“...two generations of kids have grown up on five generations of video games. This is not a subculture. This is 50 million adults whose memory and imagination have been coloured by Atari, Nintendo and Sega, the same way that the memory and imagination of previous generations were tinted by television, cinema and vinyl records.”

J.C. Herz (Joystick Nation, 1997)

“Finally, we need to recognise...video games as “objects endowed with special and symbolic meanings”, phenomena of tremendous import and significance to our culture and its future.”

E.F. Provenzo (Video Kids, 1991)

26 June, 1998
3rd Year Psychology Literature Review

Immersion and emotion: the psychological impact of video games

Nicholas Ferguson

Supervisor: Dr Hamish Macleod

Since their advent in the late 1970’s, video games have represented a fusion of the technology of the television and the computer. Public concern about ‘video game addicts’ and the often violent nature and content of the games has been accompanied by varied (and often conflicting) findings from psychological researchers all over the world. This literature review examines the key areas of research which have developed so far, summarising core findings in the investigative areas of addiction, aggression, social role, and cognitive and physiological effect. However, the continued technical advancement of video game design and technology (coupled with a burgeoning demographic of games players) represents a major challenge for researchers. The author proposes that steps be taken to standardise a system of classification and experimental method in order to maintain the credibility of future studies in the years to come.

Introduction

In the last 20 years, computers have escaped from the confines of academia and permeated public life. Terms and concepts such as ‘process’, ‘recall’ and ‘buffer’ are now as commonplace in modern psychology as in the media labs of MIT. For psychologists, the early interest in the technical operations of the computer has been overtaken in many ways by concern over the effect it has on social interaction and our perception of ourselves. Nearly every aspect of daily living is influenced by the microprocessor in some way or another. Authors such as Sherry Turkle (1984, 1995) and Nicholas Negroponte (‘Being Digital’, 1996) have charted the increasing significance of the computer in the modern psyche, and the potential effects of this technology have been the subject of a broad range of research across all facets of psychology.
Video games have raised interest and concern since they first appeared in the late 1970’s. Early newspaper reports of ‘Space Invaders addiction’ and ‘video game fever’ were merely indicators of what has since developed into an interesting area of research: the social and psychological impact of video games. Over time, the playing of these games has become widespread (with the reduced costs and subsequent world-wide proliferation of the technology) globally. Twenty years later, they have become as fixed and important an element of youth culture as music and movies (J.C. Herz, 1997). Yet controversy continues today over the addictive qualities and violent content of games - US Senator Joseph Lieberman has called video games “digital poison” and blames them for playing a significant part in America’s “culture of violence”.
The continued popularity of video games has resulted in a diverse range of literature. Despite this diversity, most of the psychological research can be divided into one of two areas: the cognitive impact of video games (i.e. effects on memory or spatial ability) and the social effects of playing them (i.e. addictive potential, effects on aggressive behaviour). The majority of research papers evaluate the social effects of video games, a response to the most common public concerns about the games: their addictive potential and their often violent content. Gender differences are another popular topic of investigation. Other research explores the potential benefits of these games as therapeutic exercises (certain games make various cognitive and physiological demands which have been found useful as therapy for the elderly or disabled). One key point is that subjects in the vast majority of studies are children and adolescents; most video game players are not adults, although a number of studies have been done with university students.
There are two fundamentally different forms of ‘video game’ - games that are played at home on computers or consoles (dedicated games-playing machines), and coin-operated machines that are played in public arcades. Although there are obvious significant differences between the two, for the sake of simplicity the terms ‘video game’ and ‘computer game’ should be taken as applying to either type unless specified otherwise. Although arcade machines represent the current state-of-the-art technology, in time, the most popular games are often ‘converted’ to the home computer systems (Fisher, 1994). Many of the games that were originally arcade-only machines in the early research (i.e. Asteroids, Space Invaders) are now widely available on home formats! Griffiths (1997) notes that “the playing characteristics and addictive processes [of arcade and video games] are thought to be almost identical”.
This literature review will summarise the key findings of the research done so far; although the findings of various papers have often been contradictory, there are certain areas where a level of consensus has been reached. However, as the body of research into the effects of playing video games has grown, the nature of the games played has changed considerably. Advancements in computer technology have led to increasingly realistic graphics and sound, advanced artificial intelligence and more immersive, interactive environments. Researchers who have consistently worked in the field have remarked that each successive generation of games could have a markedly different effect on players than the last. Papers published ten years ago seem outdated in many respects, although there is evidence that core findings remain valid. 
The focus of the current research literature tends to emphasise psychological aspects of video game use, rather than specific content. Over the course of this literature review, I will demonstrate how the increasing need for a “taxonomy of games” (Griffiths, 1993) has affected the validity of the findings of various papers, and suggest how advancements in game design, technology and social presence could be handled by psychologists to prevent them ‘re-inventing the wheel’ with each successive level of development. A significant property of all games is that they are interactive: much of the research points out this key difference between video games, and television and cinema which are non-interactive. The concepts of ‘immersion’ and ‘emotion’ represent key elements of the interactive video game playing experience, and in my conclusion I explain why recognition of this, and incorporation of other aspects of video game ‘culture’, would be beneficial to future psychological research.

