The relationship between game genre, monetization strategy and symptoms of gaming disorder in a clinical sample of adolescents

Abstract

Background: Gaming disorder (GD) has been introduced as a new diagnosis in the International Classification of Disease 11 (ICD-11). Currently, there’s limited understanding of how various video games may differentially contribute to the risk of developing GD. The main aim of this study was to examine the relationship between individuals’ game genre preferences, their preferred games’ monetization strategies, and GD Symptoms. Methods: A total of 85 patients undergoing treatment for GD at a child and youth psychiatric clinic were included in the study. Their preferred games were classified into five novel genres based on gameplay similarities and objectives, and further categorized based on their monetization strategy. Results: Symptom burden of GD, measured with Game Addiction Scale for Adolescents (GASA), was highest for those playing Free-to-Play (F2P) games and lowest for Pay-to-Play (P2P) players. Players of Competitive Games endorsed higher GD symptom burden, whereas players of Story-driven games reported lower GD symptom burden. Symptoms of GD were associated with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis in males. Conclusions: This study reveals that game genre preference is influenced by sex, age, and certain psychiatric diagnoses. The categorizing of games into genres is increasingly complex and our research introduces a novel categorization in a developing research field. The result of this study suggests that the monetization model is important to consider while trying to understand the relationship between game characteristics and GD symptoms.

Keywords

• gaming disorder
• game genre
• microtransactions
• loot boxes
• monetization