If I want to keep people hooked, do I use barbs? I did some consulting for some student-level game developers last year, basically coming up with the core mechanics for a post-apocalyptic browser-based MMORPG. It was awesome. I mean, I'll be absolutely shocked if the project ever gets off the ground and releases something playable, but it was great for me because it offered a chance to take on new kinds of game design challenges and thus grow as a designer. There's a ton of ways in which designing MMORPG mechanics is identical to making a tabletop RPG, and an equal number of areas where the priorities lead you in the exact opposite direction. Instead, I'm going to give an example of how the challenge of designing a successful community-based game (one that'll shrivel up and die if it can't hold onto its player base while capitalizing on it) quickly steers a designer into ethically dodgy territory. "Interesting!" "Oh, wait," I said to my brother. "Then you've got a lot of money?" ". . .Point." Then he got an idea. Eesh.
The Psychology of Video Games Crooked Timber — Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made Analysis: The Psychology Behind Item Collecting And Achievement Hoarding [Item-collecting has been a staple of video games for many years. What is it inside gamers' heads that makes us want to accumulate items and chase after Achievements? Gamasutra's Kris Graft speaks with the experts...] You may recall the eccentric Collyer Brothers. There, the two became reclusive, boarding up their windows and accumulating over 100 tons of what most would classify as “junk” until the entire house was packed to the ceiling – anything from bundles of newspapers to the chassis of a Model T to 14 full-sized pianos. They were compulsive hoarders, and I think there’s a little bit of Collyer in all of us gamers. “Acquiring is often associated with positive emotions, such as pleasure and excitement, motivating individuals who experience these emotions while acquiring to keep acquiring, despite negative consequences.” Sound familiar? But game designers know that it’s pretty damn easy to tap into this deep-rooted need to collect and accumulate. False Sense Of Accomplishment?
Goodbye Effect Games Friends, The time has come to shut the doors on Effect Games, so we can move onto other projects. But we've preserved some of our old games and demos for you to play with: We've also open sourced the entire Effect Games engine, as well as the web IDE. Effect Games, in it's entirety, has been moved to GitHub. It can be forked, or simply downloaded and installed on your own server. The source is MIT licensed, so you may use it in both personal and commercial projects. Deepest thanks to everyone who tried Effect Games and provided such awesome feedback. Broadsheet.ie Features - Addiction and the Structural Characteristics of Massively Multiplayer Online Games Addiction and the Structural Characteristics of Massively Multiplayer Online Games I recently completed a study at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa finding that gamers’ activities and preferences within games could be linked to addiction. The study looked at players within massively multiplayer online games, for instance Blizzard’s World of Warcraft or Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XI. The study, which examined in-game behaviors on a number of levels, found that playing with real life friends, side activities like exploration or taking pictures, and membership to social guilds may be related to less harmful play. On the other hand, stealing from or otherwise manipulating players, along with membership to more goal-oriented “hardcore” raid guilds may be related to addiction. Based on these relationships, the study suggested that the process of becoming addicted is likely very complex. “There are a million little pieces working together in these games.
The Art & Business of Making Games Bad Science Pleasure Systems in the Brain ARU home page | ARU Profile | Addiction Primer | Biological Basis | Research Findings University Courses | Opportunities | Research Reports | Feedback From M.A. Michael A. Neurological research has identified a biological mechanism mediating behavior motivated by events commonly associated with pleasure in humans. Motivation & Reward Motivation can be considered under two general rubrics—appetitive and aversive motivation. Behaviorism traditionally rejects the notion that subjective experience has a critical role in determining behavior. In general, events that serve as positive reinforcers produce approach behavior defined as appetitive motivation. A Biological Basis of Appetitive Motivation and Reward Physiological psychology research has identified separate but interactive neural pathways mediating reward and aversion (i.e., functioning as positive and negative reinforcement systems, respectively). Reward Substrate Identified by Electrical Brain Stimulation Selected Bibliography
Metagames: Games About Games Abusive Games Penn & Teller's Smoke & Mirrors (Sega CD, 1995). Download. Like their earlier Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends video from 1987 — see Vidi Kopy or Super Kleener for meta-VHS examples — Smoke and Mirrors was a collection of small pranks that used unique aspects of the medium to let buyers play tricks on their friends. Bastet: Bastard Tetris (Windows/Linux, 2005). I Wanna Be The Guy: The Movie: The Game (Windows, 2007). The Unfair Platformer (Flash, 2008). Steamshovel Harry (Flash, 2009). Tetris HD (Flash, 2009). Minimalist Games The flipside of abusive games — games so obvious that they're barely games at all. Pick Up the Phone Booth and Die (Z-code, 1996). Progress Quest (Windows/Linux/Web, 2002). Quest for the Crown (Flash, 2003). Don't Shoot the Puppy (Flash, 2006). You Have to Burn the Rope (Flash, 2008). 4 Minutes and 33 Seconds of Uniqueness (Windows, 2009). Super PSTW Action RPG (Flash, 2009). Progress Wars (Web, 2010). Godville (Web/iOS, 2010). Game Mechanics Gone Wild
Erin Hoffman's Blog - Life, Addictive Game Mechanics, And The Truth Hiding In Bejeweled The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company. One of the occupational hazards of being a game designer is an obligation to play up-and-coming games, both to stay ahead of where the market is moving and to dig for signs of the One True Game Design, aka universal mechanics that move people. Lately there's been a lot of buzz around Bejeweled Blitz, so I dug in for a sample today. Blitz takes the familiar Bejeweled mechanic, itself going back along the Columns lineage in games, and makes you play it fast. They bolt on a bunch of social features -- leaderboards and achievements -- making it massively multiplayer in a lightweight but fun way. Games like this, based on such simple and compelling mechanics, are on the one hand at the heart of game design and on the other inevitably raise the concept of "addictive" game mechanics.
Die Gute Fabrik News Define Hard: Six ways to make your MMO difficult The problem with calling something hard or easy is that it's a subjective opinion. What is easy for one person might be hard for someone else. When I was younger, I had a very narrow definition of things I considered to be important attributes. As I grew older, and particularly as I began managing employees, I learned that there isn't just one set of skills that are superior to others. People are diverse and can be absolutely brilliant in one area and very obtuse and ignorant in another. Today, I have a different outlook. Some people are mechanical. The result of all this diversity is that there is no universal definition of HARD or EASY. Why is this important for MMOs? Types of Difficulty in MMOs Twitch Skills When we speak of twitch skills, this is really a measure of a person's individual skill in executing a specific physical action.