In the last episode, we discussed mental health in competitive/professional gamer. In this one, we look at the other side of the coin - non-competitive/recreational/casual gamer.
[DISCLAIMER]: The article is written for my weekly newsletter, and published on my website.
That's one of the dimensions we probably should use when we talk about video gaming. There are also a lot of paper out there we, the readers, just don't know what type of gaming they are talking about. For instance, so authors call their participants "esports players" or "e-athletes" but when you look at the details, they are either some random university students that play esports titles (e.g., SC2, LoL) and hence are "esports players", or are part of a small team. It's really hard, at this stage, to know exactly what some authors are talking about.
Interestingly, #2 is what people used to do with their friends; meet up and play together. Today, it's just everyone in their own room and talking, at best, via Discord with each other. I don't think that's a good trend when it comes to mental health.