The Psychological Impact of Video Games

	The effect of playing video games on the social development of children and adolescents is certainly the greatest cause of concern to the public, and is a commonly researched area. Studies have investigated aspects ranging from the addictive potential of these games - and their similarity to fruit machines in this respect - (Griffiths, 1991) to their incorporation into the psychotic phenomenology of brain-damaged patients (Spence, 1993). Addiction, aggression, the social role of video games, and cognitive and physiological effects seem to be the main areas of investigation.

Addiction

Video games have been dubbed “the marriage of television and the computer” (H. Gardner, cited in Greenfield, 1984). Greenfield (1984) has suggested that visual action “is an important factor in attracting the attention of young children to the screen”, and that the potential for “active control” (controlling what happens onscreen) is the fundamental reason children prefer playing interactive video games to passively watching television. As video games combine many of the elements of traditional children’s pastimes (i.e. watching television, playing board games, role playing) it is not surprising they feel so compelled to play them.
	Griffiths (1993) proposes that there are two types of video game addict - the first type (“primary addiction”) is addicted to the machine itself, and plays “to test their skills, to get social rewards and most of all for [arousing properties]”. Players with “secondary addiction” play as a form of escapism, treating games as “electronic friends”. These individuals fit the media stereotype of the socially isolated video game ‘addict’ (although in this case the player is only using the machine to avoid other problems, such as domestic difficulties or physical disability). Griffiths adds that this classification would establish the incidence of “clinically significant problems” with video game addiction. Much of the research into video games suffers from the lack of anything resembling specific clinical terminology; a clear lexicon would benefit the area significantly.
	Attempts to identify video game addiction in children and adolescents have had varying results. In many samples, “heavy users” have been found who “sacrifice the buying of food, clothes and cinema visits, as well as sporting activities, in order to play video machines” (Fisher, 1994). Griffiths (1991) has suggested “playing a video game could be considered a non-financial form of gambling” and, taken to excess, could be seen as a “non-substance form of addiction”. Fisher continued investigation along this chain of thought, presenting 493 secondary school children with a modified version of the DSM-IV questionnaire (used to determine pathological gambling in adults), altered to detect pathological video game playing (see Appendix). 6% of the children questioned were defined as “pathological players”, scoring four or more items on the index.
	Griffiths (1993) has stated that excessive video game playing can have “potentially damaging effects upon a minority of individuals who display compulsive and addictive behaviour, and who will do anything possible to ‘feed their addiction’.” Monitoring these individuals would enable the identification of the root causes of their pathological play, and the impact of such behaviour on social life. One such study was carried out by Keepers (1990), who observed pathological preoccupation with video games in M.E., a 12-year old boy. The child had been playing video games at local arcades for 4 to 5 hours a day for the past 6 months. A single day’s play would cost between $30 and $50; the child had obviously been stealing to play. M.E. had also been avoiding school and ignoring old friendships, preferring to associate with other boys whose activities also centred on video games.
After the failure of traditional behavioural therapy methods M.E. was asked to design his own game, and from that gradually talked about his feelings of helplessness and fear of his father. M.E.’s pathological playing was, in fact, a partially successful adaptive response (time spent at the video arcade also meant he could physically avoid his father, and the tense situation at home). Marital and family therapy followed, resulting in parental separation, and 6 months later M.E. no longer exhibited this adverse behaviour (Keepers, 1990). This detailed examination of a single case study provides more insight into ‘addiction’ to video games than can be determined in even the most detailed questionnaires, lending support to Griffiths’ suggestion that much can be learned from studying the definite ‘addicts’ (although most research concludes that only a small minority of video game players develop addictive behaviour patterns).

