How Games Trick You and Make You Addicted

One time you have downloaded a mobile game, and all of a sudden your day revolves around this game. When you are in the waiting line you playing, before sleep you are playing, when you driving hmmm don’t deny we know you were playing when you driving. After hours and hours of playing slowly, you started to get bored with the game. You put down your phone and you start thinking. How did I lose so much time playing this game? If that happen to you before, congrats you were stuck in the Skinner box.

Most video games nowadays, especially mobile games, are designed around an idea called the Skinner box. The idea is to design the games in a way that tricks your brain to build more desire for you to play the game. So you would come back again and again and again. So what is a Skinner box you might ask?

In the 1930s a scientist called Burrhus Frederic Skinner started to study how to cultivate behavior for living things. Skinner conducted a simple experiment. He took a pigeon and put in it a box, the box was empty and it contained one thing only, a button. If that button was pressed a small amount of food was dispensed. Skinner left the pigeon in a box and started observing. At first, the pigeon was screaming like another bird. With time passing the pigeon started to get hungry. The pigeon started to tinker around until it pressed the button. The small hatch was opened and little food was dispensed. She ate the food but it was not enough. Desperate for food, she tinkered around until she pressed the button again. More food was dispensed. Pigeon started developing a correlation. Whenever the button is pressed the pigeon will get a reward in the form of food. This was the experiment. Easy right? So how is it even related to games? Let‘s not get ahead of ourselves here.

Skinner did the experiment again and again changing and tuning some parameters. Sometimes he would change the animal and sometimes he would change the interaction method. The results he got.

1- You can cultivate a behavior in living things if you provide a reward after an action is performed.

2- If you consistently provide a reward after the action is performed, The living creature would be satisfied fast and he/she would stop BUT if you reward him/her randomly the behavior can be cultivated fast.

3- Living creatures get satisfied fast given that the reward is a physical reward like Food, drinks, sleep, etc. BUT unphysical rewards like level, praise money, etc are hard to satisfy the living creatures meaning that they will still desire more and more. For example who would say “Oh I have enough money I don’t want more?”

These conclusions made a big breakthrough in many sectors like marketing, social media, and lastly games. Most games nowadays use reward systems to keep you coming back and addicted to them for a long time.

Famous examples inspired by skinner box like the leveling system, which exists in many games. The more you level up the more you can explore the game and the more things you can get your hands on. In some games, it is even prestigious to have a higher level.

Another example is the points system or the virtual currency system THE CONIS or whatever they call it. Humans love challenges and betting. Therefore some games entice you to gable. Who does not know the famous 8 Pool game? Everyone wanted to be the richest. Everyone was willing to gable with their coins to prove they are the best. That sense of challenge and the feeling of betting you are the best and winning the bet left you addicted more to win more, or let’s say you were not addicted you were stuck in a Skinner box.

There are many other ways for game designers to keep you engaged and coming back for more. Loot boxes, trophies, and many more. Any game with a reward system in it is a skinner box. Now let’s not misunderstand it as well. It is not a bad thing as well. These reward systems sometimes give you the joy of playing a particular game. You love to buy loot boxes and opening them. It is like the candy when you were a kid excited to see the game inside. So Be it enjoy it. The problem is a lot of developers exploit this method to force gamers to be addicted to their games. This is in the interest of the game developer. The more you play the more you are tempted to buy the more you are stuck in this cycle.

In conclusion, if you find yourself addicted to a game, ask yourself this question: Am I playing this game because I enjoy it or because I am addicted? If you are answer was Addicted. Let me tell you, You are stuck in a skinner box. Stop, evaluate your time, and is it worth it being stuck in a box? or you should move on to a game you enjoy?

Let us know if you are addicted to any game and what is it. See you next time.