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Four Pillars of Healthy Escapism in Games: Emotion Regulation, Mood

Management, Coping, and Recovery

Chapter · April 2020

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-37643-7_4

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Chapter 4
Four Pillars of Healthy Escapism
in Games: Emotion Regulation, Mood
Management, Coping, and Recovery

Mehmet Kosa and Ahmet Uysal

Contents

4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.2 Healthy Escapism in Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.2.1 Emotion Regulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.2.2 Mood Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.2.3 Coping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.2.4 Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.2.5 A Pilot Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.3 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.3.1 Game Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.3.2 Game Medium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.3.3 Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.3.4 Learning and Intervention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
4.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Abstract Escapism is usually defined as avoidance of the real. Digital games are
conducive to escapism because they take place in a temporally and spatially bounded
virtual space that is separated from the real. Moreover, most games contain artificial
conflicts and actions that have no effect on the real life. Availability of digital games
on a broad range of devices (i.e., desktop, mobile, VR) also makes them an easily
accessible tool for escapism in daily life. Consequently, escapism is one of the
common reasons for playing digital games.

M. Kosa ()
Department of Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence, Tilburg University, Tilburg,
Netherlands
e-mail: m.kosa@tilburguniversity.edu
A. Uysal
Department of Psychology, Stanford University, San Francisco, CA, USA
e-mail: uysal@stanford.edu

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 63

B. Bostan (ed.), Game User Experience And Player-Centered Design,
International Series on Computer Entertainment and Media Technology,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37643-7_4
64 M. Kosa and A. Uysal

Escapism generally has a negative connotation in games research. Escapism

was found to be associated with negative outcomes such as internet addiction,
problematic use, and excessive gaming. However, certain aspects of escapism can
also be beneficial. For instance, mental disengagement via video games helps
players decrease their stress levels after stressful activities (e.g., work). Escapism
can also act as a mood management strategy, as people tend to play games to
avoid negative mood states and induce positive mood states. Similarly, escapism in
games can be beneficial for regulating emotions and practicing emotion regulation
strategies. Finally, escapism can provide a healthy form of coping strategy for
some players. In short, escapism can have both negative and positive consequences,
depending on how it is defined. Consequently, it is important to demarcate what
constitutes a healthy escapism versus subversive escapism. In this chapter, we
conduct a rapid scoping review on healthy forms of escapism in games, how it can
be characterized, how it is associated with positive player experiences, and how
escapism can be emotionally beneficial. Finally, we discuss the implications for
future studies.

Keywords Games · Escapism · Health · Emotion regulation · Mood

management · Coping · Recovery experiences

4.1 Introduction

There are approximately 2.5 billion active gamers in the world (Padilla 2019).
Although older age groups are still dominantly choosing TV over gaming for
entertainment, the gaming time of young adults aged between 21 and 30, is
significantly increasing when compared to the last decade (Smith 2019). One of
the major reasons for people turning to video games is that video games present a
convenient and effective way for escapism (Kahn et al. 2015). This effectiveness
comes from the interactive nature of games that require players to actively take
actions, making the activity an empowering experience compared to passive forms
of escapism, such as watching TV (Kuo et al. 2016).
One definition of escapism is “going from somewhere we don’t want to be to
be somewhere we do” (Evans 2001). In games, escapism is the departure from
conceivably “non-game” and “real” contexts to “gameful” and “artificial” realms.
It is an imaginal experience which drives hedonic consumption (Hirschman and
Holbrook 1982; Hirschman 1983). It is also an antecedent of cognitive, affective,
and behavioral engagement in video games (Abbasi et al. 2019). In fact, it is
sometimes the sole reason for video game play (Muriel and Crawford 2018).
Research on games shows both negative and positive effects of escapism. On
the negative side, a plethora of research shows that escapism is associated with
problematic gaming (Chang et al. 2018; Király et al. 2015, 2017), internet addiction
(Yee 2006), and excessive gaming (Kuss et al. 2012). In contrast, more recent studies
demonstrated some positive effects of escapism. For instance, escapism predicts
4 Four Pillars of Healthy Escapism in Games: Emotion Regulation, Mood. . . 65