Aggression

	In recent years, the issue of violence in video games has increasingly overshadowed the potential dangers of addiction. Although the combative nature of game software has always been a cause of concern, the increasing level of realism in video graphics and sound has intensified the debate over game-related violence. The argument (often put forth by politicians and the media) is that violent video games result in increased levels of aggression in those that play them. Both Griffiths (1997b) and Scott (1995) have pointed out inconsistencies and a lack of concrete empirical data in research backing up claims that playing aggressive games does, in fact, make players more aggressive.
	Social learning theory hypothesises that violent video games will promote aggressive behaviour in children, who would imitate what they see onscreen. Conversely, catharsis theory suggests that aggressive games will channel latent aggression and thus have a positive, soothing effect on a child’s behaviour. These dual theories have been used to address concerns about violence in films and television, but the interactive role of individuals playing video games suggests that effects there (if any) will be greater. This argument has been countered by those who argue video game graphics are not as realistic as film and television, and comparisons to cartoon violence are more appropriate. However, in recent years computer graphics have become remarkably realistic (Scott, 1995) with many games using the now-common CD-ROM format to show video footage of real actors, or depicting highly detailed three-dimensional characters. Indeed, most games are now developed in 3D, and market tastes have indicated that the more realistic a game is, the better it sells. As movie-quality images and virtual reality technology enhance realism, game content must be evaluated from the participants’ perspective (Funk & Buchman, 1996).
	Griffiths (1997b) comprehensively reviewed a number of studies examining the relationship between video games and aggression. The majority of studies reviewed included observational, self-report and experimental methods to obtain their results. Cooper and Mackie’s (1986, cited in Griffiths) observations of ten year-old children concluded that playing or watching violent video games had a significant effect on girls’ aggressive behaviour, but not that of boys. Silvern and Williamson (1987, cited in Griffiths) found that even much younger children also became more aggressive when observed during play after experiencing an aggressive video game. Observational studies often agree that young children do experience an increase in aggressive behaviour after playing violent video games, although Griffiths (1997b) suggests that the methodology (observational analysis of free play) may contribute to the effect. In the case of older game players, Spence (1988) reported that video games averted violence by releasing tension; his work focused on youths with emotional and behavioural problems (and often violent case histories).
	Self-report studies are another common method of research. Anderson and Ford (1986) measured the hostility of undergraduates after playing a video game, using the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist. They found that playing aggressive video games can have a negative effect on the emotional state: players showed increased hostility and anxiety. Similarly, Griffiths and Hunt (1993, cited in Griffiths 1997b) found that video game playing adolescents reported that violent video games made them more aggressive. This finding was highly significant when correlated with the frequency of play. However, correlational evidence is prone to criticism; positive correlations could be interpreted the other way round (i.e. violent individuals prefer playing video games). Also, correlations needn’t be directly related - a host of intermediate factors (social status, education, personality etc) probably intervene between video game violence and aggressive behaviour.
	Experimental studies have come to various conclusions. Many of the measures of “aggression” in young children are gauged from their performance in role-play situations, yet this may not translate into a ‘real-life’ aggressive effect. As the children are only engaging in some form of fantasy violence in the experimental situation and not real violence, they could just be acting in line with catharsis theory: behaving aggressively in what they see as ‘play’ with the experimenter. Ethical considerations mean it is impossible to study seriously aggressive behaviour in the laboratory.
Scott (1995) investigated the effects of playing several video games (with varying amounts of violence) on university undergraduates. Aggressive affect (rather than overt aggression) was measured using the Buss-Durkee Inventory, which groups items into sub-scales of various aspects of aggression and hostility (providing a finer analysis of the concept of ‘aggression’). Scott pointed out flaws in previous experiments, claiming that many games categorised as non-aggressive (such as Pac-man) still involved themes of violence and conflict. However, veteran video games designer Chris Crawford (1982) claims that “Conflict is an intrinsic element of all games. It can be direct or indirect, violent or non-violent, but it is always present in every game”. Even Scott’s choice of non-violent game (the popular puzzle game Tetris), requires players to ‘battle’ against an time limit as they manipulate geometric blocks falling down the screen; failure results in the end of the game.
Tetris does not contain scenes of violence like those in Scott’s most violent game (Fatal Fury, a ‘beat-em up’ where the goal is to pummel a human opponent into submission using an array of martial arts moves), but Scott found that only those who played Tetris (the non-aggressive game) showed any increase in aggressiveness afterwards. Scott expected a linear increase in aggressive affect after playing “non-aggressive, moderately aggressive and highly aggressive games”, but no such increase was found. He concluded that his study showed “the need [to] consider the strength of individual differences when researching the effects of video games on feelings of aggression”, warning against glib generalisations in the face of complex interactions between such variables as age, gender, experimental duration, personality traits, expressed hostility and exhibited aggression (Scott, 1995). Scott’s results are perhaps not as surprising as they might seem; Tetris is a game with a very simple concept but can prove extremely frustrating, particularly to novice players. As mistakes are made the tower builds up, gradually leading to the end of the game (resulting in feelings of self-criticism). With Tetris, there is no easy way to blame the computer for your own bad performance!
Griffiths (1997b) draws a connection between the various types of games available, and the likely violent content of each game. He goes so far as to propose nine categories of video games (see Appendix). In 1993, Griffiths suggested that “particular types of games have very positive effects, while others are not so positive”. Researchers who struggle to define games should, he suggests, turn to the vast amount of literature available in game magazine reviews. These reviews also rate games on a number of different dimensions, including graphics, sound, playability, long and short-term ‘lastability’ as well as an overall rating. If those who play the games “work with this degree of definitional refinement, it follows that researchers should do also” (Griffiths, 1993). The adoption of global classifications for the various video game genres would be a useful step on the road to conformity for many researchers.

