Designing Addiction: The Twisted Psychology Of Game Design

a while back I made a video about Apex legends and what I felt was wrong with the Battle Royale genre I received quite a lot of comments on that video but what in particular really stood out it got me thinking about how games are designed and the techniques used to keep you playing to longer skill up made a video back in 2018 which detailed the rise and proliferation of the loot box or what he aptly labelled the Wilson loop box they represent not only an important shift in game design but also an insight into the

types of experiences we're likely to be playing in the future but lieu boxes are really just the tip of the iceberg when looking at how gambling has influenced gaming now I'm not an expert on gambling or in game design before I started researching for this video I knew that games were being deliberately designed to keep you playing longer I have a background in product design after all but I didn't really understand how they were doing this or how close modern gaming and gambling has become in this video I want to take a look at some

of the techniques used to create addictive experiences how many of these techniques have been part of game design along before loot boxes and how they've given rise to one of the most popular genres in recent years [Music] gambling and gaming has been a hot topic of late which was largely jump-started by the launch of battlefront 2 in 2017 two of the key issues in these discussions has been loot boxes and microtransactions and specifically the type that provides competitive in-game advantages now mobile and free-to-play games have incorporated these types of in-game purchases for a long time

now to the point where gambling has become synonymous with mobile gaming but while mobile gaming's nefarious monetization practices have flown largely under the radar battlefront twos microtransactions caught the mainstream media's attention in a big way on top of being able to purchase loot boxes that provide significant in-game advantages with real money that were also coupled with a well-known brand that targets children this sparked widespread debate over the ethics and legality behind them and it's in many countries create new legislation on the classification of gambling and gaming while the war against these types of loot boxes

seems to have been largely won this isn't the only example of techniques commonly used in casinos being applied to video games we've had brief glimpses into the dark side of game design in recent years in 2017 it was revealed that Activision were conducting research on how to incentivize players to purchase micro transactions but the use of manipulative tactics in game design go way further back than that [Music] so what makes a game addictive and can you deliberately design that Jamie Gries i'ma a former game design leader Bungie famously said that the secret of great game

design is creating a repeatable gameplay loop to hook players this loop needs to be the central activity that players engage in and it also needs to be flexible enough that it can be applied across the entire length of the game now hooking players isn't a new idea or something exclusive to video games it's a common practice in product design with a wealth of books and techniques on the topic products and services don't become addictive by chance addiction is carefully crafted and there's usually a team or multiple teams responsible for researching building and iterating on these

experiences to make them as addictive as possible creating addictive experiences has been one of the central objectives of game design for a long time arcade machines for example are designed to suck up your pocket change as fast as possible they generally have simple that satisfying gameplay loops and are notoriously difficult this motivates you to extend your playtime by pumping in additional coins the time you spend playing is therefore typically short which prevents you from getting bored and it allows these games to be reasonably simple if you've ever played an arcade game on console or via

emulation it becomes really obvious how brief these games actually are as players got older though and is gaming migrated into the home a more sophisticated approach was needed what makes a gameplay loop fun and engaging relies on many different components working together successfully the responsiveness of the controls the audio design and the art direction are just some of the more mechanical aspects that go into it but equally important and file is obvious is the use of psychology a well researched and documented psychological strategy for creating engaging experiences and establishing a pattern of behavior is positive

reinforcement one of the most common examples of this is the Skinner box this is where a rat is placed inside a box that has a small lever when the lever is pulled it dispenses food and over time the rat learns that each time it pulls the lever it receives a reward this form of behavioral conditioning works equally well on humans to positive reinforcement teaches you that doing a particular thing is good because each time you do it you'll get a little bit of satisfaction that little head of satisfaction is dopamine that your brain releases to

help establish that the thing you did is good and that you should do it more often basically your brain rewards you by getting you high there are plenty of examples of this in game design with two common ones in modern games and progression systems and achievements progression systems are particularly good at keeping you engaged because they provide a continuous stream of rewards over a long period of time Call of Duty 4 is revolutionary progression system is an object lesson on positive reinforcement and unsurprisingly it's been in every Call of Duty since the problem with rewarding

