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Marc MendiolaWRIT 340Prof TownsendDecember 10, 2013Engineering Addition: A Glimpse into Addictive Video Game DesignAbstractVideo games are a primary source of entertainment. They provide the user with an interactive and immersive experience. As the video game industry continues to grow, developers continue to search for better ways to both engage their target audience and to make more money. In this process, the line between games being “fun” and games being “addictive” is inevitably blurred. This article investigates what motivates people to play video games and how developers can engineer addiction into video games. Introduction“In November of 2000, my life was going well. I had a lovely girlfriend, a serviceable vehicle, and a job that paid more than enough for me to survive while catering to my increasingly expensive...habit. Within four months, it would all be gone...I felt unbelievably pathetic. I had no car. I had no job. Joe had handed me my last paycheck and about $120 he had in his wallet, and sent me on my way [1].” This is an excerpt from the confessional article of an addict named Mike Fahey. He recounts his plunge into addiction and its destructive toll on his life. The quote evokes thoughts of cocaine, tobacco, alcohol, and other substances associated with addiction. However, Mike was plagued by something often considered benign―video games.At their very core, video games are designed to amuse. They serve as leisurely diversions from the real world. Therefore, just like movies, books, and other forms of entertainment, their quality is determined by how well they engage the target audience. From the perspective of a game developer, this means that one should always strive to create an interactive experience that captures a player’s attention adequately enough to be considered “fun.” However, in the wake of such horror stories as Mike’s, it is apparent that the line between “fun” and “addictive” is becoming increasingly blurred. Mike’s story demonstrates that games can be addictive. This fact gives rise to two interesting questions: (1) What makes games so addictive? (2) Can developers engineer addiction into games? Motivation to PlayAccording to NPD Group’s report “Extreme Gamers,” in 2010, U.S. gamers spent an average of about 13 hours per week playing video games. However, 4% of the gaming population were classified as “extreme gamers.” Those in this most hardcore sector spent over 48.5 hours per week playing [2]. This is an incredible statistic. One of the primary reasons why video games are so addictive is that they provide an interactive experience. They create a virtual world in which players can become lost. They divert attention away from the real world. For many, this means a diversion away from real problems. The book Game Addiction: The Experience and the Effects recounts the experiences of an avid gamer named Max Meyer. Meyer describes his immersion into the virtual world as “meditative...I don’t think of bills, work or stressful things [3].” The authors of “Online Game Addiction among Adolescents: Motivation and Prevention Factors” conducted a survey of 623 adolescents. Results point to escapism as a strong indicator of game addiction. Video games allow individuals to avoid thinking about real life issues through immersion into the game. Not only do video games help individuals forget about real issues, they also compensate for social deficiencies. In that same article, the researchers suggest that certain “socio-behaviorally inactive personality traits, such as shyness, dependence, depression, aggression, low self-esteem, low self-control, and narcissism, may predispose some individuals to play excessively and possibly develop higher levels of online game addiction [4].” Surveying 1471 online game users, a group of psychiatric researchers at Yonsei University and Korea Advanced 240030076200000Institute of Science and Technology corroborate this point. Figure 1 summarizes their results [4]. They found that higher narcissistic personality traits are associated with increased levels of video game addiction. Meanwhile, self-control 28575003162300Figure 1: Correlation between Personality Traits and Level of Online Game AddictionFigure 1: Correlation between Personality Traits and Level of Online Game Addictionand interpersonal relationships are negatively correlated with game addiction [5]. 