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