This material will be of interest to psychologists, developers and ordinary people. All its contents are set out on a very simple example of "mouse-lever-feed". In fact, computer games - this is only one side of the coin, there is also neuromarketing, zombies, other means to increase sales and brainwashing.
Producing your reflexes
Accidents are not accidental. Each randomness in the game is a shuffle of actions and rewards, there are an infinite number of ways to combine them to get the pattern of behavior that you are getting from the players. The theory of the development of reflexes is built around the so-called "Skinner box" - a camera with an animal that needs to press the lever to obtain food.
The fact is that computer games have changed very much over this time. If earlier after the sale of the game, its creators were indifferent to the time that we will spend on it, but now the industry is moving in the direction of the IMO. Now it is quite difficult to create a game with a unique storyline, so the developers decided to change the mechanics of the game so that players were forced to repeat the same actions with varying progress.
A virtual reality.
Your brain takes virtual things for real. If people constantly nudge someone in the style: "You spent a whole day on these diamonds or cannon, and after all, they do not even exist," you can say that they [censorship]. Your time, effort, money - this gives real value to the binary idea of
the authors. By the way, a long time ago the Supreme Court of South Korea officially approved the provision according to which virtual values
are equated to real ones. So, this is a pretty good feed from the Skinner box.
Push the lever
The developer wants the player to press the lever, what should he do? If you give the player every feed, he will relax very quickly, because He will understand that he can get food every time he needs it and the feeling of euphoria very quickly wither. Therefore, it is better to feed with some probability after each pressing.
ZT Online went much further in this direction. Now, to pull at the lever and get the feed you need to pay, and the one who uses as many of these levers as possible a day will receive a rare prize. Imagine how many thousands compete to get the long-awaited feed.
A sense of euphoria and advantages is what moves WoW. You get little encouragement step by step and now you feel that you are better and better with each such encouragement, but you can become even steeper if you spend a little more time. Nobody thinks about the total amount of time lost.
Simplify the task
In the beginning there was a word. Oh, yes, I'm sorry. The principle of most MMOs is that initially the feed (like raising the level) falls quickly, later, the time and effort to get it increases, but the result is better each time. Once a player enjoys the increase in level in the beginning, then the subsequent increase in requirements will only improve his sense of superiority over others. The main thing is not to knock down the inner cursor. Further, it is necessary to strengthen this sense of superiority, with millions of players you will not compete? And what about the clan rating of the progress of raising the level or ranking between friends?
Push or lose
How often do you get to feed your virtual cat? You know well what will happen if you do not do it or be late with it?
Finally...
In general, it's even surprising how a bunch of cheap tricks described above, covered with special effects can tear off reality. Our desire for the better, for what we have never tried and seen, instills instincts within us and we become animals. However, you know, not everything is so bad. In addition to all this nonsense, we are surrounded by friendship, love, care. Peace to your soul :)
That is quite true in a lot of situations indeed, thanks for sharing!
I've actually been doing some "historical" gaming posts lately, covering noteworthy games released in certain years (just made one about 98) and the formula to get people involved generally stays the same throughout the years
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