The Three Heads of Videogame Addiction

This article is a brief overview of three possible mechanisms of the much disputed game addiction, and particularly how they apply to MMORPGs. While these elements may be present in games, you will notice that none of them are exclusive to games. Videogames work off existing mechanisms of addiction as they are purposefully designed to appeal to the natural patterns of our behavior.

Andrenaline Junkies - Pass the Code Red Please

The effects of the fast-paced competition offered by first-person shooters is well documented. It can spike adrenaline and increase testosterone levels. In this way it is not dissimilar to engaging in extreme sports.

There's a certain drive, stronger in some than others, that compels us to seek out these danger and competition. Gaming provides a safer alternative, at least physically, to intense sports like football or extreme activities like sky-diving. Cautious thrill seekers, which despite the apparent paradox seem to exist in abundance, will find the synthetic tension and danger present in many games absolutely intoxicating. While those who crave the rush provided by fierce competition will find it in abundance in the videogame aisle.

Escapists - Anywhere but Here

What fan of fantasy hasn't occasionally entertained the dream of visiting the world Tolkien created in the Lord of the Rings? But aside from throwing on your mother's bathrobes and running around passing gibberish off as Elvish with like-minded friends, there was little more you could do than read the books again or watch the movie. It's this form of desire that partially drives reenactments, renaissance fairs, and Star Trek conventions. What card holding member of the Trekkie legion wouldn't give up his or her mundane life for a chance to travel the stars on the Enterprise?

Now you can actually enter the world of Middle Earth in Lord of the Rings Online. Thankfully, with technology limited as it is, LotRO may provide an experience that is even more limited than the one you get by donning bathrobes and wrapping foam around PVC piping. May God have mercy on our meek and yearning souls when this is not the case.

Another aspect that makes MMOs dangerous to escapists is that often time what drives us from reality is precisely what calls us back: loneliness. Yet the cyber-worlds of MMOs are filled with other real human beings, who can often prove more interesting than those around you in reality. In my experiences, I've met people from all corners of the globe, from Canada and Brazil, to Australia and Russia. I've grouped with students, CEOs, engineers, scientists, lawyers, doctors, and slackers. Perhaps I was escaping the heterogenic society in which I lived, but I was arguably only trading one social circle for another -- one that exists on a medium to which we are not yet fully accustom and therefore move to discredit.

Escapists who are seeking to avoid human interaction altogether will also find the world of MMOs appealing, despite the fact that they are "Massively Multiplayer." Most modern games are design to welcome solo play. Some have even gone as far as to call them Massively Single-player -- and there may be some truth to that.

Whether you're looking to meet new people or simply avoid human contact, MMORPGs have got you covered.

Achievers - Workaholics Beware

Workaholism is not a technically accepted psychological affliction, but you don't need to be a shrink to spot it.

What drives a workaholic's obsession for work? Certainly, a degree of escapism is present. What better way to avoid the rigors of social life in a socially acceptable way than to let oneself be absorbed by work? But there's more to workaholism than that.

The workaholic could choose to hide in their basement rather than the office, so what separates them from the shut in? Most workaholics cannot stand leisurely inactivity. They are wracked by the sensation that they "should be doing something." Temporary relief comes only from the satisfaction of accomplishment.

The mechanisms of achievement and accomplishment can be quite potent. There are many who derive their sense of worth from work. Achievement can give us a sense of purpose -- a reason to rise in the morning.

Reward systems in MMORPGs take this fact into account. The successes of today will yield benefits tomorrow. This relationship can help occlude lackluster gameplay. As soon as a player tires of a game without continuity and permanency of gains, there may be no reason for them to continue. With entertainment removed, games can be reduced to nothing more than wastes of time. Yet the persistent world of the MMORPG might coerce players, and often does, to slog through the mire of mid-levels to reach the promised land of the endgame.

The rate at which these relationships occurs is of great importance, a topic I brushed in a previous article. Gains in MMORPGs occur faster than in reality, making them more effective at reinforcing certain behaviors from the player.

Workaholics beware of the MMORPG. As soon as the veil of triviality is drawn back, and gains within the game become important, you will find it difficult to hoist yourself from your chair.

Just Say No to Bad Hooks

With marginal budgets and negligible development time, indie game developers can find it quite hard to manage a proper marketing campaign. They commonly rely on blogs and gaming sites for their main publicity. This requires indie games to generate news, for which developers often resort to gimmicks or hooks. But focusing on a gimmick can belie the real experience that players can expect from the game.