enjoyment in games (Merhi 2016) and is also beneficial for emotional well-being of
players (Granic et al. 2014). Researchers suggested that psychological detachment
in escapism, where a person breaks their mundane or just relieves stress, can be
therapeutic (Warmelink et al. 2009). In brief, research shows mixed effects of
escapism on players’ well-being.
One of the main reasons for mixed findings is the different operationalization
and measurement of escapism by different researchers. In the case of self-report
studies, for instance, the items used in escapism measures may relate to well-being
differently. Negatively oriented items such as “I play games to avoid real life social
encounters” (MOGQ; Demetrovics et al. 2011) tend to correlate with addiction or
psychological stress (Hagström and Kaldo 2014), whereas other items such as “I
play games to forget about work” tend to be associated with recovery experiences
leading to reduction of daily stress in players (Reinecke 2009). In this chapter we
focus on how healthy and subversive escapism can be differentiated and review the
positive aspects of escapism.

4.2 Healthy Escapism in Games

Studies examining positive aspects of escapism in games are multi-faceted and

spread across several disciplinary fields. Since this is a fledgling area, it would be
beneficial to provide a framework for healthy escapism, as well as a brief review of
relevant research. Therefore, we focused on studies that reported beneficial effects
of escapism and identified themes on healthy escapism.
Research on healthy escapism can be considered under four different categories:
Emotion regulation, mood management, coping, and recovery. This is in line with
the idea that these can be hierarchically investigated under the higher order construct
of “affect regulation” (Gross 1998). There might be conceptual overlap among these
approaches; however, the aim of this review is not to suggest definitions but to bring
forth a general framework for future empirical research. In the following sections,
we go over these themes one by one and discuss how they were addressed in relation
to gaming.

4.2.1 Emotion Regulation

Emotion regulation (ER) is defined as the attempt of modifying the trajectory of

emotions (Gross 2015). In its basic form, it consists of five sets of processes:
situation selection, situation modification, attention deployment, cognitive change,
and response modulation. Once a situation is selected, it can be tailored to modify its
emotional impact. Attentional deployment is the decision of focusing the attention
to a certain aspect of the situation including complete distraction. After a situation is
selected, modified, and attended, the person can change the meaning of the situation
and therefore regulate emotions (i.e., reappraisal). Finally, the person can modulate
66 M. Kosa and A. Uysal

their responses to the elicited emotion (i.e., suppression). Distraction from negative
feelings and reappraisal of the situation are shown to be effective strategies for ER
(Webb et al. 2012).
In addition to their entertainment aspect, games are shown to have emotional
benefits for players by facilitating emotion regulation (Granic et al. 2014). For
instance, games that promote interoceptive awareness (“ability of a person to know
their internal states”) are helpful for regulation of emotions (Lobel et al. 2014).
Games are not only used for regulating negative emotions, but also for extending or
enhancing positive emotions as well (Hoffner and Lee 2015). For instance, it was
found that casual games decrease stress and improve mood (Russoniello et al. 2009).
Games also show promise in fostering players’ ER skills (Astor et al. 2013;
Lobel et al. 2016). They provide a platform for ER to take place as games are vast
playgrounds for players to select and modify situations to their likings. Moreover,
games are also effective for distraction, providing temporary disengagement from
negative and undesirable emotions (Bruehlman-Senecal and Ayduk 2015). However,
the literature on games addressing the specific strategies of ER is scarce at best
(Hemenover and Bowman 2018).
In a broad sense, there are two types of games that are studied with regard
to ER: Bespoke games and commercial games. Bespoke games are games that
are specifically developed for ER training; however, they are usually one time
experiences and do not include all properties of games (Villani et al. 2018). On
the other hand, commercial games offer more promise and opportunities for ER
improvement, since they offer advantages in terms of interaction, control, and
narrative features (Kuo et al. 2016; Villani et al. 2018). Initial findings also show that
regular gamers use ER strategies better than irregular gamers (Gaetan et al. 2016).
Nevertheless, we do not yet have a complete understanding of how ER works for
players who engage with commercial digital games.
On the other hand, a recent study found that emotion dysregulation in real life
predicts problematic gaming through escapism (Blasi et al. 2019). Games can be
used for teaching emotion regulation for gamers who are not able to regulate their
emotions, which might consequently result in the reduction of problematic gaming.
Games can provide environments to exercise emotion regulation strategies without
experiencing negative consequences for players who have difficulties regulating
their emotions (Billieux et al. 2015).