Social Role

Provenzo (1991) has recommended that violence in video games be addressed in “a much more ecological/social context than has been the case”. He compares the social role of video games to that of television and cinema, claiming that the pervading presence of gender stereotypes and sexual discrimination leads to a negative effect due to the processes of “amplification” and “reduction” (Bowers, cited in Provenzo 1991). This suggests that video games (and computers in general) are not ‘neutral’ technologies but have an innate effect on society by their very nature, yet “their role in the selection and amplification of culture is almost totally ignored” (Provenzo, 1991). After numerous interviews asking about their favourite games, young children of about 6 years old “seemed directed by the content of the games to construct a social reality based on the games” (Provenzo, 1991). Incorporation of certain elements of popular video games (such as violent martial arts moves and perceptions of women as helpless victims of violence and abuse) could well be unhealthy in children’s social development.
Video games may have another effect by forcing the player into linear behaviour patterns; in many games there is only one way to ‘win’, or display mastery (usually through the use of violence). There is no alternative method of winning other than memorising the workings of the game, deciphering the pre-programmed ‘rules’ and exploiting a technique that will enable the program to be ‘beaten’. “By providing such limited boundaries and possibilities, the games...not only diminish but seriously limit and circumscribe how the players involved in them can define themselves and their sense of being” (Provenzo, 1991). Whether a generation spoon-fed video games will be unimaginative, linear thinkers or not is a question that current research cannot yet answer, but Provenzo makes an interesting point about the role of games (and, debatably, the wider role of computers) in a child’s social development. Another perspective is that children’s mastery of technology not only equips them well for the future, but builds confidence and self-esteem (Turkle, 1984). Spence (1988) recounts similar evidence for young adults, adding that despite the concerns often expressed (and criticism of his therapeutic use of video games) “usage [of video games] effects positive change”.
	Funk & Buchman (1996) examined an older age group in their analysis of violent video games and adolescent self-concept. They evaluated 434 participants with a study questionnaire and utilised Harter’s 1988 Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents to evaluate participants’ judgements of themselves as individuals. Previous research in this field was contradictory (yet again, attributed to variations in age groups, gender and experimental procedure) and, again, previous methods of measurements were criticised as inadequate, using responses to only a few questions, or extrapolating from scales designed to measure other variables. With varying results in prior literature, Funk & Buchman chose not to predict whether the impact of game playing would be positive or negative, nor even whether significant associations between self-concept and game playing would be causal. It indicates the dubious usefulness of prior research when experimenters choose not to put forward a decisive hypothesis!
	Funk & Buchman suggested that time spent playing games at home, time spent playing games in arcades, the proportion of ‘fantasy violence’ games listed as favourites, and the proportion of ‘human violence’ games listed would be significant predictor variables. Violent games both involved “fighting or destroying things in order to avoid being killed or destroyed”, the difference being that in human violence games, the characters perpetuating the violence were human (as opposed to cartoon or fantasy characters). The most significant results were gender differences; consistent with past research, boys spent more time playing games at home and in the arcade than girls. Girls were far more likely to list fantasy violence games as favourites, whereas boys preferred human violence. However, the overall difference between genders in preference for all violent games was not significant. Although commitment to playing games did not result in a lower self-concept for boys, young adolescent girls had lower perceived self-competence if video games were a major time commitment.
	Funk & Buchman concluded that they found no indication video games cause “major adjustment problems” for most players. They admit that though their evidence is statistically significant it may not be “practically significant”, but point out that their findings parallel those of television researchers. In conclusion, they state that although “a large number of variables impact self concept...the fact that playing electronic games, a completely voluntary media interaction, has any significant negative relationship with self-concept warrants further study”. They recommend improving their experimental method to utilise sophisticated techniques such as structural equation modelling, assessing age-related changes in game-playing habits and the potential of collaborative studies to gather evidence of a widespread preference for certain game types. Finally, the question of whether there are true “high-risk” players, or playing habits, is also highlighted as an important area for investigation. This study shows the need for a structure of experiments that will allow meaningful cross-study comparisons of specific issues, rather than continuing all-encompassing research on ‘the effect of video games on people’, treating both the ‘games’ and the ‘people’ as homogenous masses. 
	
