Slashdot Mirror
Understanding Addiction-Based Game Design
spidweb writes "The common theory is that games like World of Warcraft are addictive. But what are the exact qualities that make it so? Are there specific elements of the design that can be pulled out, distilled, and used at will to give a game drug-like properties? Is it wrong to do so? A new article at IGN RPG Vault attempts to isolates the exact qualities that go into making an addiction-based design. From the article: 'If a game uses rewards of any sort to entice you to experience highly repetitive content, you should see what it's trying to do and which of your buttons it's trying to press. If you don't mind, that's cool, but you should understand it.'"
If a game has me hooked, addicted, and I play it for hours at a time for weeks on end- fine. I'm getting enjoyment, the developers get money, everybody wins. But it seems to me that the games that pull me in the most are those I buy outright, not the WOW-alikes that are subscription based. Surely if you're paying monthly there's always going to be a pressure on Devs to create addictive play? If I'm addicted to a bought-outright game, it's because it's a good game. That can't always be said for pay monthly games- the grind, the acheivements, the high-level horsie you just have to own- do they really add to the game, or do they just feed your addiction?
As a wowtard myself i was addicted to the game for a while, back when it was still up and coming. I can say that, for at least myself, I was addicted to the time invested vs rewards you could achieve. I would pour my time into real life hobbies and the payoffs from those were far less interesting, and nowhere near as cool as those that I could achieve in WOW. Yes I was a social recluse, but that's life. /played time on my main toon, before BC was released, was over 200 days. Add to that 4 other 60's with about 10 days game time to level each, plus time spent in pvp with them, rep farming, yeah. It wasn't nearly as destructive as some other people report it was for them, but I was still addicted to the rewards I could achieve, because it was so clear how to do things, and how to get what you wanted. There are many other aspects to it of course, but that was the kicker for me.
My
There is a pretty funny theory that the vast majority of WoW players are well-respected professionals who play the game in their free time. Through the playing of WoW, they not only practice their leadership skills, but also organizational skills and planning skills. The idea is that the game reinforces and promotes cooperative game play while preserving a fun environment.
But we all know the truth. It's 30 year old lardballs who still live with their parents that play this game. The lack of friends and human companionship drives them to seek out online communities where they can be accepted as who they portray themselves as rather than for who they, unfortunately, are. Seeking companionship is one of the most primal of human urges.
I don't know how you can say the game is addictive, in that sense. I'm not addicted to breathing or eating, but I'd die without doing either of those. We are talking about something very close to the core of being a human, not a dependency developed through repeated exposure.
Well it didn't post my last comment. I was addicted to the rewards that were available to me, and the clear cut, investment required for them. Do this X many times, get this in return. Kill X many of this, and get this. I was and still am(sorta) addicted to wow. I /played my main over 200days(pre BC), id been there since it went live, with 5 other mains all 60 with alot of /played time on them. It was mostly a replacement for the lack of things I had to show for myself.
Before people jump down my throat, its not like I sat in my room all day playing (almost) I was a social recluse by choice, I enjoyed my life as it was, and I just found that I lacked the disciplin and the means of which to obtain the things I wanted for myself. WoW was my answer.
While I've no doubt there is a healthy sub-set of heavy-gamers (WoW included) that have well-adjusted approaches to life and enjoy gaming as a part of that, there are many, many people who have done and actively do exactly as you describe. Few of them have the balls or self-awareness to admit it though, and fewer still have the verbal skills to articulate the trap as clearly as you have.
I've teetered on the edge of that life-destroying artificial-reward gaming addiction, and was fortunate enough to have circumstances intervene, but I know other people who have descended into exactly the hole you've experienced. A certain reclusive predisposition and messed-up life events are a common starting point, but people who don't understand the addiction can be very unhelpful with their "buck up, get a life" attitudes. Such people would also tell heroine addicts to "just stop taking it" if it were PC to do so, and their advice would be just as helpful and welcome.
Meta will eat itself
...Seeking companionship is one of the most primal of human urges.
I don't know how you can say the game is addictive, in that sense. I'm not addicted to breathing or eating, but I'd die without doing either of those. We are talking about something very close to the core of being a human, not a dependency developed through repeated exposure.