4.2.2 Mood Management

Although mood and emotion are sometimes used interchangeably in daily life, they
are referred as separate phenomena in the academic literature. In general, the most
typical distinction is that emotions are experienced moment to moment, whereas
mood tends to last longer periods of times (Ekkekakis 2012). In addition, they are
also found to be different in terms of their intensity, effects on physiology, causes,
and consequences (Beedie et al. 2005).
4 Four Pillars of Healthy Escapism in Games: Emotion Regulation, Mood. . . 67

In essence, mood management theory posits that people either tend to maintain
their positive mood or try to end their negative affective states (Zillmann and Bryant
1985). One of the most efficient and effective way of changing or terminating moods
is the consuming of media entertainment (Zillmann 2015). Mood management is
conceptually quite close to escapism (Li et al. 2011). Escapism is avoidance of the
real in general and mood management is the altering of the mood through selectively
exposing oneself to media and communication devices, when there is no other way
of resolving adverse emotions (Zillmann 2015). Mood management theory is one
of the approaches to study the positive aspects of escapism (Hagström and Kaldo
2014). We regard healthy escapism as a higher order construct encapsulating mood
management among others.
Empirical research shows that people can indeed manage their moods by expos-
ing themselves to entertainment media (Knobloch-Westerwick 2013; Reinecke
2017). Initial research on games shows that games provide a useful medium for
mood management. For instance, playing (violent or non-violent) games helps
reducing hostility and enhancing positive affect (Serrone 2012). However, under-
standing which aspects of games make them more effective for mood management
is important. For instance, rigorous experiments show that as the player agency
increases in a game, mood of the bored and stressed individuals tend to improve as
well (Bowman and Tamborini 2012). Moreover, players prefer medium-level task
demand rather than low or higher task demand (Bowman and Tamborini 2015).
Another study found that players’ need for mood management and their in-game
success determine the level of change in their moods between pre- and post-play, in
the context quiz games (Koban et al. 2018). Similarly, another study investigated the
effects of in-game success on mood repair in the context of a racing game and found
that in-game success predicts mood repair (Rieger et al. 2014a). Finally, depending
on whether a player is bored or stressed, the types of game items they purchase
also differs: Players who are bored tend to prefer functional items, whereas stressed
players tend to prefer decorative items to manage their moods (Bae et al. 2019).
Overall, research suggests that games help players manage their moods by providing
agency, optimal levels of task demand, and making players feel competent.
Consequently, mood repair can be considered as a result of satisfaction of basic
psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness (Reinecke et al.
2012). This approach claims that mood repair is not only a result of the distraction
from negative emotions, but also an outcome of satisfaction of basic needs. For
instance, a study found that freely selecting activities to engage (autonomy; a basic
need according to Self Determination Theory; Ryan and Deci 2017) are significantly
more related to reduced stress as compared to forced activities (Ferguson et al.
2018). However, another empirical study suggests that need satisfaction is more
related to enjoyment experienced in the game, rather than mood repair (Rieger
et al. 2014a). More research is needed to understand how satisfaction of autonomy,
competence, and relatedness needs in games is related to mood repair.
68 M. Kosa and A. Uysal

