As more and more people worldwide play online games, identifying how games can help or harm players' mental health can be helpful for researchers and clinicians developing digital therapies through gaming. This chapter summarizes a scoping review focused on the relationship between digital games and mental health in the last decade. This type of review is designed to provide an overview of the existing evidence base on a particular topic. Of the 115 records selected after the first screening, 21 studies were included according to the inclusion criteria defined by the authors. From this scoping study, it is possible to recommend that even though video games are a real risk for addiction, they can work as digital therapies for psychosocial rehabilitation when administered with precaution in groups with mental disorders such as depression, high levels of anxiety, and ADHD. For this, a rigorous clinical assessment should be conducted that makes appropriate use of gamer typologies and evaluates the individual, emotional, and social factors that impact gamer behavior.

This chapter presents experiences in using gaming and interactive media in higher education environments since 2017 culminating in the 2020/21 years when the COVID-19 pandemic forced teachers and students to adopt different work methodologies. Participatory design strategies merged with a tradition of critical and interdisciplinary studies in humanities mediated by online technologies helped shape these strategies enhanced by the cooperation from three different faculties from Lisbon University in Portugal (Universidade de Lisboa, UL), namely FBAUL, IST, and IGOT. The aim of these experiments was to augment the potential for innovation and research taking advantage of gaming research methodologies to involve teachers and students in a common context. This chapter also shows research done in interactive media, augmented and virtual reality, game art, and gender equity. The year 2020 showed how institutional collaboration can open learning spaces to a more focused approach on the interests of young people and to promote a more sustainable and dynamic future.