Advancement – the desire to gain power, wealth and in game social status

Mechanics – exploring the game rules and mechanics in order to optimize the performance of the character in the game

Competition – the desire to challenge and compete with other players to establish dominance hierarchy

Socializing – casual chatting with other players online, making friends and helping others

Relationships – formation of long term relationships with other players by giving and receiving support and by disclosing personal information relating to your life (Players become better friends with their online guild mates than with their real-life friends)

Teamwork – getting satisfaction from being part of the group, receiving gratification from group achievements.

Discovery – finding and knowing aspects of the game that most other players are not aware off

Role-Playing – creating a story line for your character and developing it through time

Customization – having an interest in changing the appearance of the character by obtaining new clothes

Escapism – using online environment to escape from reality or to escape from problems, or at least avoid them temporary.

Games are designed to attract as many customers as possible. To achieve this goal, they employ a wide range of tools that maximize their gaming experience. It is definitely more fun to play when we share the same experience with someone else -this is why multiplayer games are so popular. Especially with the introduction of the internet into the gaming world, players are now able to virtually connect with others all around the globe.

Another interesting research finding is that individuals that play role playing games tend to develop an attachment towards their in-game character. This involves the internalization and psychological merging of the player’s and character’s identity. Individuals that experience shame and/or pride in their character showcase a higher degree of addiction towards the game - they report increased game enjoyment and play for much longer periods. Research has shown that lower self-esteem is associated with a stronger character attachment, and in turn, these individuals are at a higher risk for developing an addiction.

When we do something we enjoy, our sense of time becomes distorted. We lose track of passing time. This happens all too often with video games. Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow explains this phenomenon. Individuals feel anxious if their skills are not competent to meet the active challenges. They will try to improve as quickly as possible or quit the game. On the other hand, people may feel bored when their skills are much better than the active challenge. Then they will often seek a greater challenge. When the delicate balance of skill and challenge is in equilibrium, one of the aspects of flow, time distortion, occurs.  

Games are designed to deliver challenges for a wide range of skill levels that the player might have. This is in essence the reason behind the “advancement” aspect of games. The challenges always increase with the same proportion as the skill level acquired by the player. Playing one world of Mario Bros. is fun the first time, maybe the second time, but you will quickly lose interest and will find yourself bored if the difficulty of the whole game was constantly low. This is why many games constantly provide updates and new levels to keep players from not losing interest.

There are several similarities found between chemical (such as cocaine, heroin, alcohol) and behavioural addictions (pathological gambling, internet addiction, video game addiction):

• In animal studies, researchers found Increased release of dopamine in the reward region of the brain, nucleus accumbens and ventral striatum in both rats that have been addicted to drugs and behaviours.
• Reduction in the sensitivity of the reward system in pathological gamblers is analogous to the tolerance observed in chemical addictions. Therefore, one will seek stronger reinforcers to compensate for the lack of activation.
• An area of the brain responsible for carrying out logical decision, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, displays decreased activation in pathological gamblers. These individuals perform similarly to patients with prefrontal lesions (frontal variant frontotemporal dementia) in tasks involving decision-making.

Games are designed to attract as many customers as possible. To achieve this goal, they employ a wide range of tools that maximize their gaming experience. The following are components that players are attracted to in games:

• The game world allows individuals to avoid the face-to-face social situations in which they may lack the proper skills to foster good relationships
• Anonymous environment with lower public self-awareness allows players to stop concentrating on the selfconsciousness. Allows shy and socially inhibited individuals build friendships more efficiently. Thus, adolescents may find excitement, intimacy, friendship, and respect within the online-gaming environment to compensate the low self-esteem and poor interpersonal functioning in life. However, these relationships are in essence meaningless. These virtual social networks that act as surrogates for the real world not only reduce the need to socialize in real world, they themselves never actually materialize into real-life relationships.

Therefore, this feeling of control, freedom of self-representation, synchronous interaction, in-game relationships, endless challenges, and an effective reward system all contribute to the addiction players experience to games.

Several risk factors have been identified from research conducted on gamers:

• low self-esteem
• low family support
• low life satisfaction
• being male
• being younger than 27
• Spending more than 20 hours per week on the internet
• Having attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

Some individuals will be more successful at overcoming their addiction to video games. Here are the factors that increase the probability of remission:

• low hostility
• minimal interpersonal problems/anxiety
• perception of high social support