Game Addiction : The Experience and the Effects

An eleven-year-old boy strangled an elderly woman for the equivalent of five dollars in 2007, then buried her body under a thin layer of sand. He told the police that he needed the money to play online videogames. Just a month later, an eight-year-old Norwegian boy saved his younger sister's life by threatening an attacking moose and then feigning death when the moose attacked him--skills he said he learned while playing World of Warcraft.

As these two instances show, videogames affect the minds, bodies, and lives of millions of gamers, negatively and positively. This book approaches videogame addiction from a cross-disciplinary perspective, bridging the divide between liberal arts academics and clinical researchers. The topic of addiction is examined neutrally, using accepted research in neuroscience, media studies, and developmental psychology.

Neils Clark is a lecturer at the University of Washington, and has previously lectured at DigiPen. His work has been published in the journal Games & Culture, and he has been invited to speak at events such as Games for Health, Serious Play and PAX West. Most recently he presented research exploring community engagement in eSports and video game livestreaming.

P. Shavaun Scott is a psychotherapist in both California and Oregon. In her 30-year-career she has assisted thousands of clients who have been victims or perpetrators of violent crime. She has been a member of multidisciplinary treatment teams in behavioral health agencies and has worked as a therapist in forensic programs with the criminally insane. She is passionate about violence prevention.