Is World of Warcraft a viable therapeutic for managing stress? It depends who you are and why you use it.
This very well constructed study looks primarily at females (82%) playing World of Warcraft to cope with stress.
Findings suggested that escapism in the online video game context taps into three distinct concepts: avoidance, distraction, and immersion. While distraction and immersion proved to be a postive form of self-care, avoidance as playing to forget was linked to more problematic outcomes.
These findings challenge the concepts proposed by the World Health Organization that suggest escapism is one of the primary diagnostic tools for identifying gaming disorder.
In many of the cases, using video games for distraction and immersion to cope with stress was found to be therapeutic and restorative.
Where players used video games for avoidance it was only a fraction of players who experienced negative outcomes.
The greatest take away is over generalization of the “harm of video games†is de-legitimizing viable coping mechanisms for many while not accurately identifying the small minority of people who may be harmed by using games to manage stress.
Source
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1875952123000721