300990095250029718002876550Figure 2: Gamers’ Favorite Aspect of PlayFigure 2: Gamers’ Favorite Aspect of PlayThe researchers also found that a whopping 39.2% of gamers attribute their continued play to interacting with other people (see Figure 2) [5]. With this in mind, it is no wonder why massively multiplayer online role-playing games like World of Warcraft are especially addictive. With team-based objectives built in, they not only require social interaction, but also engender a sense of camaraderie among online teammates. For the socially inept, this kind of video game can fill the void of real world socialization. Taking these motivations a step further, Dr. Przybylskil and his colleagues claim that people chase projections of their ideal selves through video games [6]. Describing their studies in “The Ideal Self at Play: The Appeal of Video Games That Let You Be All You Can Be,” they suggest that gamers live vicariously through virtual protagonists. For instance, Guitar Hero, which requires the player to follow the rhythm of a song via a guitar-shaped controller, allows the gamer to channel his or her inner rock star. Video games allow users to play a role that they aspire to take in real life. Engineering Addictive Features39052503524250Figure 3: Simplified Skinner BoxFigure 3: Simplified Skinner Box3905250141922500The Skinner BoxWhether intended or not, games foster addiction due to their very nature―the provision of an immersive experience. However, in the development of games, designers can and do utilize certain techniques to engage a user. It is not uncommon for developers to leverage psychological principles to deliberately build addictive features into video games. Take for instance the link between action and reward. B.F. Skinner, a renowned behavioral psychologist, performed experiments with rats in specialized chambers. As seen in Figure 3, in their most basic form, these boxes contain a response lever and a food dispenser [7]. Skinner would provide a pellet every time each of the rats pressed a lever. However, because he was running low on food pellets, he decided to only reward the rats every tenth time they pressed the lever. He found that the rats continued their behavior, despite the decreased rate of reward. This prompted Skinner to experiment with different schedules of reward. Thus, he was able to study how the different rates of reward, both fixed and variable, correlated to the rate of the specimens’ response. The results of these experiments on behavioral learning are directly applicable to video games. In games, certain actions yield rewards. For example, if you defeat a monster, you gain experience. As you gain more experience points (XP), you level up. Your action of killing a monster is rewarded by XP, and eventually an increase in level. By studying the results of the Skinner Box experiments, game designers can find the best ways to keep players “pressing that lever.” John Hopson, the head of User Research at video game company Bungie, Inc. and the lead researcher for a wide variety of high-profile games, enumerates several design techniques that leverage behavioral psychology to make games more engaging. He explains how game designers can make players “play hard” and “play forever [8].” Using the results of the Skinner Box experiments, he suggests that developers can keep users engaged by varying the schedule of reward. That is, rewards come at unexpected times. Take for instance the renowned role-playing game Pokémon. In the game, your goal is to collect different creatures that live throughout a fictional world. You can encounter a wild Pokémon by walking through patches of grass. Therefore, if you know that a particular Pokémon, say a Pikachu, can be found in a certain area, you can try your luck and walk through the grass. However, the rate at which a Pikachu appears is variable. If encountering a Pikachu occurred at a fixed rate or interval, you could learn exactly when the reward were imminent. This would allow you to pace yourself. You can slow down when the reward is distant and speed up when it’s near. However, a variable schedule implants in the user’s mind the possibility that each action may produce a reward. The user continually walks through the grass because the next Pokémon might just be a Pikachu. In the words of Hopson, “The more certain they are that something good or interesting will happen soon, the harder they’ll play [8].” In addition, since each action has the same probability of reward, the player will always have a reason to play. Again leveraging the results of the Skinner Box experiments, developers can keep the player engaged using a so-called avoidance schedule. In addition to positive reinforcement, Skinner experimented with action and punishment. Instead of receiving a pellet for pressing a lever, the rat would receive an electric shock for not pressing the lever. This form of negative reinforcement is easily applicable to video games. The player has to