Designing Addiction: The Twisted Psychology Of Game Design

Is it possible to design a video game to be addictive and if so, what exactly keeps you playing? Loot boxes and microtransactions have dominated recent discussions on gambling in video games and gaming addiction. But game studios were deliberately designing addiction into games long before either of these existed. This is why outlawing them won’t stop developers from using the same twisted psychology tricks that made them so successful to design even more addictive experiences in the future. In this video, I take a look at the strategies, techniques and dark patterns used to make games difficult to put down. How they share many similarities to online casinos and online gambling, and how they have been a part of gaming long before microtransactions or loot boxes. #lootboxes #microtransactions #gamedesign Links: Addiction by Design: Kotaku article on loot box bill Positive reinforcement Interview with Jamie Griessmer Apex legends loot box FAQ A very long article on variable-ratio schedules 00:00 Intro 1:12 The war on loot boxes 2:35 Designing addiction 4:18 Psychological tactics 6:34 Gambling parallels 10:23 Raising the stakes 14:27 Where do we go from here? OTHER VIDEOS ===================================================== Re-Reviews: All Videos: DISCOUNTS ON STEAM GAMES ===================================================== ?ref=goukigod SUBSCRIBE & SUPPORT ===================================================== ★ SUBSCRIBE: ★ SUBSCRIBE via RSS: ★ Support via Patreon: SOCIAL ===================================================== ★ Instagram: ★ Facebook: ★ Twitter: ★ Email: goukigod@ ★ Patreon: CHANNEL ===================================================== ★ Latest video: ★ Channel: