It's just a game

My research examines what kinds of factors may increase or lower someone's risk of Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD; i.e., video game addiction). The results suggested that increased mental health symptoms (e.g., depression), playing games for more than 30 hours in a typical 5-day week, and playing games online or playing certain types of games such as Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games, or games that allow players to see and interact with each other in a virtual world, were associated with meeting the criteria for IGD. These factors were also associated with gaming causing harms in various domains of an individual's life. Participants, for example, might note that they were experiencing more harms associated with their work or studies, emotional or psychological harms, or health harms. This image displays a screenshot from an online MMO game. Surrounding it are a player's thought bubbles that provide greater context as to how they may be thinking and feeling. All the text surrounding the screenshot was informed by the risk factors that appeared to be the most important to consider in the results of my study. The text and phone image were inserted using Canva and Microsoft Paint. All screenshots were taken by me.