Exploring Future Directions for Healthy Escapism and Self-Regulation in Games

People play games with a variety of motivations. One among them is escapism, which is related to playing games to get away from other activities, stressors or problems. This behavior can become detrimental if it is purely pursued for avoidance, however depending on the situation and when utilized mindfully, it can also provide regeneration, recess or a breathing space. It is important for individuals to be aware of their intentions and experiences to be able to better understand how their gaming behaviors may affect them.

We are organizing a workshop on Monday, October 13, 2025, during CHI PLAY 2025 in Pittsburgh, USA to explore healthy escapism and self-regulated gaming. We would like to bring together students and experts, connect researchers interested in similar topics, and create a roadmap for future research in the field. This is a hybrid workshop so you can attend in-person or online!

We invite researchers and practitioners to submit a short manuscript by September 30th, 2025 AoE (2-4 pages in ACM single-column format without references including a brief bio). The manuscripts can be in any form including but not limited to position papers, works in progress, reviews, empirical papers or other.

If the authors did not do any work in the area yet, but are interested in participating in the workshop, they can instead submit a statement outlining their interests and how the workshop topics relate to their area of work.

Topics of interest that we want to focus on include:

• Healthy escapism vs subversive escapism

• Self-regulated gaming

• Emotion regulation

• Stress recovery

• Coping

• Mood management

• Self-determined starting and exiting

• Disengagement from stressors via gaming

Submissions will be reviewed by workshop organizers and invited participants will be notified shortly after the deadline. We are looking forward to receiving your submissions!