Psychologists at the University of Rochester, in collaboration with Immersyve, Inc., a virtual environment think tank, asked 1,000 gamers what motivates them to keep playing. The results published in the journal Motivation and Emotion this month suggest that people enjoy video games because they find them intrinsically satisfying.

"We think there's a deeper theory than the fun of playing," says Richard M. Ryan, a motivational psychologist at the University and lead investigator in the four new studies about gaming. Players reported feeling best when the games produced positive experiences and challenges that connected to what they know in the real world.

The research found that games can provide opportunities for achievement, freedom, and even a connection to other players. Those benefits trumped a shallow sense of fun, which doesn't keep players as interested.

"It's our contention that the psychological 'pull' of games is largely due to their capacity to engender feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness," says Ryan. The researchers believe that some video games not only motivate further play but "also can be experienced as enhancing psychological wellness, at least short-term," he says.

Ryan and coauthors Andrew Przybylski, a graduate student at the University of Rochester, and Scott Rigby, the president of Immersyve who earned a doctorate in psychology at Rochester, aimed to evaluate players' motivation in virtual environments. Study volunteers answered pre- and post-game questionnaires that were applied from a psychological measure based on Self-Determination Theory, a widely researched theory of motivation developed at the University of Rochester.

While Americans seem to generally favor NASCAR as their preferred racing league, folks elsewhere tend to flock to Formula One for its extremely technical racing. In truth, the sport's hardcore following is tremendous and gaming fans accept no less than perfection from titles based on it. With slick visuals, quick pacing and promises of racing bliss, Formula One Championship Edition attempts not only to please the sport's direct fans, but general racing junkies the world over as well.

One issue that always creeps up with regards to F1 games is that there's a fine line between the simulation aspects, accessibility and, most importantly, fun. Sony and SCE Studios Liverpool have attempted to address this by providing a number of options that allow anyone to quickly get into the game. Aside from AI difficulty, you'll also find options for turning car damage on and off, adjusting weather variance, racing lines, traction control, automatic spin recovery, brake assist and more.