I’ve played World of Warcraft on and off since 2007. My total played time on my main alone is 162 days, 7 hours, 35 minutes, and 7 seconds (thanks for the seconds, Blizz!). And, though I’ve quit several times in the past, I’m back again. Of course, no one game hooks every gamer in the same way. Other gamers here at NYMG (I won’t name names…) are hooked by different games *coughFarmvillecough*, and I have several friends that live and die by Minecraft. So what makes games grab us and keep us coming back for more? Jane McGonigal argues in Reality is Broken that “gameplay is the direct emotional opposite of depression” (if you’re interested, you can read this particular section of the book online, here). Games make us do a variety of different kinds of work. They challenge us and test our skills and limitations, but generally in such a way that we do eventually achieve success. And when we succeed, games reward us. Furthermore, games do all of these things in relatively quick succession. Sure, you don’t reach max level in a day and you don’t earn that item you were hoping for immediately, but the cycle of challenge-work-achieve-reward is constantly happening in most games.
For a lot of us, this cycle much more drawn out when it comes to our daily lives. In academia, this process can take a year or more- writing the diss, getting an article out, the job market, tenure. These activities all follow the challenge-work-achieve-reward cycle, but they’re incredibly drawn out and it’s easy to lose focus of the achieve-reward bit when you’ve been stuck in the challenge-work part of the cycle for weeks, months, or even years.
Indeed, my most intense bit of WoW PvP happened while I was taking comps and working on the diss as a graduate student. Both activities stretch over long months, often with little sense of accomplishment until the very end. PvPing in WoW gave me a challenge that required me to use all of my skills and improve in particular ways, and it rewarded me for my successes on a fairly regular basis. The next goal was always in sight, and while I knew I had to work to get there, it was always achievable (something that certainly can’t be said as confidently in professional life).
In the podcast last week we discussed gaming addiction, in response to the HBO documentary Love Child (spoiler alert: we don’t recommend it). Whether we’re talking addiction from a serious, clinical perspective or from a more euphemistic “I’m addicted to Candy Crush” perspective, this cycle of work and reward is one of the draws that keeps us going back. Of course, McGonigal would argue that what we see here is not a problem with games, but a problem with real life: if we’re not getting this full cycle (from challenge through reward, no steps skipped) in our day to day lives, we’ll seek it else where.
So what are your thoughts? What games hook you, and how do they keep you coming back?
