Since digital games entered the mass market in the 1980s, the public, as well as many scholars, have viewed them with skepticism. For example, early studies investigated whether playing video games may lead to decreases in academic performance (Harris & Williams, 1985), cardiovascular risks (Gwinup, Haw, & Elias, 1983), or epilepsy (Maeda et al., 1990). From early on, the use of violent games has been considered a possible cause of aggressiveness (e.g. Ellis, 1990); a topic that gained particular attention in the context of the school schoolings of Columbine, Erfurt, or Winnenden, and that is still being discussed controversially among scholars (Drummond, Sauer, & Garea, 2018; Scharrer, Kamau, Warren, & Zhang, 2018). Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) decided to include the addictive use of digital games (“gaming disorder”) into the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). This has triggered a worldwide debate about the question whether the classification in the ICD-11 is useful or not and what consequences will arise from it (e.g. Aarseth et al., 2017; Király & Demetrovics, 2017).
The dominance of research and debates on negative effects of gaming may disguise the fact that playing digital games is a very popular and entertaining spare time activity that attracts billions of players worldwide. In recent years, more and more studies on positive aspects of playing were conducted that may help to overcome the one-sided view of digital games as a risk to health and society. For example, studies examined the educational potentials of digital games in school contexts (e.g. Bai, Pan, Hirumi, & Kebritchi, 2012) or in health care and intervention (e.g. DeShazo, Harris, & Pratt, 2010). Other studies explored the benefits of using so-called exergames—a combination of digital game and physical exercise (e.g. Staiano & Clavert, 2011). Also commercial off-the-shelf games were brought in connection with positive effects, such as recovery and stress reduction (e.g. Reinecke, 2009a; Reinecke, Klatt, & Krämer, 2011).
The current chapter will overview of some of these positive effects playing digital games, with a specific focus on how the use of games may contribute to players’ well-being. Well-being is a concept that is often associated with positive psychology and refers to optimal experience and sufficient mental functioning (Ryan & Deci, 2001). In particular, we will distinguish between three often-investigated subcomponents of well-being: hedonic, eudaimonic, and social well-being.
Digital Games and Hedonic Well-Being
In a general sense, the hedonic component of well-being relates to the experience of positive affective (i.e. mood) states. Hedonic understandings of well-being have often been associated with the Greek philosopher Aristippus who believed that living a good life in essence means maximizing individual pleasure and enjoyment and minimizing pain and suffering (Huta, 2017; Ryan & Deci, 2001). The hedonic view of well-being was also adopted by psychologists like Kahnenman and colleagues (1999) who stated that the primary aim of psychological treatment and research should be to assist people in creating pleasurable experiences and amplifying happiness as well as in reducing negative emotions like sadness or dissatisfaction (Ryan & Deci, 2001). Pleasure and happiness are two terms that have often been used to define hedonic experiences. Others include fun, enjoyment, relaxation, or carefreeness (Huta, 2017). Further, hedonic well-being was often understood as a state in absence of negative feelings, such as stress, depression, anxiety, or emotional pain (Huta, 2017).
Communication researchers and media psychologists have brought hedonic well-being in connection with the use of entertainment media, including films and television (e.g. Vorderer & Reinecke, 2012; Vorderer, Klimmt, & Ritterfeld, 2004). Viewing a comedy, reading a novel or listening to pop music can undoubtedly be pleasurable experiences that increase individual’s enjoyment and well-being. A good example for a theoretical concept of entertainment research that has a clear link to the hedonic understanding of well-being is escapism (e.g. Katz & Foulkes, 1962). It is widely known for several decades that escaping daily life problems can be an important motivation to use media content (e.g. Hastall, 2017). From a hedonic perspective, media use thus can be seen as s sufficient strategy to (at least temporarily) increase well-being via the distraction from stress, interpersonal problems or day-to-day worries.
Concerning digital games, several studies have found that escapism and being immersed into a fantasy world to be relevant motivations of players (e.g. Scharkow, Festl, Vogelgesang, & Quandt, 2015; Sherry, Lucas, Greenberg, & Lachlan, 2006; Williams, Yee, & Caplan, 2008; Yee, 2006a, 2006b). Especially complex games like online role-playing games are often used for escapism-related motivations like immersion/fantasy (e.g. Ghuman & Griffiths, 2012; Scharkow et al., 2015). These games typically feature detailed narrations within a sophisticated virtual world and offer the fascinating opportunity to take over different identities. They thus provide an optimal environment for a pleasurable escape from the restrictions and difficulties of the real world.
While escapism is a rather broad concept that relates to many different facets of distractive media use, mood management theory (Zillmann, 1988) takes a more pronounced perspective by focusing on media-based mood regulation processes. Introduced by Zillmann (1988), mood management theory claims that the use of entertainment media can be an efficient coping strategy to bring negative mental conditions and suboptimal excitation levels back into balance (and thus to increase hedonic well-being). Studies indicate that, for example, bored individuals tend to choose exciting TV programs, while stressed individuals prefer to watch relaxing TV programs (Bryant & Zillmann, 1984). Further, participants in bad moods were found to prefer to listen to energetic-joyful music, which helped them to regulate their affective states (Knobloch & Zillmann, 2002).
In recent years, several studies have also analyzed the mood repair potentials of digital games (e.g. Bowman & Tamborini, 2012, 2015; Rieger, Frischlich, Wulf, Bente, & Kneer, 2015). For example, Bowman and Tamborini (2012) argued that digital games should be particularly well-suited to repair negative affective states since the interactivity they provide make them more demanding (and thus distracting) than non-interactive media. In a laboratory experiment with 176 participants, task demand and the participants’ mood were manipulated and pre- to post-play mood repair was measured. The results indicated that higher levels of task demand (induced by varying levels of interactivity) increased the game’s intervention potential and resulted in a more effective reduction of stress and boredom. In a follow-up study, Rieger et al. (2015) showed that also sadness is more effectively relieved by playing a computer game than by watching a non-interactive gameplay video.
Similarly, a survey study by Reinecke (2009a) showed that digital games are frequently used to recover from stress and strain and that work-related fatigue and daily hassles are significant predictors of the recreational use of games. Playing digital games at the workplace has also been found to have a high potential for recovery from work-related exhaustion (Reinecke, 2009b). A laboratory experiment with 160 participants showed that playing a digital game induced the highest levels of overall re...