ABSTRACT

The concept of video game addiction has become a worldwide phenomenon. Playing video games and becoming immersed has some similarities to the concept of flow, but also important and distinct differences. Utilizing an inductive reasoning or bottom-up approach, built upon clinical observation, case studies, ethnographic approaches, and video gamer culture would provide more compelling evidence of the ideology of Gaming Disorder. Reclassifying video gamers into the arena of immersed over addicted can provide a change to the clinical application of video games in a therapeutic context. The concept of playing video games has become so rampant in the news media that it has spurred parental groups and some researchers to propose the link of video gaming to problematic behavior, violence, social isolation, and academic dysfunction. The lack of any phenomenological data on video gamers and the culture portrayed within the diagnostic category constitutes a real concern for researchers and clinicians.