continually perform certain tasks to prevent negative consequences. To better understand this concept, take for instance the popular online game Farmville. It is a simulation game in which players manage all aspects of the farming life cycle, from planting to harvesting. Players can plant crops, and wait for them to grow. However, if the players do not harvest the crops in time, they quickly wither. This would obviously stifle their progression in level. Even more, all their work would go to waste. The desire to avoid this negative consequence keeps the player logging in every day [9]. To engage players for even longer periods of time, developers use the model of endless gameplay. That is, the game has no logical end. Players can continue to reap rewards if they keep playing the game. Even if the player has reached the highest level, the game can offer other types of rewards—more gold, better weapons, more customizations options for your avatar. As long as the player receives rewards, he or she may continue to play forever. Cultivating Competition25717503190875Figure 4: Gamers who Strongly Agree with the Reasons for Playing0Figure 4: Gamers who Strongly Agree with the Reasons for Playing257175062865000How many times have you heard the phrase, “I can beat you at Game X”? People continue to play video games, not only to improve, but to see their name plastered on the top of the high score list. What keeps many playing is the hope of bragging rights, the possibility that one can claim dominance over others. In her article “Children’s Motivations for Video Game Play in the Context of Normal Development,” Dr. Cheryl K. Olsen, co-director at the Center for Mental Health and Media at Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry, cites that competition is one of the primary motivating factors for video game play among boys [10]. As seen in Figure 4, from her surveys, about 57% of boys strongly agreed that they were motivated by competition. Therefore, it is not strange to see games that foster this desire for competition. Take for instance the game League of Legends. Riot Games deliberately built into it a ranking system. Based on how well a player performs in ranked games, he or she is placed into a division: bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond, and challenger. If a player improves, he or she can move up in ranking. However, if the player does worse, he or she is demoted. Nothing says “I’m better than you” more than being in a superior division. Virtual ItemsDevelopers can further increase engagement by introducing so-called virtual items. These encompass anything that can be acquired in a video game. In 2005, a Chinese man named Qiu Chenwei stabbed Zhu Caoyuan to death after he discovered that the fellow gamer had sold his virtual sword for 7200 Yuan ($1176.72) [11]. It is horrific that a person would stab someone over an in-game item. However, what is even more surprising is the fact that someone would actually purchase a virtual item for the equivalent of about $1200 in real money. This alone demonstrates the value of virtual items. However, there is a psychological explanation behind the phenomenon. The fact that certain items take time and effort to acquire gives them an intrinsic value [8]. Dr. Cheryl K. Olson, co-director at the Center for Mental Health and Media at Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry, claims that “people work for intangible rewards all the time…Money and love, for example. A paycheck may seem ‘solid,’ but it represents an abstraction. And what’s more abstract than earning an A in philosophy? Small things can be quite rewarding [12].” Furthermore, acquiring virtual items satisfies this deep-seeded desire to collect. “Acquiring is often associated with positive emotions, such as pleasure and excitement, motivating individuals who experience these emotions...to keep acquiring [12].” Ruth Formanek, a psychologist at Hofstra University, investigates the factors that drive people to collect in her article “Why They Collect: Collectors Reveal Their Motivations.” Of the 90 responses to her questionnaire, she found that about one third of them attributed their desire to collect to personal motivations. She places them into three categories: (1) those who collect to counteract feelings of depression, (2) those who collect because it provides a sense of challenge, (3) and those who collect to improve their self-esteem [13]. One person even reports, “I enjoy having something that others don’t have [13],” which also supports the previous argument on the competitive nature of games. These are some of the things that motivate gamers to collect every single star in the renowned Super Mario