I think you summarized this quite nicely regarding the component of companionship within humans. However, is virtual companionship good for our race going forward? This may sound like a bad analogy (sorry, don't mean to take away anything from your UID ;-), but just how far away are we as a society from The Matrix? 20 years from now, will it absolutely be the norm to work out of our homes and become that same virtualized community, designing and creating from behind a computer screen, virtually representing ourselves in the corporate world? What if someone took the WoW engine and put an actual business behind it and started hiring on the basis that you would be represented within the company as your virtual self instead of a physical presence? If course, getting fired might take on a whole new twist, as your character gets killed by your e-boss.
The real question is what will happen to reality as we know it today?
At least we have the fruits of procreation that can't quite be replaced (yet), so hopefully they'll still be some reason to share physical contact in the real world in the future...
I'm addicted to slashdot karma farming.
I post bland, pro-open source comments, and collect the insightful mods. /. equivalent of giving away all your WOW gold and money. But I just can't do it.
Sometimes I feel like posting pro-Microsoft comments, which is the
The conclusion that this article makes are not really new. Nick Yee did similar studies on MMOG addiction with EverQuest many years ago. These were the studies that I could find:
The Norrathian Scrolls: The Virtual Skinner Box
Ariadne: Understanding Game Addiction
-Valen
Don't forget that one of the key ingredients in the MMO soup is being able to compete and flaunt your achievements to you the people you like AND the people you don't like. It gives a sense of personal ranking and has a elitist type effect on the psyche. It's always fun to show off your gear and make people drool.
In a sense, even Slashdot is a game. As you mention, we are awarded points when we post something "useful", and points are revoked when we post something not so useful. Even in the case of Microsoft stories, it is not unheard of to see pro-Microsoft posts get modded to +5. The fact of the matter is that the content of a post isn't the determining scoring factor. It is mostly style that is rewarded here.
The guy who thinks he's funny for saying "Linux sucks!" is going to get slapped down hard, but someone who takes the time to explain exactly how bad Linux is as a desktop operating system (for example) or how hard it is to use (as another example) will be modded very high. This isn't because the content of the post is different. Essentially, both simply explain the obvious: Linux isn't a suitable OS for the vast majority of the computing public. The first post expresses this sentiment as an opinion. The second provides a logical framework upon which the reader may be convinced of the facts.
Likewise, pro-Microsoft posts are commonly modded up. Due in part to the over-demonization of the company, a calm post explaining that the company isn't as bad as everyone thinks will frequently be modded up as a voice of reason. Even posts that extol the virtues of Microsoft (great software) and Bill Gates (worldwide philanthropy), while seemingly over the top, will get positive modification.
Slashdot has done many things wrong, but the moderation system is something they have done very right. By encouraging posts that have exemplary style, they are promoting a discussion that doesn't necessarily need the most knowledgeable participants, the only requirement is that the successful poster be garrulous and loquacious.
http://www.progressquest.com/
The character creation screen alone is worth the download. I don't think I've laughed that hard since Airplane.
(And it's in the Ubuntu repositories. You gotta love Ubuntu.)
If I have seen further it is by stealing the Intellectual Property of giants.
Gratz
It started when you controlled a little yellow circle that went around swallowing blue pills.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
Thanks. I would have appreciated someone modding it up instead. I need to get it to +5 Funny for another achievement.
WoW's "addictive" nature is a blend of many components.
First and foremost, it's the reward system. Human beings do things due to rewards. That's how we work. We used to hunt and gather, and our reward was meat and berries. We went, we did, we got something, we were pleased. In today's world, that doesn't work out anymore so well. Usually, the reward you get is abstracted away from your work too far for you to make that connection. We work a month and eventually, our accout grows a bit. But we don't see how they are connected. It's not like I get some kind of micropayment for every line of code I write or debug.
Even if, what kind of reward is money? It's again an abstract concept that has no "real" value until it's redeemed for what you actually want.
WoW gives you very directly reward for actions. First, there's that fanfare playing when you accomplish something (don't you think that doesn't matter! It tells you "you did that well", it praises you), you get some goods (more or less useful), what really counts, though, is that the game acknowledges that you actually "did something".
The next part is user interaction and commitment. Since people do rely on each other and have to, you are guilt tripped into playing even if you don't want to. They need a healer/tank/whatever or they can't accomplish their goal. Your decision to stay away from it lets four (or 24, or 39) people down. This in turn makes the player feel appreciated, welcome and needed. And trust me, today, a lot of people feel like they ain't needed or appreciated. Or even welcome.