Using hooks to lure in potential customers is certainly not specific of the indie game scene; it's not even specific to the entertainment industry. Much bigger titles such as Bioshock 2 also resort to gimmicky, referred to as viral in internet terms, advertisement. Yet their diverse marketing strategies are separate from the game itself. When a sidewalk painter creates a mural or someone tells a bedtime story based on the game, it doesn't affect the gameplay in any way. But with scarcely enough time and money to complete production, indie game developers often have found that the game must primarily market itself.

In a Gamasutra blog, Craig Stern has recently noted that there is an unhealthy obsession on screenshots and aesthetics spreading across the indie scene. But while it may be unfair to judge an entire game on a single screenshot, that may be the cold reality of today's fast-paced market. Just as scripts and stories are often tossed or kept after reading the first paragraph, games must also make a good impression.

Machinarium: The Good Hook

I recently played a demo of Machinarium, which is a fairly typical, albeit quirky, 2D point-and-click adventure. Would I have given the game a chance if it didn't boast such a unique and whimsical art style? I would like very much to say that I would have, but it's more likely that I wouldn't even be aware of its existence, much less have taken the time to try it. I was, in fact, hooked into playing the game with a screenshot.

But are Machinarium's graphics simply a ploy designed to attract players? Only if you're willing to label any and every art style as such. Machinarium's graphics work very well with its sound design and gameplay, making it part of the complete experience.

This highlights a very important point: not every hook is a bad hook. There are many times in which a developer's need to differentiate themselves from the crowd will encourage them to create a higher quality and more original product. Such is the case with Machinarium.

The Bad Hook

So then which hooks are in bad form, as Captain Hook would say? While good hooks arise as a byproduct of high quality work, bad hooks do not. They are often gratuitous and can even cripple a game. The question that developers should ask themselves is: Am I including this gimmick because I think it will result in an overall better experience for the player, or am I including it to make an easy headline?

A good gimmick can set the game apart from the rest, but one who's purpose is simply to set the game apart can ultimately cripple the game's chance at success. Even Jonathan Blow, creator of Braid, has said that he's found himself "not wanting to play unthoughtful indie gimmicks." He stresses, however, the adjective "unthoughtful," as not every gimmick is a bad gimmick.

Herein a difficult judgment call must be made between valuable novelty and flippant novelty. There may be a certain allure to creating the "first game to do..." or the "first game to have..." but often times things exist as they are for a reason -- it's what works best. Is incorporating a scanner, a webcam, and a printer into your game's design really going to benefit the player? Perhaps it would and perhaps it won't, but it's sure to generate news.

Then, of course, there are hooks which are easier to label as objectively bad -- such as if a developer were to purchase a waterproof laptop and develop the whole game underwater just to create buzz. Creating games with controversial topics or content without the proper substance to achieve legitimacy can also fall into this category.

Who's to Blame?

Developers cannot be blamed for trying to come up with creative ways for their game to see some publicity. And for an indie game, no news is most certainly not good news.

Consumers cannot be blamed for trying a game because it looks nice, as there may be nothing else on which to base their initial opinions and they can't be forced to try every game made.

The responsibility of distinguishing good hooks from bad ones, and indeed, good games from bad games, falls upon the shoulders of the people writing the headlines, not making them. It's quite easy to report on a game with a gimmick, you rarely even have to play the game. A headline such as "New Indie Game to be Controlled by a Pair of Fuzzy Dice," is more quickly and easily written than, "New Indie Game is Good for the Following Reasons."

The Trouble with Gameplay

But let's assume that journalists are committed to bringing us what they consider will be the best of games, and not to succumb to the easy story. We're still left with one very big problem. The best of games are usually famous for great gameplay, and while screenshots and gimmicks can be sent in press releases several months in advance, gameplay requires a nearly finished product to test.

How should a developer focusing on quality gameplay without the benefit of gimmicks attempt to generate news? They can't send journalists a press release that reads, "Trust me the game is gonna be really good."

Lookie, Lookie, I got Hookie

To solve this problem, I suggest a strangely under-used strategy in the current market. There are plenty of interviews and articles that highlight games' features in very broad terms, but few that attempt much detail. Just as a screenshot encapsulates a single image from the game, a short video can explain a single aspect of gameplay which defines the game.