4.2.3 Coping

Escapism is characterized by mental and behavioral disengagement, which are

salient factors determined in coping mechanisms (Carver et al. 2013). Coping
can be defined as the efforts spent for minimizing problems and stress. There are
several types of coping strategies that people tend to adopt (Folkman and Lazarus
1988; Lazarus and Folkman 1984). First is problem-focused coping where the
individual attempts to directly solve the problem at hand that is causing stress, such
as by getting organized, managing time, and obtaining active support to solve the
problem. Second type of coping is the emotion-focused coping where the individual
decreases stress by regulating their feeling of the problem such as by distraction
with pleasurable activates, relaxation, or talking to a friend. Last, avoidance-focused
coping is another strategy where the individual completely rejects to interact with
the problem and avoids it altogether (Endler and Parker 1990). It is different than
emotion-focused coping in the sense that people do not fully discard the problem.
Although in these terms, gaming looks like an emotion-focused or avoidance-
focused coping mechanism, games can also be effective in training players on
problem-focused coping. While there can be many ways of coping through escapist
activities (e.g., watching TV), it was shown that actively engaging in a video game
relieves stress by empowering players and projecting them into fantasy worlds
boosting the feelings of presence (Kuo et al. 2016).
Games show promise as a medium that can be used for coping. In fact, a
study found that coping, which was characterized by the cumulative experience
of forgetting daily problems /hassles/unpleasant feelings by escaping real life and
reducing tension by channeling attention to pleasurable experiences, was one of the
major gaming motivation of some players, (Demetrovics et al. 2011). This study
also found that coping emerges as a separate factor than (subversive) escapism.
This might contribute to the argument that there are two folds of dissociation from
reality where traditionally (subversive) escapism forming the unhealthy and coping
forming the healthy forms of game engagements.
It was found that gaming can be utilized as a healthy form of coping strategy
when the gaming time is not taken to extremes (Kardefelt-Winther et al. 2017).
Although excessive gameplay time is associated with internet gaming disorder
symptoms (Schneider et al. 2018), gaming can still be investigated as a coping
strategy rather than as a compulsive behavior (Kardefelt-Winther 2014). Excessive
gaming and dissociative experiences such as (subversive) escapism can point to
maladaptive coping strategies and problematic gaming (Guglielmucci et al. 2019),
especially when the player is experiencing a great anxiety (Plante et al. 2018).
However, excessive gaming implies an underlying problem that is unrelated and
separate from the gaming activity or the game content. Therefore, underlying
intentions for escapism could be more important than the contents of games
in predicting excessive gaming. Healthy forms of escapist motivations may not
result in problematic behavior. Moreover, it was found that escapism—problematic
4 Four Pillars of Healthy Escapism in Games: Emotion Regulation, Mood. . . 69

gaming relationship is moderated by the type of coping strategy a player adopts. It

was found that “disengaged” coping strategies, which involves walking away from
stressors, were positively associated with negative gaming outcomes. However,
“engaged” coping strategies, which involves confronting stressors, were negatively
associated with negative gaming outcomes (Bowditch et al. 2018). This finding
suggests that the effect of escapism on problematic gaming is dependent on the
coping style of player.
Sometimes, players can turn to games temporally, such as during difficult periods
of life, as a coping strategy. Research shows that games offer respite, a lifeline
support for dealing with recent feelings, meaningful social interactions and personal
growth during times of difficulty (Iacovides and Mekler 2018). Moreover, in
addition to pleasurable experiences, games also can satisfy eudaimonic needs, which
is the need for experiencing meaningfulness through insights about life (Oliver
et al. 2016; Rogers et al. 2017). It is argued that games that provide eudaimonic
experiences (e.g., communicating a message about meaning of life) help people
cope, especially after a hardship in life (Hofer and Rieger 2018). This kind of
engagement with games can also be considered as healthy escapism, which results
in positive outcomes in the long run.

