The Attitudes, Feelings, and Experiences of Online Gamers: A Qualitative Analysis

TLDR

Massively multiplayer online role‑playing games are a highly popular leisure activity. This study explored online gamers’ attitudes, experiences, and feelings. The authors conducted 71 interviews with 52 male and 19 female gamers from 11 countries. The analysis revealed six themes—daily life integration, excessive play and problems, addiction, psychosocial impact, dissociation/time loss, and use of MMORPGs to alleviate negative emotions—highlighting both benefits and personal difficulties associated with gaming.

Abstract

The playing of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) is now a highly popular leisure activity. The present study set out to explore the attitudes, experiences, and feelings of online gamers. The study entailed 71 interviews with online gamers (52 males, 19 females) from 11 different countries. Six main themes emerged from the analyses of the interview transcripts: (a) online gaming and integration into day-to-day lives; (b) online gaming, excessive play, and problems; (c) addiction; (d) psychosocial impact of online gaming; (e) online gaming, dissociation, and time loss; and (f) online gaming and the alleviation of negative feelings and mood states. These findings specifically showed how gamers used MMORPGs to alleviate negative feelings and provided detailed descriptions of personal problems that had arisen due to playing MMORPGs. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to previous qualitative and quantitative research in the area.