The Psychological Impact of Video Games

References

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Appendix

DSM-IV-JV

• as video game playing progressed, became more and more preoccupied with reliving past playing experiences, studying video game playing, planning the next opportunity to play, or thinking of ways to get money to play.

• needed to spend more and more money in order to achieve the desired excitement.

• became restless or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop video game play.

• played video game machines as a way of escaping from problems or intolerable feeling states.

• after spending money on video game machines, would often return another day in order to get a higher score (‘score chasing’).

• lied to family or friends to protect and conceal the extent of involvement with video game machines.

• committed illegal/unsocial acts, such as misuse of school dinner/fare money, and theft from the home or elsewhere in order to finance video game playing.

• fell out with family or close friends and jeopardised education because of video game playing.

• needed another individual to provide money to relieve a desperate financial situation produced by video game playing (a ‘bailout’).

Categories of video games (adapted from Griffiths, 1993)

Sport Simulations: This type is self-explanatory. These games simulate sports such as golf, ice hockey, athletics etc (e.g. World Wide Soccer ’97, NHL Powerplay ’97 etc).

Racers: This type could be considered a type of ‘Sport Simulation’ in that it simulates motor sports like Formula 1 racing (e.g. Human Grand Prix, Speedster, Motoracer etc).

Adventures: This type uses fantasy settings in which the player can escape to other worlds and take on new identities (e.g. Atlantis, Star Trek Generations, Overboard etc).

Puzzlers: This type is self explanatory. These games are ‘brainteasers’ which often require active thinking (e.g. Tetris, Baku Baku Animal etc).

Weird Games: These games are not ‘weird’ as such except they do not fit into any other category. They would be better termed ‘miscellaneous’ (e.g. Sim City 2000, Populous 3 etc).

Platformers: These games involve running and jumping along and onto platforms (e.g. Mario 64, Sonic etc).

Platform blasters: These games are ‘Platformers’ but also involve blasting everything that comes into sight (Robocop 2, Virtua Cop etc).

Beat ‘Em Ups: These games involve physical violence (punching, kicking etc) (e.g. Street Fighter 3, Tekken 2, Mortal Kombat etc).

Shoot ‘Em Ups: These games involve shooting and killing using various weapons (e.g. Blast Corps, Mech Warrior, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter etc).

Taken from Griffiths (1997b)

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