The sense of accomplishment, where you feel like you progress. Today, again, we don't really get that feeling very often. You might, in school, when you ascend through the classes towards graduation. In your workplace? Maybe stuck in a burger flipper job? Where do you progress? Where does your life go to? WoW tells you exactly where it's heading. You can watch your progress by watching your level and the kind of outfit you wear. More over, everyone else, not just a small subset of people who happen to judge success by the same yard stick as you, everyone in the game can appreciate what you have "done", because everyone else uses the same gauge to measure success: Level and equipment.
Yet at the same time, there's still the feeling of having no responsibility, it's still a no-commitment thing. You could just log off and nobody could hold it against you. There ain't any real life issues to deal with should you decide to just leave. No job that you'll lose, no family you would lose, no class you could fail, just because you decided you don't wanna anymore.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Actually, a Blizzard developer said in an old interview that they closely copied the 'constant rewards' system of casinos' slot machines when developing Diablo. They're not doing this at random.
I know it's on the Internet, but I've tried looking and couldn't find it. If someone could find that one or two paragraph quote, it would be great for discussion.
"You should never doubt what nobody is sure about." -- Willy Wonka
You're doing this wrong. Here's how you gotta do it:
"LFM, 5 modpoint holders for +funny, pst"
Now spam every thread with this.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
This raises the profound question of whether the presence of articles on Slashdot, with their opportunity for Freud Proust moments, is an enticement to "experience highly repetitive content".
Discuss, paying particular attention to the turtles below.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
The model for this game design is really from D&D. E.g. Do stuff, get 'loot' randomly after an encounter, fill up the XP bar to hit the next level, improve skills, abilities, feats, etc, etc. The difference is that you don't have to go to your buddies basement(with your Doritos/Mountain Dew) and bring your dice on a Sunday afternoon to get your fix like with a video game; It's right there in your computer room. It also gives the experience to those who are imagination impaired. The potion of the gaming industry using these 'evil' methods should be thanking Gary Gygax and Dave Arenson for the money they're making.
For an article on ign, a site frequented by gamers, the article is really weak. I would expect something like that from a local newspaper rather than something published on a site read by people already knowledgeable regarding the subject. The article spends a lot of time explaining concepts and ideas that are already obvious to anyone who even remotely considers themselves a gamer (the regular audience of ign, for example). I was hoping it would then build upon those basic concepts that I already knew to present an interesting or novel theory but - no - that was it. A very disappointing read and not worth the time...
As a note, a big part of my disappointment is I feel this would be a very interesting topic to discuss so reading an intelligent article on the subject would be great but this is not that article...
In my opinionated opinion.
There is a pretty funny theory that the vast majority of WoW players are well-respected professionals who play the game in their free time. Through the playing of WoW, they not only practice their leadership skills, but also organizational skills and planning skills. The idea is that the game reinforces and promotes cooperative game play while preserving a fun environment.
But we all know the truth. It's 30 year old lardballs who still live with their parents that play this game. The lack of friends and human companionship drives them to seek out online communities where they can be accepted as who they portray themselves as rather than for who they, unfortunately, are. Seeking companionship is one of the most primal of human urges.
I don't know how you can say the game is addictive, in that sense. I'm not addicted to breathing or eating, but I'd die without doing either of those. We are talking about something very close to the core of being a human, not a dependency developed through repeated exposure.
Apparently quoting the same thing old tired recycled line of "30 years olds in their mothers basements" is worth 5 points Insightful. Who would have known?
I wont deny these 30 year olds of which you speak dont exist. But Im quite sick of seeing that tired old line recycled. Worse - being subjected to the gall of essentially repeating the worst most repeated joke of the last few years, and doing so with condescension towards others about a product you seem to know so little about.
The people I met in WoW. Came from all walks of life. Sure there may be your generic nerds in there. But there are also doctors, singers actors, producers, truck drivers, restaurant owners, bell boys, chefs, and social workers. And thats just the tip of the iceberg. There are 11 million people playing this game right now. To say its all one type of people doesnt explain why past MMOs were not nearly as successful. But Im sure according to your 5 point INsightful original and trailblazing opinion. The world was just waiting for a large population of people to hit 30 and then go live with their parents. And when I say met - I mean I met these people. I even went to one of their funerals IRL.
