological Strands for Gaming Disorder and Esports Play: A Qualitative Registered Report

Abstract

The recent inclusion of gaming disorder in the ICD-11 as a mental disorder has further increased the importance of researching the health spectrum related to gaming. A critical area in this regard is the lack of clarity concerning the differences between gaming disorder and intensive play, the latter of which often involves several gaming hours per day without related health problems. In this study, we approached the above question by interpretive phenomenological analysis with interviews in two groups of highly involved videogame players: those who seek or have sought clinical help for their problems with gaming (n=6), and those who play esports more than 4 hours per day without self-reported related health problems (n=10). The interviews were carried out by using a new Phenomenology of Play (POP) interview frame. These data were contextualized with interviews of medical experts (n=6) who have experience of working with the former group. The findings imply that experiences of disorder derive from gaming interfering with what one wants to be, do, and have throughout life, whereas the experiences of intensive esport play derive from gaming being integrated into self throughout life. To our knowledge, this was the first registered report using qualitative phenomenological methods—we encourage researchers to explore the utility of registered reports with other qualitative methods to further optimize scientific progress.