Games that hook players are often designed to be just difficult enough to be truly challenging, while allowing players to achieve small accomplishments that compel them to keep playing. In that respect, the design of video games is similar to the design of gambling casinos, which will allow players to have small “wins” that keep them playing.>
Going over addictive design elements like this can at least let people be more aware of why they keep wanting to play.
I mean, that quote just described game design for fun games though. A game that is fun will be addictive, but not in the same way gambling is. To most people, gambling isn’t fun. The act of sitting at a machine and repeatedly pressing the same button or pulling the same lever is not fun. The same repeated graphics are not fun. Repeatedly losing money? Also not fun. But, the prospect of winning big is exciting. This feeling, the desire to feel like you traded a small value for a large value and won big, greed, is exploited in many modern games.
A fun game presents a challenge, something just difficult enough for you to not steamroll it, but not so difficult that you want to quit the game. A fun game gives players rewards to incentivize them to keep playing, and generally, the best games reward players with better items or further level progress or additional story content. The reward never comes from the player spending real world money, but rather the time the player has spent in the game, or achieving some task, or being highly skilled. This is fun game design, and fun is addictive by design.
A game that exploits greed typically does so in ways that are hidden at a surface level. Generally, mechanics that are obfusicated from the player which involve rewards such as loot boxes that are purchased with a premium currency, this is the most obvious. Nobody blinks an eye if a blue uniform for your army guy is 400 crystals, because you can buy a pack of 200 crystals that gives you an extra 250 for free for $5 on your first purchase. But show that the blue uniform is $11, and people will complain. And I mean, yeah. Its the color blue. But now there is a problem. You have 50 crystals left. But nothing in the store is 50 crystals. Not to worry, you can buy another pack that gives you 550 more for only $10. So you buy it and get that cool golden scope that cost 350 crystals. But now you have a problem. You have 150 crystals left, and nothing in the store is… Wait, what is this? Lucky Chance? I can spend 10 crystals for the chance to get a legendary golden uniform? 0.01% drop rate? Yeah, I will just try 15 times. I didnt get it, but now the second pull costs me 15? No, Im good. But now what do I do with 140 crystals? You can see where this goes.
Also, the developers add a notification icon to the store page that doesn’t go away unless you click on something in the store. This is one of the big differences between a game that is fun and a game that exploits greed to make it feel like fun.
A friend got me into New World when he started playing, never played an MMO more for more than a week but this one seems like it might hold me for awhile. Waiting on D4 season 2. A little bit of cyberpunk 2077 since the dlc dropped and Project Zomboid when I’m in the mood. ALSO KATAMARI DAMACI.
Ooo you play project zomboid I haven’t seen the sun since I started playing that game I’ve gotten 850.1 hours put into it i think I joined on build 39 when they introduced vehicles
The next major update is going to be glorious. If you haven’t been following it I suggest you should. They post updates on their progress every few weeks.
I’ve been following I can’t wait for animals in the game I love surviving in the cabins outside muldraugh and they made a blog post where they said they were working on putting some factory equipment stuff in the game which looks sick as well
Yea the buildings and basements open up soooo much potential as well. Really excited for what they’ve cooked up. Also the new crafting system. I’m so ready lol. Besides all the mods breaking its gona be a great time when it does launch.
Started playing Starfield and it really made me want to revisit fallout 4, I’m now deep back into a new play through of Fo4 with 22 hours played in the last 2 weeks. Really enjoying it again.
I started Starfield and dropped it after about 3ish hours (happy for you if you liked it, I just couldn’t find anything interesting there), beat Lies of P (could be the best of the non-Bandai soulsbourne games), and just started up The Lamplighters League (a fun X-com style game that’s good, but REALLY poorly optimized, so buyer beware).
Looking forward to Spider-man 2 though, only a few more weeks!
It’s a ton of fun, and I hope you check it out! As an fyi on the combat, it is very perfect block centric like Seikiro, which I know is not everyone’s favorite Fromsoft game. I think the demo that’s out there gives you a pretty substantial preview though, so feel free to judge for yourself :)
fell back into The Division 2 and started Vermintide 2. always playing Diablo 2. playing Baldur’s Gate with a friend once a week. trying to get myself to go back to ARMORED CORE, but i just keep getting my buns handed back to me XD
have been meaning to get into baldurs gate! I’ve got 4 other friends that I played DnD with a while back and it was hilarious. from what I’ve seen of it BG3 would be amazing to play as a group
i’d highly recommend it. it’s still a lot of fun solo, but playing it with my friend has been a treat. sometimes we make a decision for the laughs, other times we get into semi-serious debates about what to do, where to go… and it’s fun seeing how different our co-op playthrough is from our solo playthroughs.
no man’s sky VR lately! I love the feeling of flying in starships and the seamless transitions between planets and space! wish it had some form of starship racing.
GT7 mainly running Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. There is a race there this weekend and it makes me feel slightly better when I see pro drivers mess up the same corner I do.
I might check that one out, haven’t played a Forza game in years. The screenshots I saw had an IMSA GTP car so that might be enough for me to buy it this time around (on PC).
There’s a 2011 game called Before the Echo (previously called Sequence before the board game maker decided to get pissy about it) that’s a basic rhythm game but you play on a screen with three boards where rhythm arrows drop, and you have to manage swapping between all of them. One board you clear arrows to prevent enemy damage, one generates mana for you, and the third is where you cast spells (that do damage, heal you, etc). There are a few different items you can get and there’s some light crafting/leveling systems as well.
As someone who doesn’t usually play rhythm games (largely because I’m bad at them) it was pretty fun. The story is amusing as well, and the main critique I had was that it’s very slightly on the grindy side and there aren’t enough songs to support it, so you start hearing the same ones over and over. The music is decent but it can get a bit old.
ICEY might be a good one to check out. It mixes cynical untrostworthy narration (like from the Stanley parable) with a 2D side scrolling hack and slash. some people say it doesn’t quite measure up on both fronts, but I enjoyed it. it has a nice art style too
Baldur’s Gate (in act 3 now), Lies of P, and just dipped my toe into Warhammer 40k Darktide. It’s quite nice having very different games to bounce between.
I’ve got Cocoon waiting a well. I heard it’s quite short so maybe I’ll boot it up on an evening where Lies of P is kicking my arse too much lol
Absolutely agreed. I think because the gaming industry is relatively new, it lags behind other sectors on unionisation, and that is definitely something that should change. Not necessarily to emulate Hollywood, but unionisation definitely.
Yeah, that would be ideal. Although whether game artists would be best fitted to a tech workers union or an artists union (which does exist in some places) is a question that would need to be answered.
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