Adiran Hon talked about many other mechanics that social games use to keep plays playing a game. Each mechanic a way of persuading a player to keep playing through compulsion. Simple in game mechanics have the ability to persuade a player to keep playing to the point of addiction. These mechanics usually use phycology to help them work.
Avoidance:
This is using punishment as a tool in which to bring a player back into the game to achieve better. When a player loses in a simple way then they would be disappointed but if it was simple then theres a high chance there determination would increase to not fail or lose again if its easy not to. Avoidance in Farmville is known as the withering crops as if you sign in to late you may loose value or not getting any money for the crops you made. This means players lost in money and would hopefully get them to sign in at the right time. The negative effect also might keep them checking the game as they don't want to be punished again.
Variable Ratio Reinforcement (rewards):
Its the same mechanic slot machines use to keep gamblers going as every so often a payout will rewarded. This rule can apply for games with plays being rewarded points, coins and objects ever so often. It is created to change behaviour as a player who would usually sign in once a week to play may play more if there was a high chance of 'winning' or getting rewards. Its an insensitive to keep playing for more rewards and in most games you are working towards a goal to get a reward less work for better outcome is a good reason to keep playing.
There are many games that use this method from social to AAA console games. Farmville uses daily rewards based similar around lotto as variable coin rewards are given for signing on every 24 hours. These rewards are variable as they are random to how much or how little you get. This persaused the user to keep going on for the best chance at getting a high payout and even if they don't its still free rewards.
Games like halo use credits as rewards for completing a game. these are random at the end of a game but what they have also done is added a large bonus for those who regally complete games. Randomly you may get a huge payout for not quitting and playing a lot thus keeping players in the game. Its creating the players to think they are getting something for nothing but what they are doing is getting addicted and keeping loyal to the game.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/adrianhon/100006049/a-new-breed-of-computer-games-is-creating-compulsive-behaviour-someone-is-making-a-lot-of-money-out-of-this/
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
Compulsion mechanics
I earlier talked about how Farmville and other social games have caused serious addiction which means they had to have had persuade the keep playing over and over again. What i wanted to know is what is the main mechanic of the game? When i played Farmville i played the same game over and over and nothing much changed but i kept playing although there were other reasons i wanted to know why players keep playing the same mechanics over.
After researching i came across Compulsion Mechanics. A repeating system that keeps players entertained through rewards. Adrain Hon from SixToStart recently talked about compulsion mechanics and a article that refenced his thoughts was placed on The Excapist magazine.
"A new breed of social games threatens to give the industry a bad reputation for causing compulsive behavior among a small minority of players," Hon wrote in a blog post for the UK Telegraph. "Not all engagement in games is positive. If you play games or know someone who does, then you'll know that it's possible to play games too much."
What is a Compusive mechanic loop:
These loops allow players to be fooled with new play just by adding another piece into the game. Its like getting a king in the game checkers as it still the same game but the play is slightly different. In Farmville the reward after harvesting crops is money, this money can then be spent for more items. The more money the better and newer the rewards. In this case Farmville will also get you to play every hour to get the reward.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/105894-Free-to-Play-Game-Designers-Use-Compulsive-Mechanics
After researching i came across Compulsion Mechanics. A repeating system that keeps players entertained through rewards. Adrain Hon from SixToStart recently talked about compulsion mechanics and a article that refenced his thoughts was placed on The Excapist magazine.
"A new breed of social games threatens to give the industry a bad reputation for causing compulsive behavior among a small minority of players," Hon wrote in a blog post for the UK Telegraph. "Not all engagement in games is positive. If you play games or know someone who does, then you'll know that it's possible to play games too much."
