I Hate it, but I Can’t Stop: Addictive Tendencies as a Mediator for Negative Game Experience in a Mobile Trivia Game

• In Event: Best Papers in Game Studies Division

Abstract

As video games are omnipresent in daily life, game addiction receives substantial attention from both the public and science. To prevent against an oversimplifying attribution of problematic gaming behavior merely based on invested time, the present study highlights a conceptual differentiation between desirable enthusiasm and undesirable addictive tendencies by focusing on individuals’ gaming motivation and experience. For this purpose, we recruited 340 players (f = 183; age M = 43.54, SD = 12.75) of the mobile trivia game QuizClash including 140 of the game’s top 1000 players to examine mediations of negative gaming experience by players’ addictive tendencies. Results provide evidence that negative outcomes are often prematurely attributed to intense gaming, since effects of high engagement disappear after controlling for addictive tendencies. Predominance of negative experience in otherwise enjoyable activities therefore might serve as a signal for problematic tendencies and could be established as an in-situ indicator in diagnostic practice.

Authors

• Kevin Koban, Chemnitz University of Technology

• Peter Ohler, Chemnitz University of Technology