It is impossible to resist when you’re out, your smart phone is in your hand, and all you can think of nothing else but beating your high score in Flappy Bird, Temple Run, or even Subway Surfers. Lets face it, whether it be mobile games, PC games, or games on home systems, people are obsessed with video games. Gaming has become a phenomenon that has developed into such an obsession for some that they neglect their other responsibilities.

What makes these games so addicting that people spend hours depleting their phone or tablets battery? Studies show that these mobile games sometimes act as stress relievers, they distract players from stress. They require the users full attention and therefore give them  a break from their  problems.

A game’s unpredictability keeps its players responding and an addiction is born. These mobile game addictions do not just apply to iPhone and Android games; this obsession dates back to 1997 when the Nokia model had just made its debut.  The Nokia came with a game known as “Snake,” a simple game that has a snake that leaves a trail with the goal to make sure the snake doesn’t cross its tail. Surprisingly, this game finds itself to be one of the most played games to date.  Tetris also rivals the popularity of Snake. Both these games are simplistic and have a replay ability and require the players full attention.

Now games such as Flappy Bird, a rage inducing game that required the player to tap the phone screen to make a bird fly through a series of pipes.  Each time a pipe is passed, a point is awarded. No matter how simple it sounds, many people find it impossible to get more than one point when they first downloaded the game, yet it became the most popular game on the App Store (until it was deleted), as people were obsessed with beating their high score.