``Constant Pressure of Having to Perform'': Exploring Player Health Concerns in Esports

Title of the Paper

“Constant Pressure of Having to Perform”: Exploring Player Health Concerns in Esports

Paper Information

• Research Domain: Esports health studies, focusing on players' physical and mental health
• Keywords: esports, mental health, physical health, holistic health, video games, esports players, toxic environments, self-pressure, community support, human-computer interaction

Research Background and Issues

• Identified Problems or Challenges:

  1. Compared to traditional sports, research on esports players' health remains in its infancy.
  2. The immersive and high-intensity training modes in esports, requiring prolonged screen time, have led to physical and mental health issues, including physical pain, stress, and mental health deterioration.
  3. Toxic interactions in esports environments (e.g., online harassment) further negatively impact mental health.
  4. There is a lack of systematic research on effective methods and tools to improve esports players' health.

• Importance and Research Motivation:

  • The esports industry is rapidly growing and increasingly recognized by international organizations and sports associations, making players' health issues an urgent concern.
  • Long-term, high-intensity practice and competition not only affect physical health (e.g., musculoskeletal problems caused by prolonged sitting) but also impose significant mental stress.
  • The esports community needs to explore better support systems to promote players' healthy development.

• Related Work:

  • Current research primarily focuses on performance gaps among professional players, team dynamics, and toxic interactions during competitions, but systematic investigations and solutions for esports players' health are scarce.

Solutions

• Proposed Methods or Solutions:

  1. Collecting esports players' perspectives on health issues through mixed research methods (semi-structured interviews and online surveys).
  2. Developing a theoretical model encompassing four core health factors: daily habits, physical health, mental health, and support systems.
  3. Drawing on existing methods from traditional sports, high computer-use professions, and human-computer interaction fields, such as ergonomics, mindfulness practices, and social-emotional learning, to address esports health concerns.

• Innovative Aspects:

  • The first comprehensive theoretical model globally, exploring the relationship between physical and mental health issues, stress, and support systems.
  • Focus on unique stressors in esports, such as self-pressure and toxic comments from online audiences.

• Implementation Steps and Techniques:

  1. Research: Conduct interviews with 10 professional players and design a survey for 68 esports players, incorporating psychological health and stress measurement tools (MHC-SF and PSS).
  2. Analysis: Summarize relevant factors and their relationships within the health model based on qualitative and quantitative data.
  3. Validation: Confirm correlations among different health factors through statistical analysis.

Research Findings

• Specific Results:

  1. The theoretical model highlights key esports health issues: daily habits, physical health, mental health, and support systems.
  2. Self-pressure is confirmed as a major factor affecting mental health, while support from family, friends, and teams has a significant positive impact on mental well-being.
  3. Major health issues reported by esports players include psychological stress, anxiety, sleep deprivation, and pain caused by prolonged sitting (e.g., eye strain, wrist, and back pain).
  4. Support systems (e.g., family, mental health services) are deemed indispensable for improving players' mental health.

• Advantages Compared to Existing Solutions:

  • Clearly identifies specific health risks in the esports industry, which differ from traditional sports, with greater emphasis on static screen time and mental stress.
  • Provides preliminary intervention recommendations, such as optimizing training and rest schedules, introducing team psychological support services, and promoting health programs.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  • Esports players' psychological health scores (MHC-SF average: 49.28) indicate moderate levels, while perceived stress scores (PSS average: 27.74) suggest stress levels nearing high.
  • Support systems involving family, friends, and teams significantly reduce players' stress, while support from coaches and audiences shows lower correlation.
  • The survey reveals that exercise and nutrition did not significantly impact health scores, but their long-term benefits warrant further exploration.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • The sample is skewed toward North American regions and male players; the impact of gender and regional differences requires further study.
  • When extending to other esports communities, attention should be given to the unique needs of different player types (e.g., varying game genres or cultural backgrounds).
  • Future work should explore the practicality of mindfulness strategies, human-computer interaction optimization, and health intervention tools, as well as develop standardized tools for assessing esports players' health.