Escaping in digital games: The relationship between playing motives and addictive tendencies in males

Problematic playing behaviour in terms of addiction is well known to be associated with specific traits
(e.g., self-esteem) and weak social settings (e.g., negative relationships). What remains unclear is the
impact of playing motives on addictive tendencies. We investigated how playing motives were related
to problematic playing behaviour. Using ratings indicating explicit motives and response latencies indicating
the activation of implicit motives, we investigated Yee’s (2006) three main playing motives: social
interaction, achievement, and immersion. All three implicit motives were found to be highly activated
among problematic players while only explicit immersion was judged as less important by non-problematic
and excessive players. In addition, implicit immersion together with explicit immersion and playing
hours were found to be strong predictors for problematic playing behaviour. We discuss motives, especially
immersion, as possible risk factors for addictive tendencies when motives become internalised and
therefore automatically activated by thoughts about digital games.