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Online gaming and its effects on gamers have been largely debated since the booming popularity of online games and video games. This form of electronic entertainment has become a major form of leisure and its influential interactive and immersive properties have led many to worry about its consequences (Ke & Wong, 2018a, 2018b; Agante & Pascoal, 2019; Zorah & James, 2020; Gong, Chen & Lee, 2020; Yuan, Elhai & Hall, 2021). The fairly recent inclusion of Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) in the 5th Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) reflects today’s concern on the rising popularity of these games, particularly those with violent and/or mature themes. Initially introduced in the 1970s, video games can be played on arcade machines, gaming consoles, handheld and mobile devices, as well as computers, and do not necessarily require Internet access. With advances in digital technology, online games which are played either fully or partially on the Internet have gained rapid popularity, particularly with games such as Massive Multi-user Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) that allow interaction in real-time with other gamers (Ferguson, 2018). In an effort to improve playability, most of these games share features of being engaging, fast-paced, interactive, and highly realistic. Research has shown that gaming online is potentially more addictive than gaming offline (Bakken et al., 2009; Lemmens & Hendriks, 2016; Twenge, Martin & Campbell, 2018). As a result, society is divided into communities that advocate the benefits of online gaming, and communities that express concern on the variety of games being introduced. Recent worldwide rankings show that eight out of ten of the most popular PC games contain violent features in their gameplay (Newzoo, 2018).
Hence, the current study has three main objectives, first to investigate the association between problematic violent online gaming and aggression; second, to examine the effect of type of online games played (violent and non-violent) on aggression states; lastly, to study the difference in brain activity during type of online game played (violent and non-violent).