game series, as trivial as it may seem.30956251270000The Future of Game Design30956252315845Figure 5: Estimated Video Game Revenues for the Top 3 MarketsFigure 5: Estimated Video Game Revenues for the Top 3 MarketsThe video game industry comprises a lucrative market (see Figure 5) [14]. As the multi-billion dollar business continues to reap commercial success, game developers will continue to try to find ways not only to keep their players engaged, but also to keep their players paying. In fact, Ramin Shokrizade, a game economist for Wargaming America, states that game developers are “tracking every click, running tests and analyzing data” to better understand human behavior in games [15]. With increasing amounts of data, developers can tweak their games to make players play longer. However, they must carefully tread this line between designing games to be “fun” and designing them to be “addictive.” The more game designers try to manipulate players for profit, the easier it is to adulterate the original purpose of video games—to entertain.About the AuthorMarc Mendiola is a senior majoring in Computer Science at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. He has an interest in both programming and playing video games. Suggested Multimedia- Flash video simulating a Skinner Box experiment- videos visualizing some of the examples of conditional behavior principles (i.e. avoidance schedule in Farmville, variable schedule in Pokémon, simple reinforcement from killing a monster)- brief video clip of Candy Crush Saga gameplay, exposing the advertisement of in-game purchasesReferences[1] Fahey, Mike. “I Kept Playing - The Costs Of My Gaming Addiction.” Kotaku. Kotaku, 19 Oct. 2009. Web. 07 Oct. 2013. < costs-of-my-gaming-addiction>.[2] NPG Group. 2010. “Extreme Gamers.” Web. 8 Oct. 2013.[3] Clark, Neils, and P. Shavaun. Scott. Game Addiction: The Experience and the Effects. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009. Print.[4] Xu, Zhengchuan, Ofir Turel, and Yufei Yuan. “Online Game Addiction among Adolescents: Motivation and Prevention Factors.” European Journal of Information Systems 21.3 (2012): 321-40. ProQuest. Web. 8 Oct. 2013.[5] Kim, Eun Joo, Kee Namkoong, Taeyun Ku, and Se Joo Kim. “The Relationship between Online Game Addiction and Aggression, Self-control and Narcissistic Personality Traits.”?European Psychiatry?23.3 (2008): 212-18. Print.[6] Przybylski, Andrew K., Netta Weinstein, Kou Murayama, Martin F. Lynch, and Richard M. Ryan. “The Ideal Self at Play: The Appeal of Video Games That Let You Be All You Can Be.” Psychological Science 23.1 (2012): 69-76. Sage Journals. Sage Publications, 14 Dec. 2011. Web. 7 Oct. 2013. <;.[7] Wikimedia Commons. 26. Apr. 2007. Skinner box, a cage to perform behavioural experiments with animals. Web. 8 Oct. 2013. <;[8] Hopson, John. “Behavioral Game Design.” Gamasutra. Gamasutra, 27 Apr. 2001. Web. 30 Sept. 2013. < behavioral_game_design.php?page=1>.[9] Wong, David. “5 Creepy Ways Video Games Are Trying to Get You Addicted.” . , 8 Mar. 2010. Web. 30 Sept. 2013. < get-you-addicted.html>.[10] Olson, Cheryl K. “Children's Motivations for Video Game Play in the Context of Normal Development.” Review of General Psychology 14.2 (2010): 180-87. Print.[11] “Chinese Gamer Sentenced to Life.” BBC News. BBC, 06 Aug. 2005. Web. 08 Oct. 2013. <;.[12] Graft, Kris. “The Psychology Behind Item Collecting And Achievement Hoarding.” Gamasutra. Gamasutra, 29 May 2009. Web. 08 Oct. 2013. <;.[13] Koepp, M. J., et al. “Evidence for Striatal Dopamine Release during a Video Game.” Nature 393.6682 (1998): 266-8.ProQuest. Web. 8 Oct. 2013.[14] Kühn, S. et al. “The Neural Basis of Video Gaming.” Translational Psychiatry 1.11 (2011): E53. Print.[15] Ryan, Richard M., C. S. Rigby, and Andrew Przybylski. “The Motivational Pull of Video Games: A Self-Determination Theory Approach.” Motivation and Emotion 30.4 (2006): 344-60. ProQuest. Web. 8 Oct. 2013.[16] Shokrizade, Ramin. “The Top F2P Monetization Tricks.” Gamasutra. Gamasutra, 26 June 2013. Web. 08 Oct. 2013. < 20130626/194933/The_Top_F2P_Monetization_Tricks.php>.[17] Formanek, Ruth. "Why they Collect: Collectors Reveal their Motivations."?Journal of Social Behavior and Personality?6.6 (1991): 275.?ProQuest.?Web. 7 Nov. 2013.[18] “Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2013-2017.”?PricewaterhouseCoopers. PricewaterhouseCoopers, n.d. Web. 7 Nov. 2013. < entertainment-media-outlook/segment-insights/video-games.jhtml>.[19] Henn, Steve. "How Video Games Are Getting Inside Your Head - And Wallet."?NPR. NPR, 29 Oct. 2013. Web. 07 Nov. 2013. < are-getting-inside-your-head-and-wallet>. ................
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