What is a Compusive mechanic loop:
These loops allow players to be fooled with new play just by adding another piece into the game. Its like getting a king in the game checkers as it still the same game but the play is slightly different. In Farmville the reward after harvesting crops is money, this money can then be spent for more items. The more money the better and newer the rewards. In this case Farmville will also get you to play every hour to get the reward.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/105894-Free-to-Play-Game-Designers-Use-Compulsive-Mechanics
Sunday, 24 April 2011
Games and Advertising
Advertising is the key to selling anything in todays world. James . Twitchwell calls the contempuarey social burden "AdCult" we can not escape from being advertised to from the obvious in your face advertising to the hidden and well planned advertising. Companies were quick to colonise media with advertisements as now every medium would of had some sort of advertisement some were upon them and with the jumps and leaps of technology the way in which people advertise as certainly changed. Games originally created to be gun and entertaining are now being converted into tools to persuade people to buy other products. And lately becoming more of a strong medium to advertise on with millions playing games a day.
There are many current forms today of advertising with the use of games from Adgames to games advertising other games in the game. Each has its own use and way of getting people to buy products but how is this effect us as players and companies e.g Does it work?
In Game Advertising:
Today games can advertise if they wish anything the there games because in a game anything is possible. Most may have seen the in game advertisement like in racing games with billboards of sign posts with logos, brands and company names smeared across them. For those who haven't:
It isn't just racing games doing this but all games when they can or if they want to. Sports games again have a high reputation on in game advertising because sports use a lot of big named products and if people are gonna play with there digital products then why don't you advertise them to the players. Its worrying because in a way we are getting used to the idea of games having some sort of promotion advertising in the games and we expect them to be in the scenery.
in 2009 its reported on in games advertisements revenues were at 699 million american dollars, even might rise to 1 billion by 2014. this is a crazy about of money being spend on in game advertising for us to just notice a couple of advertisements here and there so why are they doing it. Its simple. It works. We play games over and over again with adverstments sinking into our brain and to use they become the scenery but as we less notice it the more they are becoming subliminal messages.
One of my favourite in game advertisements was the small Energiser banded batteries in Alan Wake. The batteries were a viral tool in the game and with the use of advertising ever time a player found the batteries then they would be instantly reminded of the brand. There was even a achievement called energiser which players had to collect the all the batteries to get. This means that even if the player didn't notice the advertising the achievement would connect the batteries to the brand. It was simple advertising but i thought effective. In game advertising is able to use all 3 different methods of advertising. These are: demonstrative, associative and illustrative advertising. "emotionally reinforce the brand image" through the "content of the game"
Advergames
In its simplest terms advergames are games built just to intent to advertise and persuades players into buying the item its trying to promote. These games typically today are more focused on internet as its medium. These games use simple gameplay to get a player to see what is being advertised. Typically internet based Adgames usually link to a website in which the product is available. Other Adgames are more to persuading the product.
Popular companies like Lynx, Dr Pepper and Cadburys regularly used Advergames to help promote there products. Currently Cadbury's are running a Spots vs Stripes campaign with many different games available on there website (Above the Line Advergaming). This means that people are currently going on there site were there name is very were to play free games, in return there product will always be on there mind and if they tell there friends more will go onto the site hopefully selling more. Whats good about this is that its also combining TV advertising and competition to help promote itself.
Advergames as i mention earlier have the ability to use the mediums as much as they can because thought the internet they can target any group of people they can. Thus they can build and promote a game around that audience as well. Unlike most Advergames we see in the web spamming websites that we click 5 times to win a ipod some games are build around the product to create a subliminal tie between the product. Mcdonals created a game called 'Shark Bait' This game was to help promote the filet o fish sandwich. But what the game did was use that burger as a tool to play with. When playing the game the player must keep the sandwich away from the sharks. Now while playing you may forget your a sandwich but next time you think of sharks or someone mentions the game you will instantly remember the sandwich, maybe even crave one.
I have mention before in other blogs about the use of Alteritive reality games for advertising. They are a much more complex version of a Advergame as at some point they will advertise a product but most of the time you are playing. And in a way they can also combine other areas of advertising. How are these games persuasive? well its combining entertainment with a product. Everyone likes to be entertained, if we enjoy something then more likely that they may play again and with every time a brand or a product is getting more people seeing it daily. Its almost subliminal messaging as they will remember it when it comes to things that link to the game or the product. It also means that they will link that product to entertainment. It breaks away from TV ads that are in your face and pushing products on you. Today even TV adverts are getting less in your face and more interactive and sutial and its those entertaining TV ads that do the best.
http://www.cadbury.co.uk/home/Pages/home.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advergaming
http://money.howstuffworks.com/advergaming.htm
Ian Bogost, 2007, Persausive games, The Expressive power of Video Games. The MIT Press,
There are many current forms today of advertising with the use of games from Adgames to games advertising other games in the game. Each has its own use and way of getting people to buy products but how is this effect us as players and companies e.g Does it work?