someone every time they do the thing that you want them to do is that over time it becomes less effective they essentially build up a tolerance not only does the perceived payoff for completing the tasks decrease as the reward becomes the norm but the brain also builds up a tolerance to the dopamine here that's been receiving it so to establish a continual pattern of behavior long term you need something a little more advanced to keep the brain stimulated and engaged enter the variable ratio schedule sometimes referred to as the variable reward schedule this is a

very effective and adaptable technique for getting a person to continually repeat a specific task here's how it works rather than receiving a reward every time you complete a task you only receive them sometimes and never in a way that's predictable receiving rewards at random intervals rather than each time is apparently a pattern our brains can't get enough of it can be used to incentivize performance in the workplace encourage good behavior and children fight substance abuse or in the context of games keep people playing for long periods of time there's probably a really good explanation as

to why this is so effective but that's way outside my level of expertise [Music] slot machines have been using variable rewards for many years to huge success they're so successful at this that in 2017 slot machines accounted for as much as 80% of all revenue generated in Vegas casinos in the book addiction by design problem gamblers were interviewed about their experiences with slot machines in the hope to better understand why they were so addictive people described playing these machines as being in a trance-like state where everyday life faded into the background and they lost all

concept of time the book refers to this state as the machines own and being in the zone is what gamblers become addicted to in many cases winning isn't even the main reason people keep playing it's simply a means of staying in the zone the similarities between modern-day slot machines and the loot boxes we see in games and many but beyond this I think the idea of this hypnotic state where all sense of time and reality is lost is the most interesting I'm sure anyone who said just one more game only to end up playing to

the early hours of the morning can probably relate to this another trait among problem gamblers that slot machines exploit is gamblers fallacy this is where the gambler believes that if something happens more often than not during a specific time period that the opposite is therefore more likely to happen in the future so for example if someone had been playing on a machine without a win for a long time it might seem logical that a big win will eventually happen in the crackdown on loot boxes some countries have demanded the game to display the odds of

winning in a bid to warn players of the risk apex legends has even gone as far as displaying the odds in game in theory this level of transparency is fairer because it tells you exactly what your chances of winning are so how can this possibly be a bad thing the problem with knowing the odds is that you might assume that you can predict when a win is likely to happen let's say you know that there's a 20% chance of winning according to the odds you should win every 5 turns or less except that's not exactly

how it works unless the rules state that a win is guaranteed within 5 turns it could be far more than that you see the odds don't state the time period number of players or any number of other variables used to calculate the win ratio so there might be times when it pays out frequently and other times where it doesn't it's also worth noting that unlike slot machines loot box win ratios aren't by law because for the most part they aren't considered gambling just a side note if you're watching this from the future and they are

now then congratulations we did it but right now the rules are completely set by the house gamblers fallacy is used to manipulate the play into believing that the more unlucky turns they have the closer it brings them to a win apex legends even has what they call bad luck protection the guarantees that you'll receive at least one legendary item every thirty apex packs how generous of them this further reinforces the fallacy that if you play long enough a win is inevitable okay so we've established that loot boxes are bad but this isn't the only casino

tactic used in games pretty much every game that allows you to purchase items such as microtransactions has its own currency from fight money to shards to VBox these virtual currencies are ubiquitous they act in a similar way to casino chips and while they might seem harmless enough they serve an important role their primary purpose is to act as a psychological separator between you and your money their denominations rarely match their real-world counterparts which makes it hard to have a concept of what you're actually spending for this reason they are very conducive to impulse purchases and

spending large amounts because it can feel like you're not spending a little money in-game currency is always purchased in bulk amounts - meaning you typically have to purchase more than what you need this leaves you with a surplus that you can't spend anywhere else and unlike casino chips can't be cashed in this inevitably results in further spending when the amount you have left over is insufficient to buy anything else [Music] so we've talked about some of the techniques used to create addictive experiences we've also discussed what these look like in practice such as loot boxes

