How Video Games Are Made Addictive

Before claiming that popular video games are nothing but addictions, it may help to discuss the following points. Next time while playing, keep note of one or more of the following things,

1: The Skinner Box :An environment in which the user is trained to “push the lever“, i.e. do a certain action over and over again in order to get a reward.

2: Virtual food pellets Items that have nothing to do with the game itself, but are valuable to gamers because of the work required to obtain them (e.g., EverQuest); some people will end up collecting them for the sake of collecting.

3: Random rewards Remember those cool outfits that do nothing in the regards of the actual gameplay but you end up trying to collect them all anyways, maby to make urself look abit experienced, or because they look cool. They turn the game into the equivalent of a slot machine (e.g., World of Warcraft, ZT Online).

4: Elaborate cycles Gamers’ behavior can be “shaped” by making cycles (progress from one level to the next) slower and slower, designing complex tasks that are difficult to get out of (e.g. World of Warcraft), or conversely dividing them up in small chunks to avoid frustration (e.g., New Super Mario Bros.Wii).

5: Decay of game assets This makes it necessary for a gamer to keep playing, without vacations, simply to avoid losing what they have earned so far (e.g., Farmville, Ultima Online, Animal Crossing).