What drives someone to be a player?

I've always had this picture in my head of a man with countless women at his side and it's widely acceptable. Take Hugh Hefner for example. He has three girlfriends who all know about each other and accept it. They all live happily ever after in a big mansion. Some say it's disgusting and yes to a degree it is because he's almost in his 80s and his girlfriends are gorgeous and in their 20s. His own children are much older than his girlfriends and yet most men idolise Hugh.
Why? Why is there an incessant need for men to have more than one woman in his life?

I conducted a survey with asking the question why did they think men were so attracted to being players. The recipients were: men, women, single, married, engaged and divorced friends. The responses were all similar and yet they are differed in the way everyone thinks.
I understand it that the way someone thinks is based on the way they have been treated. Every woman has had that heartbreak, that experience where they absolutely hate the opposite sex and claim they don't understand them. Do we? Do we always act so rationally? Yes...men are a species we won't ever understand and there is a reason. I've read a book that made me appreciate the differences between men and women and their thought processes. This book was written by a Doctor and Sex Therapist named Dr. Theresa L. Crenshaw and the book is "The Alchemy of Love and Lust", if it hadn't of been for this book, I would have given up on love or even understanding men a LONG time ago and my relationship with my last boyfriend, we'll call him Snake, would have failed from day two.

I'm not condoning what men think is right but the book highlights the fact that we, men and women, have completely different hormones and different ways of reacting to certain hormonal outbreaks. When it comes to the way men objectify women by "playing the field", I think that women are just as responsible in the act these days. I've found more men willing to commit in my group of friends and yet more of my female friends wanting to "play and have fun". What happened?
What happened to the idea that men were to be promiscuous and unable to settle down and women cried over the bad boy type?
Are women now the bad girls who have sappy men crying over them? Is this a generational thing that somehow was implanted in us growing up by the feminists bursting out at the injustices of the world. Men could do this, men were allowed to do everything and women were to stay at home and cook and rear the children.
This train of thought or even jokes relating to this pasttime can be met with hostility and sometimes violence. Men are just as capable with hands and legs as women are. They can wash up, they can vacuum and they can bloody well rear children. We just happen to have a uterus and give birth.

Wow I got a little carried away there...back to the topic at hand. The men I spoke to gave me a little insight into why men get away and enjoy being players. One response was a broken heart. He didn't want to feel that heartbreak again and so he turned his emotions inward and didn't get invested in another woman again. Is this an answer? Do I think that it's the best way to avoid heartbreak? No.
Just because one woman did it to you, doesn't mean the next one will. It's all apart of being an adult. We get hurt, we grieve, we move on and experience what life has to offer us.
Another response was he wasn't ready for a relationship, he had his career up in the air and he couldn't devote his time to just one woman. He'd want to be able to show her how much he desired her and yet when he had a job that he was so focused on, he couldn't do that.
Mmm I don't believe that. You have this awesome job and yet you can play the field with numerous women? You're giving more of yourself to meet all these different women instead of staying with one who could possibly know more about you than you do. I think it's an excuse not to fall in love, and not to be heartbroken because you know what it's like.

I received the following from women: they want their cake and to eat it too, they're selfish and don't care about anyone but themselves, they want their mates to envy them.

As you can see, men like to justify their actions by giving reasons for the way they act the way they do and women tend to take a more bitter approach. I've noticed of late that women are beginning to take the role of "player" to all new levels but can women keep themselves unattached?

I've come to the conclusion that it's a personal choice. Whether it's a woman or a man, we choose to be promiscuous and  have fun. We choose to begin a relationship and to end one. It all comes down to choice. Do we want to be a "player" or do we want to be in a committed relationship?
No one can tell us to be someone we aren't. We choose to be a player and we can also choose to be against the idea and hate the players of the world but in the end, we can make the choice to be happy and enjoy our life however we want to without hating the idea of a "player" because in the end, aren't we all? We all play games of some kind, whether it be playstation, a facebook application, an iphone application, or mind games. We all play them and we all get played by them. So isn't being a player just another game we all either conform to or are played by?