Exploring the appeal of digital games to male prisoners

•Through interviews with prisoners we examine the use of digital games in a prison context.•Motives for digital game play are linked to the deprivations of living in a prison context.•Game play is a functional means to forget about daily concerns and to maintain ties to social reality.•Motives to play games need a reconceptualization in a prison context.

While the functions of digital games in terms of stress relief, mood management and gratifications have frequently been discussed and investigated, little is known about how these functions are distributed along different game genres and along diverse populations. In this article, a qualitative study with 17 long-term sentenced male inmates is presented that explores the uses and gratifications associated with digital game play, and links these to the pains arising from detention. The results indicate that the distinct characteristics of digital games provide inmates with an additional tool to manage time, interact with fellow inmates, escape the prison walls, experience aesthetic emotions and regain the feeling of being in control of a situation.