Cognitive and Physiological Effects

	Although tabloid sensationalism has spurred a flurry of research into the social implications of video games, the effect of game playing on various cognitive (and physiological) processes has also been a common topic of research. Video games have been used as tools in cognitive therapy, and a small amount of experimental methodology has used games - not as the subject of the experiment, but as a method of obtaining results. “Playing video games requires concentration, memory, co-ordination and quick reactions” (Goldstein et al, 1997).
	Goldstein et al (1997) studied the effects of playing video games on the reaction time, cognitive/perceptual adaptability, and emotional well-being of a small group of elderly people (aged 69-90). Ten participants played a puzzle game, Super Tetris, for 5 hours a week over 5 weeks and their results were compared to that of a similarly-sized control group. Reaction time (as measured by the Sternberg Test) increased significantly among video game players, as did reported emotional well-being. Cognitive and perceptual skills (measured using the Stroop Colour Word test) improved in both groups, but the greater improvement in video game players was not statistically significant - possibly a result of the relatively small number of subjects. However, Goldstein et al’s findings are concurrent with the sparse remainder of relevant literature, which hypothesises behavioural, cognitive and emotional effects.
	Research done with the elderly may have more dramatic results than if done with other age groups. Goldstein et al’s subjects were mentally competent, with no motor impairment and good vision, but improvements in motor skills and cognitive processes may be less noticeable in younger subjects. Goldstein (1997) also suggests that “any activity [requiring] concentration, memory and quick reactions...results in improvement in physical and emotional responses”; the unique properties of Super Tetris may not be those underlying change! Finally, the Stroop Task utilised had little relation to the content of the game, and could be considered a bad measurement of the game’s effect on ‘cognitive and perceptual adaptability’ - colour recognition and verbal ability are not required skills in Super Tetris.
	Dustman et al (1992, cited in Goldstein et al) suggest that “positive changes can occur in the central nervous system...over a relatively short time through the practice of activities most find enjoyable”. The concept of cognitive rehabilitation through computer games can be supported with numerous findings of a link between performance in computer games and certain cognitive abilities: spatial ability, motor co-ordination, tracking capacity, attention, and memory. In people suffering from cerebral damage, these capacities are often deficient and are targeted for improvement in cognitive rehabilitation programs. Larose et al (1989) used a puzzle game called Super Breakout to improve the spatial abilities of visual scanning and tracking in children with minimal brain damage or serious attention problems.
	The 40 subjects in the experimental group played 3 hours of Super Breakout a week, over a four week period. By the end, their spatial abilities had improved significantly. Larose et al claimed that the “simplicity and specificity [of Super Breakout] represents an efficient visual tracking and scanning rehabilitation tool”. They also draw broader conclusions about the role of video games in cognitive therapy; training software should be designed to consider the processes inherent to each ability, and to allow for individual differences. Learning should be reinforced to maintain progress and motivation(Larose et al, 1989). This specific use of a simple video game, and evaluation of its effects on a specific cognitive function represents a welcome return to precise measurements (and solid experimental method) in video game research.
	The use of computer games in education is a common topic of research. Researching the development of children’s memory skills is popular throughout psychology, and studies have been carried out investigating the potential of computer games in aiding children’s learning. Levin & Kareev (cited in Greenfield, 1984) have suggested that as video games create their own micro-worlds, game designers could structure these worlds to reflect knowledge a child should acquire. Many children’s ‘edutainment’ software titles use this process, essentially functioning as an interactive version of television programmes designed to do much the same thing (i.e. Sesame Street). However, the market for educational software is still relatively minute compared to that for the more traditional games. Oyen & Bebko (1996) evaluated the different contexts of learning in a ‘traditional’ environment, and learning using a computer game. They concluded that although the children playing the games were seen to rehearse more, their scores in a subsequent test were worse than those of the control group. Oyen & Bebko hypothesised that although the game environments might have been more stimulating for children, the distracting components and multiple goals may have occluded the main goal of the game. Again, specific game content and the player’s experience of the game appears a central issue. Games such as Super Breakout and Super Tetris are very simple in concept compared to most modern games. Although this simplicity works well for experimental situations, results obtained cannot be easily transposed onto, say, the more complex, modern first-person 3D ‘shoot -em up’.

