Hacker News Reader

Comment by robryan | Hacker News Reader

The games are designed to be addictive, not fun in the long term. You could argue the same about WoW but at least in that case there is a lot to do over a long period before you truly get into the addictive repetition phase. Something like farmville is pretty much that from the start.

View on HN

Seems awfully presumptuous to say that tens of millions of people aren't actually enjoying themselves and that you know better than they do what's "fun" for them. Would you call knitting merely addictive repetition? In a sense it is, but who cares: many people need and want things to enjoy and help them pass the time.

The games are designed to be addictive, not fun in the long term.

Sorry, but I think you're pulling that out of your ass. All (good) games are addictive to some degree, precisely because they're fun, and I bet if you surveyed all the people who play Farmville, virtually all of them would say they enjoy it and are having fun.

Don't confuse "I don't enjoy it" with "No one enjoys it."

These pop psychology articles prove you wrong. Gaming companies strive deliberately to make their games addicting. And by addicting I mean addicting, not fun.

http://www.cracked.com/article_18461_5-creepy-ways-video-gam... + http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3085/behavioral_game_d...

The techniques that I'll discuss in this article generally fall under the heading of behavioral psychology. Best known for the work done on animals in the field, behavioral psychology focuses on experiments and observable actions. One hallmark of behavioral research is that most of the major experimental discoveries are species-independent and can be found in anything from birds to fish to humans. What behavioral psychologists look for (and what will be our focus here) are general "rules" for learning and for how minds respond to their environment.

I wouldn't agree with that, initial fun is important but over the longer term I think addictiveness can take over fun, to the point where the person feels obligated to continue playing the game to continue progressing even though each gaming session is in a sense almost dreaded.

I played farmville for about a month because some friends were, by the end of that I felt like I was wasting my time, the progression was for the sake of progression, the achievements were arbitrarily chosen to take more and more time and being better than your friends had a lot more to do with time invested then any form of strategy used. I had friends who admitted they were sick of the game and it frustrated them but continued playing just to finish off achievements.

Sure I'm not speaking for everyone but I do think it is a trend in Zynga games, they are build around user engagement and seek to maximise that for as long as possible.

i wouldn't deny intravenous drug users enjoy their highs

I would say that making a game addictive is the holy grail of gaming, no?

From the perspective of the people making money off the players? Yes.

When I'm actually playing a game myself, though, and recognizing that these two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, I prefer fun over addictive.

I'd say the holy grail is to improve people's lives, potentially even make the world a better place.

reminds me of jane mcgonigal's ted talk:

http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_be...

Why the downvote? For me the games I enjoy achieve this. And for whatever job I take on, I actually hope for the same (not just in game development).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com