ABSTRACT
The research on problematic game use is dominated by some central concepts, such as violence (e.g. Anderson, Gentile, and Buckley, 2007; Weber, Ritterfeld, and Mathiak, 2006) and addiction (e.g. Charlton and Danforth, 2007; Grüsser, Thalemann, and Griffiths, 2007; Lemmens, Valkenburg, and Peter, 2009). The focus of the analysis of the possible dangers of violent content is on first-person shooters (FPSs), which are suspected of promoting aggression and serving as blueprints for violence. The research on addiction, on the other hand, is dominated by a problematization of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), such as World of Warcraft (WoW) (Blizzard Entertainment, 2004). If, and in which cases, the terms of addiction and dependency are applicable to the excessive use of computer games and its negative consequences is highly disputed in academia (Charlton and Danforth, 2007; Griffiths, 2008; Turner, 2008). This is primarily due to the fact that online addiction in general and (online) computer gaming addiction are not yet part of the standard diagnostic manuals 1 in medicine and psychology (at the time of writing). Only pathological gambling, which is listed in the DSM-IV as an impulse-control disorder, could provide some criteria that were applied to the problematic use of (online) computer games. Some authors adapted criteria of pathological gambling and developed, tested, and validated the first instruments to diagnose pathological (online) computer gaming (e.g. Grüsser et al., 2007; Kim, Kim, and Kim, 2008; Lemmens et al., 2009; Meyer, Janz, Zeng, and Pietrowsky, 2009). The items used in these instruments vary considerably in phrasing and quantity, depending on the target group for which the instrument was designed and validated. Those differences between instruments and questionnaires also influence the response to the question about the spread of pathological gaming and the prevalence rates in different countries (for an overview see Festl, Scharkow, and Quandt, 2013). Obviously, there is a strong positive correlation between addiction scale scores and time spent on games (Lemmens et al., 2009), but it seems evident that excessive gaming is not necessarily addiction. Spekman, Konijn, and Roelofsma (2012) conclude, “that gaming addiction clearly goes beyond excessive gaming”.