progression systems and in-game currency but these are systems that sit outside of the actual gameplay they generally aren't part of the moment-to-moment action or other loot boxes might seem like something that you only see at the end of a match such as the ones you get for achieving a milestone completing a challenge or by spending real money but loot boxes are far more embedded in the games we play than you might realize from your single-player games to your competitive online experiences boxes that contain random rewards and games are everywhere one genre that has embraced this

concept as a central component of the gameplay loop is the looters in looters like the divisional destiny you're incentivized to keep playing for the chance of acquiring better gear which will allow you to tackle more difficult enemies progression in these games therefore isn't achieved by simply completing tasks or defeating enemies a certain amount of luck is also required to level up the amount of time these games demand is usually high as grinding for loot can be a time-consuming process skill and experience can help speed up this process but it still doesn't guarantee you'll get the

loot you want loot boxes in these games are part of the game world and often presented literally as a box or some other type of container in God of War loot boxes are presented as various types of chests that contain a random selection of items not acquiring these items won't prevent you from completing the game but in many situations it would be nearly impossible to progress without leveling up your abilities and items in a similar way to how battlefront 2 originally integrated loot boxes into its progression looters use random rewards scheduling as part of the

core gameplay loop this adds an element of chance into the actions you perform while playing and it makes it impossible to play these types of games without experiencing some kind of random the looter has been very successful at using random rewards scheduling but these games merely inject physical loot boxes into the gameplay so how do you take the concept of randomly rewarding players to the next level how do you not only incorporate this into the game's design but build an entire experience that's based on it I give you battle royale battle royale successfully combines all

of the psychological tactics I've just discussed embedding them into just about every aspect of the game creating an experience that is heavily influenced by chance right from the beginning where you start is largely random this means your chances of finding not only a weapon but a decent weapon is decided by the roll of a dice scavenging or looting for gear is also unpredictable sure it's possible to know in some games where high-tech gear is likely to be but it still doesn't guarantee you'll get exactly what you want your success with taking out other players is

therefore heavily influenced by what bu found and also what gear they found experienced players will have an edge when it comes to skill but engagements that everybody influenced by chance as they are a mastery of the controls in other competitive games like Call of Duty or Street Fighter every player has access to a similar tool kit this prevents any one player from having an unfair advantage but in battle royale games because of the number of randomized variables involved the outcome of each match is far more influenced by luck in apex legends who you get two

players isn't even guaranteed so the likelihood of you playing just one more game to get a more favorable roll of the dice is high how many times have you thought to yourself after losing around if only I had a better drop or if I just found a better weapon or more armor I might have won that now you might have noticed that I've used Apex legends in quite a few examples by now apex legends isn't the only game guilty of using the psychological effects of gambling to help players it is however an excellent example of

all of these concepts and mechanics rolled into one product [ __ ] apex Legends has even got loot boxes inside of its the loot box style gameplay and doing well rewards you with you guessed it more loot boxes [Music] I think that battle Royales mark an important step in the evolution of gambling and casino tactics being used in games while there are a plenty of other genres that use these tactics - such as mobile games it's the way that battle Royales weave them into the moment-to-moment action that sets them apart this shift in game design

towards titles that leverage the variable ratio schedule is what I believe is responsible for the cancellation of many single-player games and the closure of studios that specialize in them it's why so many game companies are turning their attention to the live service model and designing experiences that are hard to put down don't have traditional endings and most importantly encourage additional spending there will always be a place for games that tell a story that have a clear beginning and end but I think orangy experiences are here to stay the mounting pressure on both studios and publishers

to remove obvious gambling elements from their games is undoubtedly a big win for players but unfortunately this isn't the end of these practices being used and is likely to result in far more and city's solutions in the future all we can do is keep our eyes peeled and vote with our wallets when it comes to the type of games we want to play [Music]