RRRrrr
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2011
- Messages
- 2,303
I have been thinking recently about this. It seems like games have more and more began to strive for "addiction" rather than being good. There are a lot of reasons to spend hours upon hours into a game. One of these reasons is if the game is good-the gameplay is fun, the story is great, i.e. the game is so good you want to continue playing it.
The other way to spend a lot of time in a game is to be "addicted'-you spend a lot of time not because you are having fun, but because you cannot stop. It's not that you want to continue playing because the game is good-you simply cannot stop playing.
When I say "addicting", I primarily mean the game is designed around tricking your brain into continue playing through some deliberate designs. It is primarily about repetitive content (either grinding or doing samey missions) focused around a false sense of achievement (i.e. better loot, less quest markers, getting one more "quest complete" message). Generally, it is content that can be taken into small portions-each "run" or each side mission takes 3-5 minutes, so starting a new one doesn't seem like an investment. Which is why you have less incentive to stop.
Examples in regard to this gameplay approach (this gameplay loop) are abundant in each genre. For example:
Diablo 2-each cow run/Bael run takes several minutes, so it's easy to start the next one. You gain levels and items, which gives you a sense of progression. The content is repetitive, so you just do "one more". You can spend exorbitant time doing this.
Oblivion/Skyrim-the design is deliberately focused on map markers and clearing your quest log. There is always another samey quest you do in the same dungeon. The main design approach is "discover new unknown locations", i.e. the brain's urge to see new stuff. Spoiler alert-the "new" locations are the same, but your brain just has to make sure.
Counter-Strike-matches are short, there is little investment in starting a new one, the content is extremely familiar let dynamic, you get a sense of achievement through winning the 2-minute match/scoring frags. Applies to practically all multiplayer games focused around very short (1-2 minute) rounds.
MOBAs-same loop as above, except matches are longer. Each game tries to increase speed/make matches shorter in order to make the game more addicting. DotA (Warcraft 3 map) matches used to last 40-50 minutes. Modern MOBA games last about half that.
Cyberpunk 2077-design focused around both "new locations" and "clearing your quest log one 2-minute gig at a time".
Far Cry 3/4/5-same as Cyberpunk.
World of Warcraft-pretty self explanatory. Short quests, short arenas, dungeons that are done to death.
I can go on and on.
The one thing that is the same in all of those games is that you can spend hours upon hours on them, forget to eat and drink, focus on doing "just one more" of the gameplay loop hook, and leave with no memory of the whole thing. You don't play because it's fun, you play because you cannot stop.
The other end of the spectrum are, you know, the good games. On the surface, you can spend many hours in them, but it's because you want to see what happens next, not because you cannot stop due to a basic psychology of addiction trick that is exploited for profit.
Compare the gameplay loop of VtmB to Cyberpunk. In Bloodlines, you have no repetitiveness. (except for the notorious barrens and endgame). The game is good, it's not addicting. Same with Codex's classic favorites. None of them are designed around a simple psychological loop and you leave each of them with a memory of what happened instead of a black hole in you day where time should have been.
And in the end of the day, the games that remain classics are the ones you remember playing, not the ones you sank most time into. But in short-term gaming profit, there is no difference if gamers play because they have fun or because they cannot stop. Hence we see this horrible design everywhere nowadays.
And in the end, I will leave with a disclaimer-I see nothing wrong with this design in online games. I do however have a problem with it plaguing single-player games, where it has no place.
EDIT: Also the deliberate game design around "addiction" rather than, you know, good game design, is the reason we have:
-Map markers
-Quests compass
-Filler content instead of good content.
Content has to be quick, easy and accessible. If you have any barrier to experiencing this content, the loop breaks. Great stuff-like having to look for landmarks instead of quest marks, following a real compass instead of a quest compass, paying attention etc-it all breaks the addicting loop of quest-immediately ready next quest, and also makes the investment into those shitty side missions too big for the noexistent payoff.
