When one of World of Warcraft’s top ten guilds recruited Cam as their chief hunter, his suicidal thoughts surged. To earn the enviable invitation, Cam had spent 16 hours a day grinding on WoW, to the detriment of everything else. He told his father he’d scored a job at a local restaurant, but every day after his dad…
Indie publisher Devolver Digital is releasing a new Super Nintendo game that looks to raise awareness of video game development crunch, with all its profits going to a mental health charity.
I recently found out that the most hot-headed guy in my Overwatch crew—who throws the biggest fits whenever we lose—is actually a professional therapist.
Video games have a spotty history when it comes to addressing mental health. Often, people with mental health issues are demonized, portrayed as the nefarious villains in games like Outlast or Far Cry 3. In other games, mental health is reduced a sanity meter or other mechanic, such as in Amnesia or Darkest Dungeon.…
For some people, board games are only bits of cardboard, wood or plastic. They’re just spaceship models or dungeon maps or dense rulebooks, a bit of fun after a strenuous week at the office. I know they’re more because they helped give me back my wife. After she was critically injured in a car crash, I watched her…
Adam Davis, co-founder of the Dungeons & Dragons therapy group Wheelhouse Workshop, thinks kids with social issues aren’t being asked the right questions. In a dreary school counselor’s office, it can be hard to engage with “Why aren’t you doing your homework?” and “Have you tried joining clubs?” For Davis, more…
Elizabeth E. looted everything in Fallout 3’s Raven Rock. She collected three units of vodka, five stealth devices, four cuts of mirelurk meat and 88 Stimpacks, which weighed her down a considerable 3,169 pounds. Her pack was so heavy that traveling from Raven Rock to Fort Independence took four hours. She was…
YouTube celebrities, especially women in the beauty vlogging community, have been open about how their extremely public job affects their mental health. In many cases, showing their face to millions of people has led them down dark paths. Self-harm, anxiety, depression and eating disorders are just some of the mental…
“I went to GameStop a couple of months ago and even that wasn’t a far trip at all,” says Troy. He pauses for a few seconds, as if lost in thought. “I wanted some Wii U games,” he laughs. “That was interesting.”
Internet addiction is a controversial subject. Some experts say it's a real thing, others say it's not. Regardless of the science behind it, one Chinese man took it very seriously. So much so, that he called the cops on himself.
Usually when "video games" and "depression" show up in a sentence together, there's a research team trying to prove that playing video games causes or at least correlates with depression, especially in kids and teens.
While more mainstream video games are under fire for causing depression, a new study at East Carolina University finds that playing casual puzzle games is an effective way to combat clinical depression and anxiety. Guess who underwrote the study?
Hundreds of thousands of U.S. war veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by their experiences on the front lines. According to Stay Strong Nation, games like Call of Duty: Black Ops can bring those experiences rushing back.
The Humvee drives down a crowded street in a foreign land. A child waves. Merchants display their wares. Suddenly soldiers raise their rifles as a suicide bomber runs into the street, detonating his lethal package. This is virtual PTSD therapy.
Using the television or video game console to babysit your child might be more detrimental than you think. The results of a two decade study show that actively participating in your child's life could save them from severe personality disorder.
