Completing a great game can cause unpleasant feelings, and Polish researchers believe that gamers experience a kind of depression.
For some users, completing a large, addictive game does not mean satisfaction at all, but a feeling of emptiness, sadness, and loss. Psychologists from SWPS University and Stefan Batory Academy of Applied Sciences have published the results of a study in the journal Current Psychology.
Scientists emphasize that this is not a clinical diagnosis, but a complex of severe emotional experiences called "post-game depression." The world's first measuring tool, the "Post-Game Depression Scale" (P-GDS), has been created to study the phenomenon.
The study involved 373 players. The analysis allowed us to identify four elements of the phenomenon: obsessive thoughts about the game, difficulty accepting the ending, the need to replay immediately, and a decrease in interest in other media. It has been established that RPG fans are most at risk – players become as attached to the characters as possible and immerse themselves in the world.
Researchers compare this state to a kind of mourning for the loss of an important stage or relationship. Games cease to be just entertainment, becoming a real source of emotions.