In Game Advertising:
Today games can advertise if they wish anything the there games because in a game anything is possible. Most may have seen the in game advertisement like in racing games with billboards of sign posts with logos, brands and company names smeared across them. For those who haven't:
It isn't just racing games doing this but all games when they can or if they want to. Sports games again have a high reputation on in game advertising because sports use a lot of big named products and if people are gonna play with there digital products then why don't you advertise them to the players. Its worrying because in a way we are getting used to the idea of games having some sort of promotion advertising in the games and we expect them to be in the scenery.
in 2009 its reported on in games advertisements revenues were at 699 million american dollars, even might rise to 1 billion by 2014. this is a crazy about of money being spend on in game advertising for us to just notice a couple of advertisements here and there so why are they doing it. Its simple. It works. We play games over and over again with adverstments sinking into our brain and to use they become the scenery but as we less notice it the more they are becoming subliminal messages.
One of my favourite in game advertisements was the small Energiser banded batteries in Alan Wake. The batteries were a viral tool in the game and with the use of advertising ever time a player found the batteries then they would be instantly reminded of the brand. There was even a achievement called energiser which players had to collect the all the batteries to get. This means that even if the player didn't notice the advertising the achievement would connect the batteries to the brand. It was simple advertising but i thought effective. In game advertising is able to use all 3 different methods of advertising. These are: demonstrative, associative and illustrative advertising. "emotionally reinforce the brand image" through the "content of the game"
Advergames
In its simplest terms advergames are games built just to intent to advertise and persuades players into buying the item its trying to promote. These games typically today are more focused on internet as its medium. These games use simple gameplay to get a player to see what is being advertised. Typically internet based Adgames usually link to a website in which the product is available. Other Adgames are more to persuading the product.
Popular companies like Lynx, Dr Pepper and Cadburys regularly used Advergames to help promote there products. Currently Cadbury's are running a Spots vs Stripes campaign with many different games available on there website (Above the Line Advergaming). This means that people are currently going on there site were there name is very were to play free games, in return there product will always be on there mind and if they tell there friends more will go onto the site hopefully selling more. Whats good about this is that its also combining TV advertising and competition to help promote itself.
Advergames as i mention earlier have the ability to use the mediums as much as they can because thought the internet they can target any group of people they can. Thus they can build and promote a game around that audience as well. Unlike most Advergames we see in the web spamming websites that we click 5 times to win a ipod some games are build around the product to create a subliminal tie between the product. Mcdonals created a game called 'Shark Bait' This game was to help promote the filet o fish sandwich. But what the game did was use that burger as a tool to play with. When playing the game the player must keep the sandwich away from the sharks. Now while playing you may forget your a sandwich but next time you think of sharks or someone mentions the game you will instantly remember the sandwich, maybe even crave one.
I have mention before in other blogs about the use of Alteritive reality games for advertising. They are a much more complex version of a Advergame as at some point they will advertise a product but most of the time you are playing. And in a way they can also combine other areas of advertising. How are these games persuasive? well its combining entertainment with a product. Everyone likes to be entertained, if we enjoy something then more likely that they may play again and with every time a brand or a product is getting more people seeing it daily. Its almost subliminal messaging as they will remember it when it comes to things that link to the game or the product. It also means that they will link that product to entertainment. It breaks away from TV ads that are in your face and pushing products on you. Today even TV adverts are getting less in your face and more interactive and sutial and its those entertaining TV ads that do the best.
http://www.cadbury.co.uk/home/Pages/home.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advergaming
http://money.howstuffworks.com/advergaming.htm
Ian Bogost, 2007, Persausive games, The Expressive power of Video Games. The MIT Press,
Thursday, 7 April 2011
Persuading people into addiction.
