Originally Posted by
Kanadei
I'd definitely be hesitant at getting involved in a project like this without knowing more about the research you are doing.
No offense intended, but there is a lot of one-sided "research" that ends up being used to back biased and negative attitudes around gaming (as I'm sure you would notice by the amount of people who do assignments or studies like "negative interactions in gaming" or "the incredible addictive qualities of gaming") and I wouldn't want to contribute to that in any way.
In response to your OP:
People play mmos for a myriad of reasons, but the addictive quality is generally twofold:
1. Incremental rewards based on continued play
2. Social obligation through relationships formed online
People keep playing mmos because you feel like all the hours are building to something of value, and so as your character progresses you get a form of instant gratification that you don't necessarily get from your professional or personal life (and usually this is exacerbated in people that aren't getting a lot of gratification from their daily life, like single, unemployed or lonely people).
They also do it because they want to be a "team player" and keep contributing. Once you fall into the habit of regularly play, particularly involving other people, you often find reasons to continue that play because said people 'depend' on you for progress - so it becomes a selfish decision to not play just because 'you don't feel like it'. This might seem objectively absurd to an outsider looking in, as you are playing the game to have fun and yet are forced to play even when you don't feel like it and thus aren't having fun, but anyone who has played an mmo will know the obligation that comes with any kind of structured play - especially in a competitive raiding or pvp setting.