Ill Health and Grief Fuel Gaming, while Lethargy Slows It: Playtime–Wellbeing Confounds from the Player Perspective

Time spent playing video games (playtime) is not strongly correlated with wellbeing. However, quantitative studies often overlook “third variables” that thereforethe relationship between gaming and wellbeing—risking masked true effectsor spurious associations. In this theoretical thematic analysis of 987 freetextresponses from 393 adult players, we document 17 varied factors that participantsthemselves believe shape both their gaming and wellbeing, mapped to five categories: physical health, household responsibilities, work/school pressures, socialrelationships, and other leisure. Some factors like stress and grief led to increasedgaming and lower wellbeing, whereas others (such as intensified caretaking duties)reduced both gaming and wellbeing. Factors were sometimes perceived as havingcontradictory or moderated impacts (e.g., mild illness increasing gaming as adistraction, but severe illness reducing it). We offer specific measurement recommendations, guiding comprehensive covariate inclusion to better isolate gaming’scomplex causal effects.