What is the post-game depression? A narrative inquiry

Abstract

Despite the fact that video games and gaming are one of the main focuses of scholars in the field of cyberpsychology, there are a lot of phenomena that hardly get any scientific cover. One of them is post-game depression, a term coined in the gamers community to express a specific state that some of them experience after playing certain video games. However, as to the authors’ knowledge, there has been no research focusing on understanding that state. Based on the findings of narrative psychology, a narrative inquiry approach was chosen for the presented qualitative, exploratory study. Using guidelines from the interpretative phenomenological analysis, the final sample of 35 given narratives of players were analysed, of which 22 described post-game depression and 13 of narrators described reasons why they did not experience it. After comparing the results between the two groups, the general conclusion is that post-game depression is a state of media anhedonia and reminiscing about the game that gave a visceral, insightful, thought-provoking and emotionally driven experience where players had parasocial relationships with in-game characters and/or their avatars/protagonists. Possible buffer factors can be personal growth from the experience and a fulfilling ending for the player. It is important to further understand what other factors, for example, personal traits of the players and specific game mechanics, contribute to that state since it can be a possible cause of serious psychological distress on the one hand, on the other a possible phase of being personally enriched by the experience of playing certain video games.