4.2.4 Recovery

People sometimes play games to escape from their daily stresses associated with
work or chores (Scott 2019). This kind of escapism to relief stress via an activity
is called recovery in the literature. It is defined as recuperation from cognitive
and emotional exhaustion (e.g., after work), and characterized by psychological
detachment, relaxation, mastery, and control (Reinecke 2009). It is similar but
different from mood management, as mood is a single dimension construct that is
about short-term experiences, whereas recovery focuses on the return of energy and
longer-term effects (Sonnentag and Fritz 2007). Scientific studies suggest that video
gaming can provide recovery experiences (Collins and Cox 2014). Research further
shows that playing games is a more effective way to relax, compared to using apps
that are specifically designed for stress reduction (Collins et al. 2019). Additionally,
more interactive entertainment media activities provide greater recovery experiences
(e.g., gaming vs watching TV; Reinecke et al. 2011), and recovery experiences
are associated with greater subjective vitality and cognitive performance. In short,
games can also be a tool for healthy escapism via recovery experiences; however,
there is still need for future research to understand how recovery experiences can be
fostered in games.
70 M. Kosa and A. Uysal

4.2.5 A Pilot Study

In sum, psychological detachment through games has been shown to have negative
and positive impacts on the players depending on the escapist intentions. As a pre-
liminary study to examine these ideas we conducted a brief survey. We asked players
if they used games as an escape device helping to avoid their real life problems
(subversive escapism) or to escape real life to reduce daily stress (healthy escapism).
We also measured problematic game use and general well-being of players as
outcomes. Results showed that subversive escapism was associated positively with
problematic gaming and negatively with well-being, whereas healthy escapism was
associated positively with well-being and not associated with problematic gaming.
Although these findings provide some early evidence, more research is needed to
demarcate healthy and subversive escapism.

4.3 Discussion

In line with the argument that humans have a strong desire to escape from
themselves, many activities may provide the means for escapism, not just games
(Calleja 2010; Stenseng et al. 2012). In fact, in some way, all cultural artifacts
are built for humans to escape the inconsistencies and constraints of life (Tuan
2000). Games are too, one of those artifacts affording escapist motivations in a
very engaging manner. Although escapism generally has a negative connotation,
especially with its logical entailment of social isolation, our goal was to review how
playing games with escapist motivations could sometimes be beneficial for players.
When we examined the literature on healthy forms of escapism in games, we
came across 4 major lines of research: emotion regulation, mood management,
coping, and recovery. These lines of research suggest that escapist motivations can
have beneficial outcomes depending on the way it is defined and operationalized
in research. This calls for researchers to be cautious about the scales and items they
utilize in self-report measures, and be mindful about what form of escapism they aim
to investigate. Below, we summarize the directions for future works we synthesized
from our review.

4.3.1 Game Content

When players engage in MMORPG games that are supporting social interaction,
they tend to report less problematic online gaming (Chang et al. 2018). Taking into
consideration that internet based gaming puts players inside a community, pervasive
augmented reality gaming affords real life encounters with fellow gamers on the
streets (e.g., Pokémon Go), and tabletop gaming provides face to face interactions,
traditional escapism thinking might not be directly applicable to gaming. Because,
4 Four Pillars of Healthy Escapism in Games: Emotion Regulation, Mood. . . 71

