Explaining the enjoyment of playing video games: the role of competition

The tremendous and still growing popularity of computer and video games has inspired Communication Researchers and Media Psychologists to investigate the factors of the enjoyment experienced by the players. Apparently, the games' interactivity allows for a continuous stream of challenging and competitive situations that have to be resolved by the players. Competition is therefore regarded a key element of the explanation of players' entertainment experience. Subsequent to a theoretical explication, empirical evidence for the role of competition in the playing process and the impact of competitiveness for selective exposure to computer games is reported from a field experiment (N = 349) and an online survey study (N = 795).