Game addiction is poping up in the gaming news more and more lately as people are starting to worry about the effects. With kids and adults now being dienegnoes with this addiction countries are now looking at countering the problem but were does the problem begin with the person or the game? Everyday a person is most likely been advertised a game or played a game due to the persuading influence they have.
Games today have infected social networks and the internet and allowed millions of players to play with each other and this is a marvel of technology but the what are the effects. Games today can persuade platers to log on every hour just to check there game, what is the effect of this? Millions of players constantly having to check there game no matter were they are, thanks to mobile technology its possible but where will it end. Games like FarmVille makes have to time your crops in real life because if you don't sign in and play the game as it reaches its time then you could loose your crops thus loosing points and then fail to beat your friends. Farmville has the influence to persuade people into becoming addicts because you don't have to choose to play in a way that it will get in the way of your everyday life but the effect of not doing it is that you will be overtaken by your friends in which you are most likely competing against. Other games like Ogame as a similar effect, as a MMOG it makes you build game parts in time periods and if you don't sign in after the completion then you are losing out time against your enemies and friends.
I have found a article from http://www.escapistmagazine.com which discusses briefly the news of a 23 year old female that shook her child to death. She blamed the popular game 'Farmville' for shaking her son to death she he was crying while she was playing, this is an extreme case of addiction but it does rase the issue of do these games puersaude use to become something we are not. Another point rased about raised in this article is that blaming games isn't new but for the company Zanga the blame on there game is worrying to them as they have already annoucend there " "calculating and psychological" efforts to make its games as addictive as possible". This means that the games creatures are creating games that are so pervasive that they are causing people to have social issues just to get more out of sales.
I have also come across a similar event that has accured when a man allowed his son to die because of his addiction to World of War craft. He even admitted to seeing his son in risk of dieing but found himself caring on playing because there was no pause button. Again this raises both issues about games as culprits but also issues on the creatures on how much they make there game persuasive and addictive.
Full article here: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108907-Man-Let-Son-Suffocate-Because-He-Was-Playing-WoW
http://www.tellinitlikeitis.net/2008/11/video-game-addiction-symptoms-and-treatment-of-video-game-addiction.html
Games today have infected social networks and the internet and allowed millions of players to play with each other and this is a marvel of technology but the what are the effects. Games today can persuade platers to log on every hour just to check there game, what is the effect of this? Millions of players constantly having to check there game no matter were they are, thanks to mobile technology its possible but where will it end. Games like FarmVille makes have to time your crops in real life because if you don't sign in and play the game as it reaches its time then you could loose your crops thus loosing points and then fail to beat your friends. Farmville has the influence to persuade people into becoming addicts because you don't have to choose to play in a way that it will get in the way of your everyday life but the effect of not doing it is that you will be overtaken by your friends in which you are most likely competing against. Other games like Ogame as a similar effect, as a MMOG it makes you build game parts in time periods and if you don't sign in after the completion then you are losing out time against your enemies and friends.
I have found a article from http://www.escapistmagazine.com which discusses briefly the news of a 23 year old female that shook her child to death. She blamed the popular game 'Farmville' for shaking her son to death she he was crying while she was playing, this is an extreme case of addiction but it does rase the issue of do these games puersaude use to become something we are not. Another point rased about raised in this article is that blaming games isn't new but for the company Zanga the blame on there game is worrying to them as they have already annoucend there " "calculating and psychological" efforts to make its games as addictive as possible". This means that the games creatures are creating games that are so pervasive that they are causing people to have social issues just to get more out of sales.
I have also come across a similar event that has accured when a man allowed his son to die because of his addiction to World of War craft. He even admitted to seeing his son in risk of dieing but found himself caring on playing because there was no pause button. Again this raises both issues about games as culprits but also issues on the creatures on how much they make there game persuasive and addictive.