And more players than you think are tired parents trying desperately to get a single hour at the end of the day just for themselves. A single hour away from their entire day spent working to provide for and take care of the family. And even then their ghetto little hour to mellow out most times is interrupted anyways.
Is it addictive? If you are unemployed and need an escape - very much so. But for a good number of people. Its an alternative to going out and spending a ton of cash on a single nights activities that provides a bare minimum of companionship and relaxation. 15$ a month vs a bare minimum of 15$ a night to go out. Thats a hrd pitch to resist financially.
And this has been another installament of Captain Obvious!
Disclaimer: I have played WoW in the past.
It's not just MMOs that are addicting. Any online game can be addicting. Heck, even offline games can be addicting.
Currently, Team Fortress 2 for the PC is my addiction. One of the communities I'm part of has their own server and is currently thinking about getting a second one due to its popularity.
It's fun because you play against people you know and, unlike World of Warcraft, it doesn't matter how little or much you play, as your character never really changes.
Of course, Valve continuing to release updates has made it easier to convince some of my friends to play. It helped a lot when Valve had the sale on The Orange Box for $10 a few weeks ago, though...
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
Okay, maybe that's a bit harsh, but with any RPG or table top wargame, be it D&D / Shadow Run / Battle Tech / Car Wars / Toon! / Paranoia / GURPs / WH40k (I'm just the listing the ones I played growing up), you had to be able to get a group together, find a convenient place for everyone, etc.
With some of 'em, where there's progress from session to session rather than stand-alone sessions, you need to get everyone to be able to show up every time -- which is a problem as people work different schedules, have kids, move further away, etc.
With online gaming, you could just drop in for an hour or two, meet up with the party, drop out when life calls (as opposed to the night when one of the player's (now wife) kept calling every hour and keeping him on the phone for 20-30 min at a time, not understanding how EVERYONE else had to stop while it was going on.
I admit, I don't play WoW -- I did play EverQuest for a bit, and I mudded for years in college, but our group tended to stick to more private groupings -- We did a fair number of LAN parties in the years after college, then later would coordinate times for Diablo, StarCraft, Age of Empires, Warcraft III, Command & Conquer, Neverwinter Nights, Dawn of War, etc. Sometimes LAN parties, but normally just a normal weeknight where we didn't have to deal with travel (as one now lives 500 miles away and the others would still take up to 2 hrs each way w/ travel, setup, etc.)
So ... the point is ... MMOs are more convenient than face to face. Yes, they're less imaginative, yes, they can be less social, but we can get a game together in under an hour if someone feels the need to unwind from a stressful day at work, whereas a day of WH40K gaming might require weeks to prepare (gotta modify my figures to deal with some rules change / new tactics, etc.)
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
i had to forcibly destroy the disc in order to have a life
for me, it was a combination of the engrossing micromanagement (which you see with WoW and its endless loot management) and that insistent "just one more turn..." urging that moves you to devote 5 more minutes to the game that turns into 5 hours. that urging is the desire to see the completion of small goalposts, like building a wonder or taking a border city from the spanish or the indians, which is also discussed in regards to WoW
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I've been playing Heroin Hero 60 hours/week. Someday I'll catch that pesky dragon!
The OP should be modded +5 Insightful. If WoW is 'addictive', then the word no longer has the same meaning as before. The word can just as easily be applied to chocolate, slashdot and American Idol as to a voluntary activity like WoW.
The truth is that none of these things are addictive. There are people who are obsessed with each of those things, but if stranded on a desert island, those people wouldn't suffer any ill effects from being removed from their obsession.
I'm currently obsessed with Battlefield Heroes, but in a good way.
I play WoW *a lot* -- six hours/day during the week and 18 hours/day on weekends and holidays -- and I've often wondered how I let this game take over my life so thoroughly. I think the variable rate schedule of rewards theory can explain this addiction. It is something that I learned about in a Management 101 class two decades ago. What makes anything addictive, according to the theory we were taught as nascent managers, is having a variable rate at which rewards are delivered. It is what makes gamblers come back to the dice table again and again, and it is why unions work so hard to establish uniform wage scales. My company introduced "Spot Awards" and the policy governing the awards explicitly states that managers should make sure that the awards are distributed at random intervals. The variable-rate schedule of rewards can produce game-aholics as effectively as it can work-aholics.