Conclusion

	Psychological video game research covers a wide variety of areas. Unfortunately, there seems to be a common flaw in most of the research (particularly in the last decade) where the growth and variety of the video game industry - although documented in much of the literature - has not been matched with any serious attempt to classify and categorise the games in experimental methods or observations. Researchers may call for categorisations by genre, but there is also a strong argument for categorising games by their age. The difference between games released in the mid-1980’s and those currently on sale is staggering - not only in graphics and sound, but also in the diversity, depth and scale of the content. There has not been much investigation into the difference between ‘old’ games and modern games, although numerous researchers have voiced concern at the “compulsive element built into the current generation of video games” and feel modern games “with their increasingly realistic graphics and requirement for complex skills” may be more liable to lead to psychological dependence (Phillips et al, 1995). Addiction is not the only concern; if the effects of games really are magnified by technical improvements, then concerns voiced by those such as Provenzo about the “amplification” of undesirable attitudes and behaviour in developing children are more pressing. Indeed, concerns about video games should be raised even higher by the continued progression of the technology. The concept and consequences of “immersion” in the microworld of a given video game should be a key element when evaluating the psychological impact of that game on an individual.
	The content of modern video games is not the only change over time. Over 2 million Sony Playstations (currently the world’s most popular video game console) have been sold in the UK alone (the estimated world wide figure is 40 million), and the average age of these owners is 21 (Brookes, 1998). This indicates something that games manufacturers have known for some time: the demographic of video games players is expanding. Most research has chosen to look at the effects on children and adolescents, which is understandable from a developmental perspective but ignores an increasing number of adult video games players. Questions remain over whether adults play for the same reasons as children, and how their preferences differ.
According to Chris Deering (cited in Brookes, 1998), president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Sony’s goal is to make the Playstation as common in homes as the VCR. As video games become a leisure activity to rival more traditional pastimes such as television-watching and cinema-going, its importance to researchers must increase. However, to cope with the pace of technological change psychologists must approach their research from a more similar angle to the video games players. Keepers’ (1990) case study of a young boy pathologically obsessed with video games was an ideal example of research which evaluated the social situation of the subject, but also related his predicament to the content of the game he seemed so obsessed by.
Casting a cursory glance over the newsagent’s magazine selection reveals a wide variety of video game-related publications, designed to appeal to a wide variety of consumers from 13 year-old schoolboys to 30-something PC owners. Game reviews treat software titles with a reverence previously restricted to film and book reviews. It has become apparent that for games players, video games are an ‘experience’, just like film or television. And like film, video games have become increasingly sophisticated and realistic as they have aged. The concept of “immersion” in video games - the sense of inhabiting a miniature world - is well documented, but the question of “emotion” (a phrase I use meaning the player’s mental and physiological response) is becoming increasingly important.
Indicators already exist of the potential for future games development - the British Film and Television Academy has recently created numerous ‘Interactive Entertainment’ categories for its prestigious BAFTA award, and the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences in the US held its first annual awards ceremony this year. The US military has adopted a version of id Software’s popular action game Doom to train marines, and plans are afoot to extend the training program (Riddell, 1997). Video game characters such as Tomb Raider’s ‘Lara Croft’ are set to star in big-budget Hollywood movies - but only because it is still technically impossible to bring the same level of realism to an interactive level on home computers. An informal age classification system for video games has surfaced in America and the UK, and even the British Board of Film Classification categorises an increasing number of games as suitable only for ‘15’ or’18’-year olds every year.
In the face of this continued development, it is imperative that psychologists determine an experimental strategy that allows individual studies to be compared with each other. I propose that by utilising games publications as a reference for experimental design and adopting the general categories shared by the media, researchers will find they develop a more reliable taxonomy which, coupled with proper evaluation of game content, provides a more accurate categorisation with which to compare data between studies. For current research to be of much value in the years to come, psychologists must make a better effort to understand the many different types of video games available, and the different types of people who play them.

