Due to the rise in popularity of video games, the general public often focuses on potential negative effects of play such as increased aggression, and lately the problematic use of online games, which is being introduced in the DSM-V and the International Classification of Diseases. In explaining the relationship between playing video games and psychosocial outcomes there are two contrasting hypotheses: the displacement hypothesis, by which increased play time leads to worse psychosocial outcomes, and the psychosocial compensation hypothesis, according to which people play online games to compensate for deficiencies in their real life. Motives for play are often used to explain these compensating relationships with escapism emerging as a motive linked to problematic video game use. According to this, the primary goal of this research was to test the model by which low quality of life leads to negative consequences of playing games through escapism and deficient self-regulation. Furthermore, it was examined whether real life deficiencies are compensated differentially, and due to the social nature of online games, the relationship between social support from different sources and quality of life as well as problematic video game use was also examined. The results show that lower quality of life is related to escapism and fantasy as motives, but there are no relationships between worse social relationships and social motives or lower environment quality with more playing for recreation as was initially expected. Furthermore, there was a key role of face to face contact in the positive relationship between social support and quality of life, while more social support from people that are only communicated with through online games was related to more problematic use. Finally, the hypothesised model in which quality of life contributes to the development of negative consequences of online play through escapism and deficient self-regulation was confirmed.