Addiction vs Fun

Gaming has involved psychological tricks since it was invented. No, not the first console. Not the first computer either. Casinos, card hustlers, and carnival games all use a variety of tricks to keep us playing, and more importantly, spending money.

Farmville is the first PC game to be so obvious about what’s its doing to players. Its no secret that Zygna employ a behavioral expert to make their games as addicting as possible. In last weeks article (how to buy stuff you don’t want) we looked at how you can be primed to buy things you usually wouldn’t think about,  but when the game itself is designed around addiction, sales are all but guaranteed.

But while clever companies are raking in the cash from addicted players, are the games actually fun?

Addiction alone doesn’t make something fun. An addiction is just a habit that you can’t break – the obsessive compulsive who can’t stop washing his hands isn’t having fun, and arguably the compulsive gambler who can’t stop himself placing one more bet or trying the fruit machine one last time  isn’t having fun either.

The psychology of addiction is something we’ll look at another time  (such as next week), but until then, lets look at Farmville again. Do you know anyone who makes wall post after wall post about Farmville? Do they berate other people for not “helping”? Or pass the time between FV actions by reading about strategies, trying to refer others, or just sitting there waiting?

Are they really having fun?

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