players are still communicating with each other in these types of games, without
having the motives of “isolation from people.” These games have their own social
ecosystems and therefore players might not necessarily be escaping from other
people or the society. Future studies might investigate whether playing online or co-
located games differ from solo gaming in terms of escapist motivations and healthy
escapism aspects.
At a more granular level, future studies might also examine whether different
kinds of video games that afford different in-game actions are more effective in
regulating different kinds of emotions (e.g., anger, sadness, anxiousness; Hemen-
over and Bowman 2018). A general question of interest is: which aspects of games
are effective for emotion regulation? Studies on mood management and games did
not explore how different content affects players’ mood management. Therefore,
future studies can examine how players’ moods shift when exposed to different
game content. Revealing these aspects may facilitate designing games to improve
well-being of players. Therefore, future studies can also investigate the features of
games which provide greater recovery experiences.
Although hedonic entertainment experiences are associated with the recovery
dimensions of relaxation and psychological detachment, eudaimonic entertainment
was found to be related to mastery experiences in the context of movies (Rieger
et al. 2014b). However, it is not known whether this effect translates into gaming.
Consequently, research is needed to understand how healthy escapist motivations
are related to these constructs. More specifically, future studies can examine
whether eudaimonic gaming experiences fostered by the game content provide
better recovery experiences, emotion regulation, mood management, or coping
compared to hedonic experiences.

4.3.2 Game Medium

Research shows that video game content presented in virtual reality creates stronger
emotional responses, and participants report greater happiness after the usage when
compared to desktop displays (Pallavicini et al. 2019). Future studies might also
investigate if immersion levels affect healthy escapism (ER, mood management,
coping, recovery) in a positive way. Moreover, escapist motivations were also
found to play a role in non-digital tabletop game play (Kosa and Spronck 2019).
Nevertheless, research is needed on how non-digital games can be related to healthy
forms of escapism, compared to their digital versions.

4.3.3 Assessment

Apart from entertainment, games are also used for assessing people’s knowledge,
skills, and other qualifications (Landers 2015). Games are used in assessments
72 M. Kosa and A. Uysal

because they are more motivating than standard tests, they provide robust data and
they are perceived as non-threatening by test takers. Using the knowledge created in
the fledgling area of game-based assessment, games can be used for assessing how
players use coping strategies, and simultaneously provide means to better manage
their moods. Similarly, by integrating player profiling techniques (Bakkes et al.
2012), content of the game might be dynamically adjusted to provide better mood
management.

4.3.4 Learning and Intervention

Games can also be a tool for teaching players about how they can use emotion
regulation or mood management techniques in their daily lives. It might be possible
to teach the general concepts as well as more specific techniques. For instance,
people who use reappraisal emotion regulation technique tend to have greater well-
being, whereas people who use suppression emotion regulation technique tend to be
less emotionally close with others (Gross and John 2003). The concepts of problem-
focused, emotion-focused, or avoidance-focused coping might be taught to player as
well, in addition to more specific techniques used under these concepts. For instance,
mindfulness is a method of emotion-focused coping, which is defined as being fully
present in the moment without having thoughts of past or future. Lately, mindfulness
is being applied and investigated in games as well (Gackenbach and Bown 2011;
Kosa and Uysal 2017, 2018; Mettler et al. 2018). So far, mindfulness practices
show promise in being beneficial for mental health which might be communicated to
players through games as well. Games can be used as subtle tools to teach effective
emotion regulation or coping strategies.
Similarly, research is needed on whether games have a different intervention
potential for non-players, casual players or hardcore players, and whether games
can be utilized effectively in psychological interventions.

4.4 Conclusion

In this chapter, our goal was to bring forth a non-exhaustive state of the art on the
positive aspects of escapism in games. We suggest that escapism has two different
aspects, healthy escapism and subversive escapism. We also argue that whether
escapism is beneficial or detrimental depends on the mode of escapism. Viewing
escapism only in negative terms could be one-sided. Laying video games, even with
escapist motivations, do not necessarily drag players into problematic behavior.
In fact, escapism in games might have emotional benefits for players. Although
subversive escapism and pathologic gaming is an important problem, research also
suggests that people can use video games as a healthy coping tool.
4 Four Pillars of Healthy Escapism in Games: Emotion Regulation, Mood. . . 73

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