Nicholas Yee's Paper On Understanding MMORPG Addiction

I searched briefly for "MMO Addiction", and this scholarly source popped out at me. The data supplied is shocking. On average, more then 50% of participants said that they have played the game for more then 10 hours straight. Other statistics, such as losing sleep from gaming, and trying to quit, were also staggering. The most interesting statistic, I believe, is the survey that asked whether the participant thought they were addicted. Males of all age categories  showed an approximate 45% addiction admitance, while young women from 12-22 stated over 60% of the time that they considered themselves addicted.

Is this data stating that those female gamers who do play mmo's are more easily addicted to it? Are female gamers more willing to admit their addiction?

As the article progresses, it get's to the core of what I am trying to discover. My main problem with the thought of gaming addiction is that I always believed that addiction was a physical thing. Being addicted to alcohol or drugs is all chemical. This article gave me some insight into how that is not necessarily true.

Lets pull out some of the more interesting statements in the article.

• There are other well-recognized non-physical addictions such as gambling or shopping.
• Relapses after detoxification are frequent. If physical addiction were the real problem, then
  the addiction should be “cured” after detoxification. This is not the case.
• Historical cases of war veterans in Vietnam who were addicted to heroine but had a 95%
  remission rate when returning to the US. This remission rate is unheard of with narcotic
  addicts treated in the US. This case demonstrates that there is something else at work apart
  from the physical nature of addiction.

Reading further, the article splits the factors affecting MMO addiction into "Motivation" and "Attraction" categories. Attraction factors are those that are within the game itself. These can be the social network of friends you can create, the front loaded reward system inherit within MMOs, or the very, very immersive nature that an online world provides.

What I found interesting was the statement that competitive and aggressive gamers would be attracted to the reward system in an MMO. From personal experience I can say this is 100% true. As I stated in a previous blog, I am very interested in gaming from a competitive perspective.

The motivation aspect of addiction is the outside sources. Motivation factors, such as low self esteem, having the feeling that you do not control your life, or being overly stressed, can us the attraction factors of MMOs as an outlet.

All of these factors are behavioral things. What I am curious about, though, is whether video gaming affects areas in the brain in the same way that drugs do.