I love addictive games.
I know it probably hurts the industry.
When looking for reasons of society failures, people prefer to find excuses rather than looking at their own faults.
Movies used to be blamed for the violence in society. But this isn't trendy, people needed new excuses and video-games were a perfect one.
Think about it: people playing rather than working? Surely that must be evil?
Nevermind that playing is universal and part of all cultures, video games are just wrong!
So when I say that I love addictive games I deliver new excuses for the ones willing to blame everything on others.
Depiction of violence in video games transforms us all in serial killers.
Addictive games will get us all in serious need of psychological therapy (or not).
That being said, I still love addictive games.
When I am in front of a video game, I am playing. I'm not trying to educate myself, I'm not trying to escape reality, I'm just seeking entertainment.
A good game has to deliver fun or it misses the point. Fun is an essential characteristic of games as defined by french sociologist Roger Caillois in his book "Games and Men".
An addictive game is a game that knows how to distillate the fun so that we keep coming back for more.
That's not easy task, as it is not only a matter of delivering good emotions.
A linear emotional curve is not a good experience.
For emotions to be interesting they have to vary in kind and in intensity.
A good game will have you experiencing frustration.
But contrary to a poorly executed game, a good game will know how to pace the emotions it delivers so that you experience the right amount of frustration at the right time.
Creating addiction in a game brings one kind of emotion. This is not sufficient for the game to be enjoyable but it is a really good step towards it.
To create addiction you have to really understand two things: rewards and staging.
Neither rewards nor staging by themselves are sufficient to create addictive games. It is by successfully using both that you get the best results.
When speaking of these game design techniques there is one name that gets quoted a lot an that is Blizzard Entertainment.
Blizzard is a company which has taken addictive game design at the heart of many of its products. If you want to try good examples of addictive game design, you only need to play Diablo 3 or World of Warcraft.
Blizzard is a company which has taken addictive game design at the heart of many of its products. If you want to try good examples of addictive game design, you only need to play Diablo 3 or World of Warcraft.
In addictive games, rewards have three qualities:
Firstly, they are frequent.
It's rare to spend more than a few minutes (sometimes even seconds) without getting some kind of reward. Knowing this, the player is often tempted to play longer in the hope of better rewards.
It's rare to spend more than a few minutes (sometimes even seconds) without getting some kind of reward. Knowing this, the player is often tempted to play longer in the hope of better rewards.
Secondly, they are varied.
If the game keeps giving you the same reward over and over again, things will become dull soon enough. The player needs to know that a reward is close, but he still needs to be surprised when it comes. The more often he gets the same reward, the less interesting the reward. The more different kinds of rewards you can give, the better.
If the game keeps giving you the same reward over and over again, things will become dull soon enough. The player needs to know that a reward is close, but he still needs to be surprised when it comes. The more often he gets the same reward, the less interesting the reward. The more different kinds of rewards you can give, the better.
And finally, they are meaningful.
Rewards need to make sense to the player. They have to be useful for the game at hand (coherent with the universe). They need to be relevant to the challenge to overcome (proportional to its difficulty and intensity).
In this regard, context has a lot of influence.
Rewards need to make sense to the player. They have to be useful for the game at hand (coherent with the universe). They need to be relevant to the challenge to overcome (proportional to its difficulty and intensity).
In this regard, context has a lot of influence.
For instance you are designing a racing game and want to give the player a car as a reward. Depending on situations this could be a good or very bad idea.
If the player only has a few cars and the car given is better, this is a good reward.
If the car given is less valuable than the ones he has, this will be perceived as a poor reward.
If he already has a lot of cars, getting a new car (even a good one!) isn't very interesting.
If the car given is of low value to the player and is coming after a great effort (say after a difficult and lengthy race) this could actually be resented.
This makes it very difficult to design meaningful rewards because it is quite complex to know which is the player's situation.
Indeed, no one player will play your game the same way (players have different skills and playing behaviors). People will go through different playing experiences, especially if your game is non-linear. What can be meaningful for someone may have no value for others.
Addictive games do not only offer good rewards, they also stage them in a way that motivates the player.
Gameplay staging is the idea that the player is presented with several gameplay loops (objective > challenge > reward) of various lengths simultaneously.
The goal is that he always has something to do and that he always is almost finished with a specific gameplay loop.
Erich Schaefer in his postmortem of Diablo II puts it this way:
There's always something coming and always a chance of getting something big: this creates addiction.
Visual staging is probably less well-known and used than gameplay staging but is equally important (if not more) to motivate the player to move forward.
The idea of visual staging is to graphically stage the progression towards a reward so that the player sees he is close from getting it.
The bar visually shows you where you stand.
When the bar is nearly full, chances are that you won't be quitting the game because you not only know that a big reward is close, but you also see it.
Actually the bar is even divided in small bubbles for a finer sense of progress. Back when I played people where often chatting messages such has "one bubble left" to tell others that they were close to their next level.
Indeed, no one player will play your game the same way (players have different skills and playing behaviors). People will go through different playing experiences, especially if your game is non-linear. What can be meaningful for someone may have no value for others.
Addictive games do not only offer good rewards, they also stage them in a way that motivates the player.
This is what I call the "almost there" concept.It takes two forms: gameplay staging and visual staging.
Gameplay staging is the idea that the player is presented with several gameplay loops (objective > challenge > reward) of various lengths simultaneously.
The goal is that he always has something to do and that he always is almost finished with a specific gameplay loop.
Erich Schaefer in his postmortem of Diablo II puts it this way:
"There's always a quest that is almost finished, a waypoint almost reached, an experience level almost achieved, and a dungeon nearly cleared out."This puts the player in a situation where he enters a never-ending streak of rewards.
There's always something coming and always a chance of getting something big: this creates addiction.
Visual staging is probably less well-known and used than gameplay staging but is equally important (if not more) to motivate the player to move forward.
The idea of visual staging is to graphically stage the progression towards a reward so that the player sees he is close from getting it.
The experience bar in World of Warcraft is a very good example of visual staging.Instead of putting an interface that only shows your progress towards your next level in XP points, Blizzard displays a graphical way to see your progression.
The bar visually shows you where you stand.
When the bar is nearly full, chances are that you won't be quitting the game because you not only know that a big reward is close, but you also see it.
Actually the bar is even divided in small bubbles for a finer sense of progress. Back when I played people where often chatting messages such has "one bubble left" to tell others that they were close to their next level.
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| World of Warcraft ™ visual display of level-up progress - © 2013 Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. |
Visual staging can not only help you to see your progress towards a reward but also what to do next.
This is a bit like in "Hop-o'-My-Thumb" (Little Thumbling), pick up a stone and the next one is immediately visible to you.
Translated into games, as soon as the player finishes a gameplay loop, he sees the next one right in front of him.
Again, in World of Warcraft when you finish a quest, a big exclamation mark usually pops on top of a nearby NPC's head.
This is your rather obvious clue to what to do next!
I could go on discussing tips for designing good rewards for quite some time. This post only briefly touches the surface of good addictive design.
But hey... my game is waiting.
My quest is almost finished...
This is a bit like in "Hop-o'-My-Thumb" (Little Thumbling), pick up a stone and the next one is immediately visible to you.
Translated into games, as soon as the player finishes a gameplay loop, he sees the next one right in front of him.
Again, in World of Warcraft when you finish a quest, a big exclamation mark usually pops on top of a nearby NPC's head.
This is your rather obvious clue to what to do next!
I could go on discussing tips for designing good rewards for quite some time. This post only briefly touches the surface of good addictive design.
But hey... my game is waiting.
My quest is almost finished...
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| Credits: Unknown |
