Escaping the woes through flow? Examining the relationship between escapism, depression, and flow experience in role-playing and platform games

Abstract

Playing video games to escape daily life is associated with problem video gaming and depression. Playing to escape is an especially common motive among players of role-playing games (RPGs). Given that RPGs are highly immersive, a possible source of positive affect for depressed escape players may be the rewarding aspects of flow or immersion. We aimed to ascertain whether players who report gaming to escape are more prone to experiencing flow while playing RPGs but not arcade-type platform games. In Experiment 1, we measured the depression symptoms and player motives of 56 participants while they played an RPG. We measured subjective arousal, flow, and positive affect after each condition of an ABBA design (A was a control condition featuring a simplified game, B the fully immersive game). In Experiment 2, we recruited 65 players to play a simple platform game (also measuring problem video gaming and mindfulness). In both studies, we contrasted those in the upper tercile of escape motivation scores with those in the lower tercile of these scores. Escape gamers (n = 20) had greater flow and positive affect while playing an RPG (Experiment 1) than did non-escape players (n = 19), but escape (n = 22) and non-escape (n = 22) gamers did not differ in flow and affect when playing a platform game (Experiment 2). Gaming to escape was significantly correlated with depression in Experiment 1. Experiment 2 showed that escape gaming was associated with problem video gaming and mindfulness problems. These findings suggest that escape gamers may find relief through the enjoyment of experiencing flow, but only in immersive games.