http://news.mmosite.com/content/c/2012-04-29/why_are_we_playing_mmos.shtml It is obvious that most of the players play MMOs to satisfy their psychological needs. And I believe that many people play MMOs for a variety of reasons. For me, exploring a new fantasy world is a very useful way to reduce pressure, which really helps me get away from my real life. So I mostly play it for simple entertainment and seriously don’t care much about how many puzzles I can solve in a mmo. The second reason is that most of my friends play MMOs. It is a lot of fun to beat the crap out of others in pvp with friends. Anyway why do you play MMOs?
Part of why I play MMOs is I am bad at video games, but have lots of time. I am disabled to the point where I can't sit up on my own. I also have trouble focusing on things, but a computer helps by condensing everything into a focal point for me. I really do perform rather poorly in just about all games, but games help me focus my thoughts and keep me sharpish for other things. In my case quantity most definitely is a form of quality and that is a large part of what MMOs offer. That, and I can mute the game and listen to podcasts and audio books while I play where many single player games I feel like I am losing something even though I always enable subtitles.
It sounds that games really help you a lot. For me, sometimes games drew my attention away from study.
For me I play mmos because I made it as defense mechanism especially when i'm stressed and pressured. MMo games let me experience an extraordinary happiness.