Scheduled rewards and the psychology of addiction
Jon Blow talks about “Scheduled rewards” in his recent Montreal International Game Summit talk..
He says:
Some examples of these “scheduled rewards” are collectibles, unlockables, achievements or advancing the story — the player wants to beat the boss monster so they can see what happens to Joe when he walks through the next door.
“Sometimes we take this really far,” Blow noted. “MMOs are notorious for having relatively empty gameplay, but keeping players hooked with constant fake rewards – this creates ‘the treadmill.’ Rewards are a way of lying to the player so they feel good and continue to play the game.” He noted some extreme examples of this, such as reported incidents of Chinese or Korean MMO players dying at the computer.
Well, scheduled rewards is the core element to getting humans addicted. By providing positive feedback at irregular intervals the human player becomes addicted. regardless if the player enjoys the experience or not.
Game designer confuse addiction with “good” - they are not the same. Casual games are addictive. Gambling is addictive. Drugs are addictive… are any of these, socially valuable?
Add comment November 27th, 2007