Is Blizz deliberately using the variable rate schedule of rewards to bind us to the game? Of course they are. In WoW, the variable rate schedule of rewards is easy to see. How does Blizz keep people engaged once they've reached the level cap? The recently added "Achievement" system is one way. Every so often, you will be rewarded with an achievement that can grant you cool stuff -- a new pet, a new mount, a new title. The requirements for the achievements are not uniform, and often depend on the completion of other achievements which also have non-uniform requirements. This insures that the schedule at which one completes an achievement and receives a reward will be effectively random. You keep shelling out $15 every month to keep those rewards coming.
This is the right time and place for a personal anecdote, methinks.
Many years ago, my dad took me to Vegas for a full week. As I'd never been to Vegas before, I was thrilled. My dad was a disciplined yet mellow man with a hearing impairment, he'd time his gambling between slow and relaxed coffee breaks, meals and walks, then return to the casino and turn his hearing aid off, sheltering himself from the constant cacophony around him, moving slow and hunting for a "warm" machine according to his "hypothesis" (if someone has been feeding a machine and gotten no return, a jackpot is imminent, he'd say). An eye of the storm is how I'd describe him. By midnight, dad would be in our hotel room, drifting to sleep while reading a techno-thriller spy novel or Louis L'Amour cowboy adventure.
Feeling like a hyper-excited kid in a candy store, I was taking off on my own at 8:00 pm (with a generous but not excessive daily allowance) to explore, drink and smoke while feeding the one-armed bandits and playing blackjack at the one-dollar tables (with free drink service, of course), pretending to be a real man, coming back to the hotel room at the crack of dawn or beyond. Now, wasting precious cash on taxis, are you kidding? I was doing plenty of walking from casino to casino, keeping me from getting too drunk, so I didn't get into any trouble in that area.
This blissful experience lasted for three days.
By Day Four, the sound of the slot machines was beginning to get deep in nerves, the thrill was fading away, and three consecutive nights of drink was beginning to take its' toll (call me a lightweight if you like, that's okay).
By Day Five, I went bowling and to the movies, just to get away from the casinos for a spell or two. To give you an idea how long ago this was, the film was "Patriot Games" with Harrison Ford.
By Day Six, my nervous system was screaming "Get me outta here!".
By Day Seven, feeling jaded beyond my years, I indulged in one last blackjack all-nighter at a funky casino filled with college-age students, Bowie, Roxy Music and The Police playing in the sound system.
On Day Eight we flew back and I wanted to play Pope and kiss the ground at touchdown.
What my old man did there, was invaluable - he placed the cookie jar in my reach and said "Have a go". What I did was stuff myself until I got sick and subsequently inoculated, gambling holds no appeal for me since then.
Now to my main point here. By Day Five, as I wandered around the casinos, the lights, bells and whistles were not a distracting factor anymore, my jolly attitude had vanished, and only then did some truly disturbing snapshots of humanity stick out in sharp relief:
* People (mostly elderly) with glazed eyes focused on some point beyond the walls, a bucket of dollar coins at the side, wearing latex gloves turned filthy by feeding the coins to three slot machines at a time, for all intents and purposes turned into mechanical extensions.
* Same people after running out of money, walking away in anger as if in instant withdrawal, with only one purpose in mind - scrounging more cash to feed the overlords.
* Guy arrives at the blackjack table and places two black (five-hundred dollar) chips and wins. Smoking a cigarette and with no discernible emotion, bets all chips, now we're up to two thousand dollars, and wins. Once again, only now it's four thousand bucks, and wins. Once more, eight thousand dollars, loses it all. Guy turns and walks away with no emotion whatsoever. All in the span of two minutes.
I wouldn't doubt that the casinos knowledgeably use monorails, outlandish architecture, jackpot cars on display, human statues, aquariums and stuff all over the place, to keep the 2-3 day visitor distracted, hiding a dark side of Vegas in plain sight. Then visitors themselves make the damnedest effort to become part of the distraction, chicks there feel the need to expose 9/10 of their body to stand out from all that sensory bombardment (OK, I'll give that one a resounding pass, but
Lil' Thindime, lilting a lacrimose lament, krashes the kwaint konfines of Kokonino Kounty