Reasons video games are addictive

1. Beating the Game. To conquer a game, one must spend untold hours navigating increasingly difficult levels. “Sports are made for winner, loser, game over, you move on,” Kurt explained. “Board games are made for winner, loser, pack it up, it’s done. Video games are designed to feed a never-ending and growing appetite for more and more and more.” That can require searching every nook and cranny of screen space for hidden bonuses, leading to the second addictive quality …
2. Exploration. Some titles, like the classic "Myst," are entirely about traversing and studying imaginary worlds. That’s a powerful draw made stronger by the inclusion of secret levels, which have been built into video games since the earliest edition of "Super Mario Bros."
3. Mastery. Programmers build feedback into the game (hand controllers vibrate, for example, when your player is “shot”) so that players get visual and physical responses to what they’re doing onscreen. Psychologically, this fuels the learning process, making the player even more eager to master elements of the game.
4. The High Score. Of course, beating the high score has been an incentive since the earliest pinball machines. But video games are different in that the higher you go, the more difficult the game becomes. Players spend countless hours trying to get a new high score, even if the one they’re besting is their own.
5. Story-Driven Role-Playing. Everyone wants to know how the story ends, whether it’s a children’s fairy tale or a plot-driven video game. Some games let teens control an onscreen figure, but role-playing games go much deeper by allowing the player to create and become the character in a story. Being so personally invested makes it that much harder to quit. This is why more and more games are constructed around a foundational story.
6. Competition. Boys in particular love to lock horns in spirited contests. With multiplayer options, teens take on both the game and other gamers for bragging rights. Some committed fans go so far as to schedule activities and sleep patterns to accommodate a network of online partners or opponents.