However, boys played almost two times the amount of hours as girls. Gentile stated, "It is important that people realize that playing a lot is not the same thing as pathological play. For something to be an addiction, it has to mean more than you do it a lot. It has to mean that you do it in such a way that it damages your life. This is why we-based our definition on how pathological gambling is diagnosed in the DSM-IV. Almost one out of every ten youth gamers show enough symptoms of damage to their school, family, and psychological functioning to merit serious concern."

Dr. Suzanne Martin, youth and education researcher at Harris Interactive, says, "The prevalence of video gaming in youth culture in combination with this level of pathological video gaming is great cause for concern and highlights the need for further research in this arena." Gamers who were interviewed and deemed pathological were getting lower school grades than other students, more apt to have video game systems in their bedrooms (65%), spending significantly more time playing games each week (averaging 24.5 hours per week), and more likely to have been diagnosed with an attention deficit disorder.

Psychologists at the University of Rochester, New York, in collaboration with Immersyve, Inc., a virtual environment think tank, asked 1,000 gainers what motivates them to keep playing. The research as published in Motivation and Emotion suggests that people enjoy video games because they find them intrinsically satisfying (Science Teacher 2007). The Rochester reseachers analyzed at the basic motives and satisfactions that can spark players' interests and maintain play. Four groups of people played different games, including one group tackling massively multiplayer online (MMO) games, which are considered the fastest growing segment of the computer gaming industry. MMOs support hundreds of thousands simultaneous play worldwide. For group playing MMOs, demonstrated the need for relatedness "as an important satisfaction that promotes a sense of presence, game enjoyment, and an intention for future play."

Finally, Young...

Prior research explored the addictive qualities sustaining drug and alcohol abuse, pathological gambling, and even video game addiction. However, Young (2007) stated that "given the relative newness of Internet addiction, little is understood about the habit-forming nature of the Internet and its potential for abuse." As the Internet becomes more a part of homelife, school, and work, what kind of impact will it have on family, academic-, and job-related problems.
Young (2007) stated that with little restriction, students must exercise self-control because Internet addiction can put the student at risk of failing out of school or family and relationship problems. "Students can tumble into major depression when their online steady blips off the screen forever or they experience withdrawal when they try to quit their online habit..."

As can be seen by this brief literature review, more research needs to be conducted in the area of video game/Internet game addiction in order to help those youths who have a problem in this area.