Abstract

In this study, the usability and applicability of a mindfulness based online administered gamified short-term intervention for people suffering from internet gaming disorder is investigated in a subclinical sample (N = 49). Within a four-week intervention program (Room2Respawn) participants were randomly allocated to a gamified condition (experimental) or a neutral condition (control). Participants were provided with three intervention sessions per week consisting of psychoeducation on internet gaming disorder and mindfulness-exercises. Most of the intervention content has been adopted from a group-therapy intervention to an online platform. The 39 participants who participated over the course of the whole intervention rated the usability of the online-intervention overall and across all measures as good or very good. There was no evidence for beneficial effects of gamification on motivation when compared with ratings from a control condition. Areas of improvement and study limitations are discussed. Due to an easy applicability and very good usability, Room2Respawn shows potential to develop into a low-threshold treatment option, which, after rework, needs to be put to test on a sample showing clinical symptoms of pathological internet gaming.

Key words: mindfulness, internet gaming, gamification, internet gaming disorder, usability, applicability.