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APPENDIX

DSM -IV

Maladaptive behaviour as indicated by at least four of the following:

1.	as gambling progressed, became more and more preoccupied with reliving past gambling experiences, studying a system, planning the next venture, or thinking of ways to get money.

2.	needed to gamble with more and more money in order to achieve the desired excitement.
	
3.	became restless or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop gambling.
	
4.	gambled as a way of escaping from problems or intolerable feeling states.

5.	after losing money gambling, would often return another day in order to get even (‘chasing’ one’s losses).

6.	lied to family, employer or therapist to protect and conceal the extent of involvement with gambling.
	
7.	committed illegal acts, such as forgery, fraud, theft or embezzlement, in order to finance gambling.

8.	jeopardised, or lost a significant relationship, marriage, education, job or career because of gambling.
	
9.	needed another individual to provide money to relieve a desperate financial situation produced by gambling (a ‘bailout’).

DSM-IV-JV

Maladaptive behaviour as indicated by at least four of the following:

1.	as video game playing progressed, became more and more preoccupied with reliving past playing experiences, studying video game playing, planning the next opportunity to play, or thinking of ways to get money to play.
	
2.	needed to spend more and more money in order to achieve the desired excitement.
	
3.	became restless or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop video game play.
	
4.	played video game machines as a way of escaping from problems or intolerable feeling states.
	
5.	after spending money on video game machines, would often return another day in order to get a higher score (‘score chasing’).
	
6.	lied to family or friends to protect and conceal the extent of involvement with video game machines.
	
7.	committed illegal/unsocial acts, such as misuse of school dinner/fare money, and theft from the home or elsewhere in order to finance video game playing.
	
8.	fell out with family or close friends and jeopardised education because of video game playing.
	
9.	needed another individual to provide money to relieve a desperate financial situation produced by video game playing (a ‘bailout’).

Taken from Fisher (1994).

Categories of video games (adapted from Griffiths, 1993)

1) 	Sport Simulations: This type is self-explanatory. These games simulate sports such as golf, ice hockey, athletics etc (e.g. World Wide Soccer ’97, NHL Powerplay ’97 etc).
	
2) 	Racers: This type could be considered a type of ‘Sport Simulation’ in that it simulates motor sports like Formula 1 racing (e.g. Human Grand Prix, Speedster, Motoracer etc).
	
3) 	Adventures: This type uses fantasy settings in which the player can escape to other worlds and take on new identities (e.g. Atlantis, Star Trek Generations, Overboard etc).
	
4) 	Puzzlers: This type is self explanatory. These games are ‘brainteasers’ which often require active thinking (e.g. Tetris, Baku Baku Animal etc).
	
5) 	Weird Games: These games are not ‘weird’ as such except they do not fit into any other category. They would be better termed ‘miscellaneous’ (e.g. Sim City 2000, Populous 3 etc).
	
6) 	Platformers: These games involve running and jumping along and onto platforms (e.g. Mario 64, Sonic etc).
	
7) 	Platform blasters: These games are ‘Platformers’ but also involve blasting everything that comes into sight (Robocop 2, Virtua Cop etc).
	
8) 	Beat ‘Em Ups: These games involve physical violence (punching, kicking etc) (e.g. Street Fighter 3, Tekken 2, Mortal Kombat etc).
	
9) 	Shoot ‘Em Ups: These games involve shooting and killing using various weapons (e.g. Blast Corps, Mech Warrior, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter etc).

Taken from Griffiths (1997b)