The existence of a competitor increases enthusiasm when playing video games:

Investigations based on the event-related potential (ERP) component (P300)

Abstract

Studies suggested that an actual existence of opponent players increases competitive motivation and enjoyment of the game playing. However, it is unknown whether a belief of the existence of a competitor also increases these motivation and enjoyment. We hypothesized that projection (i.e., as if playing with a real competitor) would increase the participants' engagement to the video game than playing with the computer player. In this study, the participants played alone (single condition) or played with the fake player (competitive condition), while their brain activity was measured by means of event-related potential (P300). Results showed the amplitude of P300 in the competitive condition was smaller than that in the single condition, indicating that the belief of playing with the opponent player modulated the brain activities. The subjective scores were higher than those in the single condition. These results suggest that a projection modulates the brain activities and psychological states in the video game playing