This is all deliberate design, not incompetence. Or, more accurately, it's incompetence only to the extent that creating addictive loops is a shortcut from creating good content.
The other way to spend a lot of time in a game is to be "addicted'-you spend a lot of time not because you are having fun, but because you cannot stop. It's not that you want to continue playing because the game is good-you simply cannot stop playing.
When I say "addicting", I primarily mean the game is designed around tricking your brain into continue playing through some deliberate designs. It is primarily about repetitive content (either grinding or doing samey missions) focused around a false sense of achievement (i.e. better loot, less quest markers, getting one more "quest complete" message). Generally, it is content that can be taken into small portions-each "run" or each side mission takes 3-5 minutes, so starting a new one doesn't seem like an investment. Which is why you have less incentive to stop.
Examples in regard to this gameplay approach (this gameplay loop) are abundant in each genre. For example:
Diablo 2-each cow run/Bael run takes several minutes, so it's easy to start the next one. You gain levels and items, which gives you a sense of progression. The content is repetitive, so you just do "one more". You can spend exorbitant time doing this.
Oblivion/Skyrim-the design is deliberately focused on map markers and clearing your quest log. There is always another samey quest you do in the same dungeon. The main design approach is "discover new unknown locations", i.e. the brain's urge to see new stuff. Spoiler alert-the "new" locations are the same, but your brain just has to make sure.
Counter-Strike-matches are short, there is little investment in starting a new one, the content is extremely familiar let dynamic, you get a sense of achievement through winning the 2-minute match/scoring frags. Applies to practically all multiplayer games focused around very short (1-2 minute) rounds.
MOBAs-same loop as above, except matches are longer. Each game tries to increase speed/make matches shorter in order to make the game more addicting. DotA (Warcraft 3 map) matches used to last 40-50 minutes. Modern MOBA games last about half that.
Cyberpunk 2077-design focused around both "new locations" and "clearing your quest log one 2-minute gig at a time".
Far Cry 3/4/5-same as Cyberpunk.
World of Warcraft-pretty self explanatory. Short quests, short arenas, dungeons that are done to death.
I can go on and on.
The one thing that is the same in all of those games is that you can spend hours upon hours on them, forget to eat and drink, focus on doing "just one more" of the gameplay loop hook, and leave with no memory of the whole thing. You don't play because it's fun, you play because you cannot stop.
The other end of the spectrum are, you know, the good games. On the surface, you can spend many hours in them, but it's because you want to see what happens next, not because you cannot stop due to a basic psychology of addiction trick that is exploited for profit.
Compare the gameplay loop of VtmB to Cyberpunk. In Bloodlines, you have no repetitiveness. (except for the notorious barrens and endgame). The game is good, it's not addicting. Same with Codex's classic favorites. None of them are designed around a simple psychological loop and you leave each of them with a memory of what happened instead of a black hole in you day where time should have been.
And in the end of the day, the games that remain classics are the ones you remember playing, not the ones you sank most time into. But in short-term gaming profit, there is no difference if gamers play because they have fun or because they cannot stop. Hence we see this horrible design everywhere nowadays.
And in the end, I will leave with a disclaimer-I see nothing wrong with this design in online games. I do however have a problem with it plaguing single-player games, where it has no place.
EDIT: Also the deliberate game design around "addiction" rather than, you know, good game design, is the reason we have:
-Map markers
-Quests compass
-Filler content instead of good content.
Content has to be quick, easy and accessible. If you have any barrier to experiencing this content, the loop breaks. Great stuff-like having to look for landmarks instead of quest marks, following a real compass instead of a quest compass, paying attention etc-it all breaks the addicting loop of quest-immediately ready next quest, and also makes the investment into those shitty side missions too big for the noexistent payoff.
This is all deliberate design, not incompetence. Or, more accurately, it's incompetence only to the extent that creating addictive loops is a shortcut from creating good content.
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