A Lightspeed Research study reveals that 17 percent of respondents who played social networking games believed that they were "addicted" to them. Lightspeed did not define what they meant when they said that they were "addicted" - were they simply overly enthusiastic about playing their favorite social game or actually suffering from a "psychological dependency" to the game? We do not know.
Lightspeed also said that 58 percent of users said they had played a social game, with 68 percent saying they had played a social game in within the last year. 53 percent of social gamers played daily, with the 55 - 64 age bracket proving more frequent players than those age 18 - 34. 17 percent of identified social gamers played on mobile devices as well; 34 percent of social gamers said that they took advantage of marketing-promoted in-game rewards; 18 percent had followed an advertisement to do so, while 3 percent had signed up for a new credit card that offered bonus virtual goods.
The reasons respondents gave for playing social games included the obvious answer of "fun" (68 percent); competition against friends (26 percent) or to relieve stress (20 percent). Of those, men were more likely to play or compete with friends (28 percent vs. 23 percent of women), while women were more likely to play for fun (71 percent vs. 66 percent of men).
You can read the entire report at www.lightspeedresearch.com.
