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View Full Version : Understanding Addiction-Based Game Design



AndrewJ
29-05-2009, 02:15 AM
From /. (http://slashdot.org/):

"The common theory is that games like World of Warcraft are addictive. But what are the exact qualities that make it so? Are there specific elements of the design that can be pulled out, distilled, and used at will to give a game drug-like properties? Is it wrong to do so?"

Read more here (http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/28/029216).

Fruzz
29-05-2009, 02:04 PM
This is really interesting. I had the idea that all games were based on some addictive mechanics. It may be a silly question to ask but are there games based on non-addictive mechanics?

All the games I can think of have some sort of effort for reward mechanic. I guess it might be a bit evil to prey on base psychological traits but hey, as long as I'm having fun exploit away :)