Some psychological tricks used to get us hooked

[Martinof]

Hi, I found an interesting link about some psychological tricks used to get us hooked (but the site could be triggering) : https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/behavioral-game-design

For example : having a lot of different activities possible, so if we're done with our principal mission, we can continue in the same game with other missions, and other missions, etc.

Making some rewards happening randomly will make us play more : what if I get the reward the next time ?

[GrainSiloEnthusiast]

It's true, this stuff is designed to keep us hooked. Same with social media. All in the name of profit... 😕

[Sysop]

Same with news as infotainment.

I'm at the point now where I shut down any conversation between me and my friends or family that has anything to do with the news, current events or documentaries.

Some people are so gullible, they have no capacity to think for their self and just accept anything they are told, only to turn around and regurgitate it to others as if it was of actual value.

Engaging them in conversation is exhausting to the point, it's just not worth it. Nothing of real substance or practical value. Just noise. When asking them to stop offends them, it offends them because they are addicted to gossip and I'm not willing to participate as their outlet.

Edited August 2, 2022 by Sysop

[WilderDaze]

FOMO culture is one of the worst things I've with experienced with gaming myself. The notion that content is cycled out in set intervals, making you feel that you constantly miss out on something if you don't continue to play. And to make it worse the content often comes in the form of a seasonal pass or micro-transactions which drains your wallet at an alarming rate. You can call the game free-to-play all you want but in the end it's just another expression for maximizing profit.

Edited August 14, 2022 by Wildermyth

[Xarsas]

I must say, in a weird way, this move to "bait 'n hook" gameplay development is one of the things that started grating me. I used to be able to sink days into AOE/AOE2 or Settlers III/IV and whilst I would feel guilty after playing, I wouldn't get the grating feeling I started getting when playing our sprawling "open world" games of today like the Far Cry, Assassins Creed etc. games.

Even older OW games like Morrowind I could sink tons of time into without it feeling so time wastey as these games feel these days, whether that is just a side effect of growing up a bit, or the subconscious realisation that we are being suckered and let on like donkeys, I'm not sure.

What frustrated me immensely as well, was that as a completionist I couldn't "finish" a game whilst it was still in seasonal release. You can 100% it now and in three weeks a new DLC/mini expansion/season drops and wham, the cycle starts again.

So yeah, in a way, I'm glad it happened as it cheapened gaming enough for me to start feeling used and decide to get out.

[Ahanna_Jagger]

As for me, the main trick is to give us the feeling of some sort of other life, which we can't have in reality. And for some of us this other life becomes more interesting and lovely than the original one...

[Amphibian220]

What about bait videos titled:

“One thing you didn’t know that will make you successful with women”

”What the 1% who succeed do that the rest don’t”

Cameron befittingly called it the modern slot machines. Like watching this 5 minute video with bizarre info graphics will change your life.

Then follow the conspiracy videos about a secret plan to target you (the viewer) personally, either financially or in some other way. The author goes on about that there is no way out of this global conspiracy other than to keep clicking on his videos.

If i go back a couple of years, there were all these videos that explained the world’s secrets in under 10 minutes. Many years on and i realize that the only conspiracy was to sucker me into clicking on those pseudo educational videos to get money off me.

they always prey on your greed, fears and curiosity.

[Ray Cao]

You know, I had studied at an IT college in the past.

One of my college friends, he studied in Software Engineering major.

One of his courses is Game development.

In game development course, there are some gaming psychology lessons.

He said, "to make a successful game, you have to understand the psychology of player, you have to know them."

It means that psychology, strategy to hook player is a MUST-HAVE criteria when someone designs a game.

It's like you have to add spices to dishes you cook.

Game is a kind of entertainment. And entertainment things are not made to be boring.

So, if you don't want to addict to game. Or you have to quit it, like Respawn tell us, or you have to be so self-discipline, you have to got something to stop you whenever you get over the red line.

That's it!!!

 

Edited March 9, 2023 by Ray Cao

[Shonnasen The Light]

On 3/9/2023 at 12:07 AM, Ray Cao said:

You know, I had studied at an IT college in the past.

One of my college friends, he studied in Software Engineering major.

One of his courses is Game development.

In game development course, there are some gaming psychology lessons.

He said, "to make a successful game, you have to understand the psychology of player, you have to know them."

It means that psychology, strategy to hook player is a MUST-HAVE criteria when someone designs a game.

It's like you have to add spices to dishes you cook.

Game is a kind of entertainment. And entertainment things are not made to be boring.

So, if you don't want to addict to game. Or you have to quit it, like Respawn tell us, or you have to be so self-discipline, you have to got something to stop you whenever you get over the red line.

That's it!!!

 

Yes. Totally agreed.

I think games are one and the same as any other addictions, from heroin to hamburgers, promiscuity, credit card over spending, procrastination....

The idea is the same:    using easy rewards or repeating old habits  to   avoid tough but positive changes        

[D_Cozy]

Yeah, modern game design is all about piling activities for the player to do. Can confirm as a computer science major that this is very much what they teach too...

Open world games in particular will litter their UI with objective markers for that reason, their maps are a chock full of "points of interest" basically to ensure that you are always moving to the next objective. But all of the content just feels so shallow as a result of having to use algorithms rather than human effort to create so much of the content in a reasonable timeframe. There are exceptions, sure, but they're only exceptions.

Honestly even with self-discipline, I don't think playing games designed by corporate machines over human ingenuity and artistic visions is worth it to begin with. It's like arguing that a movie is better just because it's 10h long, or that a book is better because it has 2000 pages; can you imagine? None of that flies with other entertainment media, and yet games can get away with the "infinite gameplay" and "bigger is better" fallacies because of their addictive design.

Edited July 24, 2023 by D_Cozy