Gaming and COVID-19
Creators: name: Karhulahti, Veli-Matti
Publisher: name: Open Science Framework
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Medicine and Health Sciences
subject: Life Sciences
subject: Arts and Humanities
subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences
subject: covid
subject: gaming

description: In May 2019, the WHO made a decision to include “gaming disorder” in their official International Classification of Diseases. This made playing videogames (and gambling games) the only widely recognized addictive behavioral disorder next to various substance addictions such as those connected to alcohol. A year later, after the global outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020, game industry leaders launched “Play Apart Together” campaign to promote WHO guidelines for healthy mental and physical behaviors during the crisis – also supported by WHO officials such as ambassador Ray Chambers who stated: “we encourage all to #PlayApartTogether [to] save lives.” Together apart, videogame play is currently employed as a medium to connect isolated individuals socially and help them to survive the ongoing era of physical distancing both mentally and physically. Since the scientific basis for the health benefits of videogame play during the COVID-19 pandemic derives from unevidenced hypothesis, the JYU unit of the Academy of Finland funded CoE in Game Culture Studies project modified some of its research effort in early March 2020. Collection and analysis of empirical evidence concerning the potential (positive and negative) health effects of videogame play was modified to address the specific context of the pandemic and its aftermath in comparison to other leisure activities. The general preparing hypotheses were as follows: a) people play more videogames and especially social videogames during the pandemic in comparison to the time before, b) those who play (social) videogames are less prone to develop new mental health problems during the pandemic than non-players, c) gaming and physical activity are connected in yet unknown ways. Our planned research effort was divided in three work packages. The first work package aims at collecting and analyzing quantitative survey data concerning the hypotheses in collaboration with the LIITU project (Lasten ja nuorten liikuntakäyttäytyminen Suomessa) that, once in two years, gathers data from a nationally representative sample of ~7000 Finnish adolescents. We established collaboration with LIITU project affiliate Sami Kokko already in 2019 and have now modified the survey questions accordingly with the new COVID-19 research goals. The second work package aims at collecting and analyzing related quantitative survey data with a focus on a group of individuals who actively play videogames. A pilot was done in collaboration with Finnish companies during esports tournaments in May 2020. Finally, the third work package aims at collecting and analyzing related data qualitatively: we will triangulate our survey findings with IPA interviews with willing participants of the same target group, i.e. active videogame players. The latter two work packages do not address health issues explicitly but rather aim at better understanding gaming experiences as part of the life during the pandemic.