Full article here: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108907-Man-Let-Son-Suffocate-Because-He-Was-Playing-WoW
http://www.tellinitlikeitis.net/2008/11/video-game-addiction-symptoms-and-treatment-of-video-game-addiction.html
Sunday, 3 April 2011
Social or unsocial gaming
We had a lesson that briefly looked at was is expected of us during this unit as well as a brief look into social games. My first aim was to look at educational games but because of this talk i'm more interested to look at social gaming. I am not the biggest player of social games but what i have played and the news i have heard it appears we are looking at a new era of gaming.
I expand on that last statement to refere to a video of a talk held by Jesse Schell. FIlmed in feb 2010 at the DICE summit, Jesse Schell displayed his thoughts on the current social games industry and displayed his comedic but possible view of the future thanks to social gaming.
Video Link: http://www.ted.com/talks/jesse_schell_when_games_invade_real_life.html
I liked Jesses view on social gaming and seeing that even games designers didn't see how social networking could of produced such a opening for social games. Even he says that he didn't see it coming and it shows how quickly social gaming has as emerged on us. Now most people already think of social gaming as Facebook games but social games can be any game that runs based on a social line or network and as more technology is available the more gadgets can run social games. Facebook on the other hand created a mass following with small games that hit big around the world. Farmville was one of them with the power to play with your friends over the website and not having to worry about spending to much time as when you sign in you can check you game and shown you sign out you stop playing so you are killing two birds with one stone. Schell during the talk brought up a very interesting point "FV > T" this is his term to show that Farmville has more players than Twitter accounts. This is a scary thing to think about, now Twitter has millions of accounts but this one game as more active players. This is every games companies dream to have that many players. But what does it say about us, well it shows us how most people are willing to play games that are easy and not out the way. It also shows how people are more willing when they can achieve better than friends.
Money wise Schell brings up the clever new way of Lead Generation and Direct payment. "Lead Generation can generate more money than Direct payment ... " Now this payment system is brilliant because either way money is made but it is also addictive, when you play a game and see that you have to pay most people just stop playing as they don't want to invest money into a game that they might stop playing. But get free in-game stuff for just visiting another game or signing up to different things then why not. It also means that when you keep playing and getting invested there will be a point that you will run out of things to sign up to or you get fed up of doing it. At this point Direct Payment is a good choice as means less hassle and dedication. Schell talks about the effect on kids as they moan about more in games stuff when they play and it will come to a point that parents will cave in because of there easy diction to simple social games. Instandly social games have made a way to get money into there business and as they are free to begin with open for everyone to play. Club Pengin a game created by 'New Horizon Interactive' was bought by Disney for 350 million "That was unexpected"
Already these games have had an impact on our lives because of there easy to play and free to play style but also they can become so immersive we pay monthly to play them. Now looking at Schells idea of the future its easy to see what kind of world we might live in one day dispite the over comedic his view is. With social games today being competitive against one and other across networks its easy to get carried away and his view of everything giving away points and everything containing computer chips is almost possible. Now his view with everything popping up and awarding points is a scary thought, I mean today we are already overloaded with pop ups, adverts and more but with that happening with everything we touch, now what is the effect on us? Social games take time and commitment to play so what are the effects of this? lately i have read about how social games have lead people to do crazy things and some people have even died because of addiction. This is my next area that i want to study as its interesting to see the effects of games specially when you are the one designing them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_Penguin
http://www.schellgames.com/
http://www.ted.com/talks/jesse_schell_when_games_invade_real_life.html
I expand on that last statement to refere to a video of a talk held by Jesse Schell. FIlmed in feb 2010 at the DICE summit, Jesse Schell displayed his thoughts on the current social games industry and displayed his comedic but possible view of the future thanks to social gaming.
Video Link: http://www.ted.com/talks/jesse_schell_when_games_invade_real_life.html
I liked Jesses view on social gaming and seeing that even games designers didn't see how social networking could of produced such a opening for social games. Even he says that he didn't see it coming and it shows how quickly social gaming has as emerged on us. Now most people already think of social gaming as Facebook games but social games can be any game that runs based on a social line or network and as more technology is available the more gadgets can run social games. Facebook on the other hand created a mass following with small games that hit big around the world. Farmville was one of them with the power to play with your friends over the website and not having to worry about spending to much time as when you sign in you can check you game and shown you sign out you stop playing so you are killing two birds with one stone. Schell during the talk brought up a very interesting point "FV > T" this is his term to show that Farmville has more players than Twitter accounts. This is a scary thing to think about, now Twitter has millions of accounts but this one game as more active players. This is every games companies dream to have that many players. But what does it say about us, well it shows us how most people are willing to play games that are easy and not out the way. It also shows how people are more willing when they can achieve better than friends.
