Understanding highly engaged adolescent gamers: integration of gaming into daily life and motivation to play video games

Abstract

It is assumed that many adolescent gamers who play intensively are highly engaged rather than problematic gamers and that they mostly do not experience negative consequences. This study aimed to explore how highly engaged adolescent gamers integrate gaming into their lives, how they experience gaming motivation, and how they view the effects that gaming has on them. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 37 adolescent gamers who played intensively and attended high schools. The interviews were analysed with thematic analysis and two main themes were extracted from the data: The integration of games into one’s life and What drives adolescent gamers to play. Adolescent gamers were found to be active integrators of gaming into their lives, mostly managing to balance gaming with other daily activities and tasks. Although a few of them experienced problematic gaming, they managed to recover, and were generally aware of the dangers. Gaming was purposeful and useful for them, for example for socialising, competition, learning English, becoming more ‘tech-savvy’, and coping with everyday stress. However, it was important for them to engage in other purposeful activities in addition to gaming and not to use gaming as an exclusive coping tool. Theoretical and practical applications are laid out.