Keynote speaker – Dr Mark Griffiths: The role of context in online gaming playing: Implications for education, therapeutic intervention, and addiction

1. THE ROLE OF CONTEXT IN ONLINE
GAMING PLAYING:
IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATION, THERAPEUTIC
INTERVENTION, AND ADDICTION
Dr Mark Griffiths
Professor of Gambling Studies
International Gaming Research Unit
Nottingham Trent University
mark.griffiths@ntu.ac.uk

2. BACKGROUND TO ISSUES
• Long history of using VGs
in a therapeutic capacity
• However, VGs are often
demonized and
pathologized by the mass
media in relation to
excessive usage
• The role of context in VG
playing is critical in
distinguishing excessive
gaming from addictive
gaming.

3. • Argued that excessive gaming
does not necessarily mean
that a person is addicted
• The reinforcing properties of
potentially addictive gaming
can be harnessed in both
educational and therapeutic
contexts
• (e.g., skill development and
learning, physiotherapy and
occupational therapy, pain
management, cognitive
rehabilitation, etc.).

4. KEY QUESTIONS
(Griffiths, 1998)
•What is addiction?
•Does video game
addiction exist?
•If it exists what are
people actually
addicted to?

5. TECHNOLOGICAL ADDICTIONS
(Griffiths, 1995; 2008)
• Technological addictions are
operationally defined as non-
chemical (behavioural) addictions
that involve excessive human-
machine interaction
• Usually contain inducing and
reinforcing features which may
contribute to the promotion of
addictive tendencies
• Feature all the core components
of addiction

6. ADDICTION COMPONENTS
(Griffiths, 1995; 1996; 2005; 2009)
• Salience
• Mood modification
• Tolerance
• Withdrawal
• Conflict
•Relapse

7. GENERIC FACTORS THAT MAKE VIDEO GAMES
ATTRACTIVE TO PLAYERS
• Fun and exciting
• Motivating and
stimulating
• Interactive
• Challenging and
engaging
• Rewarding and
reinforcing
• Mood modifying
• Provide novelty
• Skill enhancing

8. GENERIC FACTORS THAT MAKE INTERNET
ATTRACTIVE TO USERS
(Griffiths, 2003)
•Access
•Affordability
•Anonymity
•Convenience
•Disinhibition
•Escape

9. VIDEOGAMES: POSITIVE BENEFITS
(DeFreitas & Griffiths, 2008; Griffiths, 2005; 2010)
• Educational benefits
• Simulation/practice benefits
• Perceptual-motor skills/hand-
eye co-ordination
• Social benefits
• Pain management,
physiotherapy, mental
distraction
• Cognitive rehabilitation
(strokes and attention
difficulties)
• Psychotherapy/behaviour
management in children

10. THERAPEUTIC, MEDICAL AND HEALTH
USES OF VIDEOGAMES
(Griffiths, 2004; 2005; 2009)
• VGs as painkillers
• VGs in psychotherapeutic
settings
• VGs in cognitive
rehabilitation
• VGs in educative health care
• VGs for the learning disabled
• VGs for ‘exergaming’
• VG therapy for
ADD/impulsivity
• VG therapy for anxiety (VRET)
• VG therapy for the elderly

11. VIDEOGAMES AS DISTRACTORS
• Studies show cognitive distraction
may block the perception of pain.
• Distractor tasks consume some
degree of the attentional capacity
otherwise devoted to pain
perception.
• VGs likely to engage a person’s
active attention because of the
cognitive and motor activity
required.
• VGs allow possibility of sustained
achievement due to level of difficulty
(challenge) during extended play.

12. ANALGESIC EFFECT OF VIDEOGAMES
(Griffiths, Kuss & Ortiz de Gortari, 2012)
• VGs have been used as a form of
physiotherapy/occupational therapy
in many different groups:
• Increase strength in arm, hand and finger
injuries/rheumatology
• Respiratory muscle training aid for young
patients with Duchenne Muscular
Dystrophy
• Movement aid for cerebral palsy
• Postural stability and balance
• Increase strength for wheelchair users
• Upper-limb physiotherapy for burns
victims
• Sitting tolerance for lower back pain
• Scratch prevention for neurodermatitis

13. CONCLUSIONS
• Video game addiction
appears to exist (depending
upon addiction criteria
used)
• ‘Addictive’ components of
VG playing can be
harnessed for educational
and therapeutic potential
• There has been considerable
success when games are
specifically designed to
address a specific problem
or to teach a certain skill.

14. • An activity cannot be
described as an addiction if
there are few (or no)
negative consequences in
the player’s life.
• Gaming addiction should be
characterized by the extent
to which excessive gaming
impacts negatively on other
areas of the gamers’ lives
rather than the amount of
time spent playing.