Money wise Schell brings up the clever new way of Lead Generation and Direct payment. "Lead Generation can generate more money than Direct payment ... " Now this payment system is brilliant because either way money is made but it is also addictive, when you play a game and see that you have to pay most people just stop playing as they don't want to invest money into a game that they might stop playing. But get free in-game stuff for just visiting another game or signing up to different things then why not. It also means that when you keep playing and getting invested there will be a point that you will run out of things to sign up to or you get fed up of doing it. At this point Direct Payment is a good choice as means less hassle and dedication. Schell talks about the effect on kids as they moan about more in games stuff when they play and it will come to a point that parents will cave in because of there easy diction to simple social games. Instandly social games have made a way to get money into there business and as they are free to begin with open for everyone to play. Club Pengin a game created by 'New Horizon Interactive' was bought by Disney for 350 million "That was unexpected"
Already these games have had an impact on our lives because of there easy to play and free to play style but also they can become so immersive we pay monthly to play them. Now looking at Schells idea of the future its easy to see what kind of world we might live in one day dispite the over comedic his view is. With social games today being competitive against one and other across networks its easy to get carried away and his view of everything giving away points and everything containing computer chips is almost possible. Now his view with everything popping up and awarding points is a scary thought, I mean today we are already overloaded with pop ups, adverts and more but with that happening with everything we touch, now what is the effect on us? Social games take time and commitment to play so what are the effects of this? lately i have read about how social games have lead people to do crazy things and some people have even died because of addiction. This is my next area that i want to study as its interesting to see the effects of games specially when you are the one designing them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_Penguin
http://www.schellgames.com/
http://www.ted.com/talks/jesse_schell_when_games_invade_real_life.html
Thursday, 24 March 2011
Brief and Ideas
Games today can be very persuasive in many different ways and during this unit its up to us to do a detailed essay on a chosen area of persuasive games. This means looking at all the different ways that games can effect the world rather than just entertainment. Areas in which research should be looked at is in how games can educate and the benefits of games in education. The commercial use of games be it a small side shooter ad which fills a tiny space on a website to a full Alternate Reality Game. Also the political use of games, each one of these areas have the power to change whats happening around us.
Our main focus is to gain advanced knowledge of the skills needed to create a extended research project. This unit will prepare us more for what the 3rd year may have to offer and give us a better advantage. Our goal is to produce 1000 word essay as well as a research blog.
My first thoughts
There is a wide range of areas to study and trying to get across them all would be difficult. Due to the low word count a more focused area of study would be better. I like all the potential areas of study so to begin with i shall take a brief look into educational games, advertising games and the political use of games.
Resently i read about how a major games developer was disappointed that the potential of games in education hasn't increased and reached a higher potential and in the next 3 or 4 years he would like to push for games to be more used in schools. I have used educational games before and been slightly disappointed but did learn some new information and games them selves teach without realising. Games always teach a player to use a set rules and controls.
Our main focus is to gain advanced knowledge of the skills needed to create a extended research project. This unit will prepare us more for what the 3rd year may have to offer and give us a better advantage. Our goal is to produce 1000 word essay as well as a research blog.
My first thoughts
There is a wide range of areas to study and trying to get across them all would be difficult. Due to the low word count a more focused area of study would be better. I like all the potential areas of study so to begin with i shall take a brief look into educational games, advertising games and the political use of games.
Resently i read about how a major games developer was disappointed that the potential of games in education hasn't increased and reached a higher potential and in the next 3 or 4 years he would like to push for games to be more used in schools. I have used educational games before and been slightly disappointed but did learn some new information and games them selves teach without realising. Games always teach a player to use a set rules and controls.
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