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Maddie Sloane

Dean Leonard

English Comp II

21 March 2021

Literature Review

For my topic, I will be answering the question of how can video games affect a user’s

mental health? This is a very important topic to me personally. Video games have always been

an escape for me, and I want to see how it affects other people positively or negatively.

Many people think that video games cause people to be violent. Other people think video

games is just a way to waste time and it distracts younger kids from their schooling. Most adults

think that playing games can do more harm than good and that is not necessarily true. Video

games allow you to escape into a different world. It allows you to be a part of a wonderful

community and build friendships. It’s so much more than shooting the enemy team. I want to

explore the pros and cons and why I think gaming can be important to improving mental health.

The biggest key point I found is that excessive video gaming is found to be associated

with positive emotions and social relationships while playing. However, problematic and

excessive video gaming is also associated with maladaptive coping strategies, negative

emotions and attitudes, low self-esteem, loneliness, and poor academic performance.

On https://www.healthygamer.gg/video-games-and-mental-health-explained/

it explains that yes, video games can be very great for people. But it also states that there

are very negative things that can come out of gaming. Video games are not evil by nature.

They are supposed to be fun and something everyone can enjoy. Video games do not

necessarily cause anxiety and depression however, gaming addiction can lead to this or
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make it worse. This is really important to note that there definitely is a negative to

playing games. There are also pros mentioned. A lot of people started playing games to

escape something in real life. Maybe they are being bullied in school. For a gamer, video

games are the only places they can go to immerse themself and escape the emotional pain

of real life.

An article by bbc.com talks about a video game producer who has started a

youtube series that examines how video games help players cope with their mental health

struggles. He believes playing games too much is often a symptom of wider mental health

issues, rather than a cause of them. The article goes on to explain that in some games, they

actually explore the topic of mental health. In the video game Life Is Strange, the game deals

with the importance of decision making and how one single action can have a chain reaction

that affects many people. This is very important because it is bringing awareness to the player

of the game and showing then that this is very much a real thing and can happen to anyone.

checkpointorg.com/ is a website that is made for gamers and gives them resources for

mental health hotlines and websites. It also gives them information about different types of

mental health such as anxiety and depression. This is a great resource for the gaming community

however, this is not the best source to use on the research paper because it does not offer a clear

answer to the question of ‘how do video games affect a user’s mental health?’

In an article on sciencedirect.com, the author speaks more about video game addiction

and Internet Gaming disorder and the affects. This is important to understand because people do

struggle with this and it should be recognized. It goes over what IGD is and that is something not

mentioned in other articles.

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All of these articles give great information about video gaming and mental health. From

the information I have gathered thus far, there is not yes or no answer. From what I am seeing is

there are pros and cons to video games and it really depends on the player. I know how it has

affected myself and my friends, but I want to explore more into actual statistics and not just your

basic science article. I think once viewing more recent statistics I can have a better understanding

if video games really do have a positive outcome, or if we should stay away.

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Works Cited:

HealthyGamer. “Video Games and Mental Health Explained.” Healthy Gamer, 27 Jan. 2021,

www.healthygamer.gg/video-games-and-mental-health-explained/. 

Judge, Alysia. “Video Games and Mental Health: 'Nobody's Properly Talking'.” Bbc.com, 14 July

2018, www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-44662669. Accessed 7 Mar. 2021

“Mental Health Resources for Gamers : CheckPoint %.” CheckPoint, 16 Jan. 2021,

checkpointorg.com/. 

Moge, Clara E., and Daniela M. Romano. “Contextualising Video Game Engagement and

Addiction in Mental Health: the Mediating Roles of Coping and Social Support.” Heliyon,

Elsevier, 16 Nov. 2020, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844020321836