Аннотация:This article introduces a special issue of the journal, dedicated to research into the psychology
of playing computer games. The interdisciplinary character of gaming-activity research is
emphasized by the example of ethnographic, culturological and psychological works. The characteristic
view of ethnographic science, which sees gaming as entertainment and a way of spending
spare time, is dominant in research practice, including psychological and pedagogical practice.
This is connected with studies on gaming activity and the psychological qualities of computer
gamers. 25 years of psychological research in computer game-related activity in Russia are
reviewed. The article refers to such lines of conducted research as the study of personality traits
and cognitive characteristics of gamers, their implicit beliefs, and the psychological addictions of
gamers. However, the frontline of foreign research is significantly wider and some trends of these
works are insufficiently represented in home scientific literature. Among them is the disputed
issue about whether or not aggressive computer games cause an escalation in aggression among
gamers, as well as about the specifics of cognitive processes in gamers. Contemporary approaches
to finding solutions for these questions are explored on both analytical and empirical levels in the
articles that constitute this special issue. In one analytical article the argument is put forward
that contemporary multi-user games encourage not only gaming activity, but communicative
activity as well, and to some extent represent something like a “club”.