Let's say a hypothetical RPG is trying to generate news by claiming that they will feature rogues as one of their classes in the game. That's not very thrilling news. However, if instead of simply stating that they will have rogues they focus on a feature of their stealth system, it might be newsworthy. For instance, most MMORPGs stealth systems allow players to disappear entirely and walk across barren plains in broad daylight undetected unless they come too close to an opponent. If instead an MMO decided to implement a stealth system by giving players a host of lesser abilities they can use to conceal or disguise themselves, it would be a newsworthy facet of the game.

In short, developers would have to -- as they currently do -- convince journalists that their game is worth covering. And journalists would have to be more sensitive to this type of news. This is not to imply that they'd have to fawn over every bit of gameplay that's sent their way. The ensuing article could very well call into question how effective the stealth system in the previous example would actually be. The important thing is that we move beyond the simple screenshot or cockamamie gimmick.

Why any of this Matters

This article is written primarily in defense of more traditional indie games. In most disciplines, elegantly adhering to the standards of the craft is to be lauded, and in fact many of the games that do are quite successful. But an indie game that wishes to refine existing conventions rather than reinvent them may find it difficult to garner much attention.

It would be nice if game journalists could provide an infinite amount of coverage, spanning all games and all viewpoints. And it would be nice if readers had the time and patience to read them all, but such is not the case. Both are in limited amounts.

Even if every game were to receive equal coverage, it would result in either very sparse articles and information or a flood of articles that would see a headline swept off the front page before you could finish reading it. Time and exclusivity is required for an article's exposure to be effective. And so, good choices must be made, or the game that someone programmed upside-down in three hours may take the limelight, while dozens of more deserving games must dwell in the shadows.

Three Questions: Monica Evans on Game Design at UTD

The following is a brief interview with Professor Monica Evans of the University of Texas at Dallas on the topic of game design and how it is approached by the curriculum.

Design VS Development

Design and development are two distinct aspects of game design. How are they linked and how are they separated in UTD's curriculum?

We try not separate them any more than they need to be. Development and design are two sides of the same coin. However, in order to prepare them for the production of an actual game, students are encouraged to take both the Computer Game Development and Computer Game Design courses.

The development class is a fast-paced production environment in which students create small-scale games, typically in Flash, the Neverwinter Nights engine, or as board games. We have plans for the course to deal exclusively with board game creation so that students can better focus on the development process. Specific constraints are placed on every project to mimic real-life conditions and every game student's create is play-tested by their peers.

While project limitations are a big part of the development course, in the design course students are encouraged to dream big. The course provides an overview of the history and culture of games, but focuses on aiding students to refine their concepts and commit them to paper. Learning to write a good design document is an essential part of this class.

Finally, the two elements of game creation come together in the Game Production Lab. Students interested in taking this advanced course are required to submit a portfolio of previous work. Three to five students are chosen to act as creative directors based on the strength of their submitted design ideas and ability to lead. The purpose of this lab is to produce complete games or demos.

Traditional VS Innovative

The video game industry is constantly changing and adapting to new technology, making innovation one of its defining qualities. But there is still much that can be improved within more traditional games. How does UTD handle the balance between innovation and the study of traditional games?

As discussed, the Computer Game Design course does cover the history and culture of games, but it also encourages innovation. When I taught the course, students were forced to come up with ideas for games that didn't involve saving the world or other common clichés.

The strength of designs proposed for the Game Production Lab are often measured by how innovative they are.

UTD also offers a Mobile Lab course, taught by Dean Terry, in which students can produce games for smartphones. These games typically make use of the phones' GPS module, but the greater portion of student's efforts go into refining the existing technology, because its current state has proven inadequate for many of their game concepts.

A Collaborative Effort

Creating a game is no easy task. It can take hundreds of skillful professionals to make a single game. Teaching someone how to actually make a game is no different. What steps has UTD taken to ensure that faculty with the appropriate expertise is made available to the students as they endeavor to produce a game?

Collaboration is a big part of the Game Production Lab. Although some lectures are given, much of class time is spent on working directly with the student and providing them the feedback they need. We bring in professors from multiple disciplines to help with this process. For instance, Todd Fechter may be brought in to help students with all issues concerning 3D digital art, while Bruce Barnes is made available to them to help with aspects of 2D art and animation, and Frank Dufour provides his sound design expertise.

But collaboration within the Game Production Lab is not limited to the student-professor relationship. We've recently begun a collaboration that will see students in France creating the sound design for games produced here in UTD. This international partnership was arranged by Professor Dufour.