Indeed, the title of the paper is "Motivations of play in online games." Since the author considers addictive behaviour as pathological, the current title doesn't do justice to the content.
Could an editor change the title accordingly?
To winter_blue: I tried to vote you up, but my account is apparently too young (or perhaps not active enough?) for it to take effect.
This is an interesting update on Bartle's Taxonomy of Players (http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm) from back in the MUD days. Sadly, this article is a little dated if you check out the list of games used (Dark Ages of Camelot, Star Wars Galaxies). I would love to see results from a survey like this that used players from Farmville, Mafia Wars and Restaurant City.
Abstract: "An empirical model of player motivations in online games provides the foundation to
understanding and assessing how players differ from one another and how motivations of play
relate to age, gender, usage patterns and in-game behaviors. In the current study, a factor
analytic approach was used to create an empirical model of player motivations. The analysis
revealed 10 motivation subcomponents that grouped into 3 overarching components
(Achievement, Social, and Immersion). Relationships between motivations and demographic
variables (age, gender, and usage patterns) are also presented."
Nick Yee has run the Daedalus Project for years. I know and like it for its insight into the demographics of MMO players: http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/
