{"id":876,"date":"2011-09-29T16:37:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-29T16:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/?p=876"},"modified":"2022-02-10T21:57:11","modified_gmt":"2022-02-10T21:57:11","slug":"who-killed-video-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/archives\/876","title":{"rendered":"Who killed video games"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is a great read (I’m curious how this jibes with how +Jay Schneider<\/a> sees the landscape). Originally shared by Greg Linden<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brilliant article on how Facebook games, rather than try to be fun, try to be addictive. They feed on the compulsive until they give up their cash. Amazing statistic in this article, that some people spend $10k in one game in less than a year. Entire article extremely worth reading, but an excerpt below:<\/p>

———–<\/p>

In a game with an \u201cenergy\u201d mechanic, you need one energy point per profitable action. When you run out of energy, you can either pay money for more \u2014 usually you can fill your meter for two dollars \u2014 you can spam your Facebook friends\u2019 walls and mailboxes, begging for more, or you can sit patiently and wait for the meter to recharge.<\/p>

What the \u201cenergy\u201d mechanic does is limit the player\u2019s time. This is how you know Zynga employed psychiatrists and psychologists and psychomathematicians in the honing of this concept: you give the player only a few moves at a time. The player uses all of these moves. Now he can\u2019t play anymore, unless he:
Pays some money
Begs his friends
Waits<\/p>

The first of these options leads to the game\u2019s victory. The player has paid something, so the game wins. It takes the money, puts it in its pocket, tells the player his \u201ckidnapped\u201d daughter is already safe at home, and walks away.<\/p>

The second of these options leads to increased viral exposure of the game. Of course, this is incredibly effective. Remember: the \u201caverage\u201d player who spends $1.40 is a Math Ghost. In order for these games to profit, they need to have as many players talking about it as possible. What better \u2014 and more brilliant! \u2014 way to get players to talk about a game than to make talking about the game a way to earn currency in the game? I\u2019m sure we all know how brilliant a moneymaking idea this is. We can all agree that it\u2019s sinister, though let\u2019s stop for a second and reflect on how amazingly simple it is.<\/p>

The final of these options is the one the psychomathematicians grinned most sinisterly about. The player who does not want to pay or scream must now wait. He can take some actions without expending energy \u2014 he can move his furniture around, or what have you \u2014 though he can\u2019t do anything in the name of progress.<\/p>

who killed videogames? (a ghost story) | insert credit<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

[Migrated from Google+]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a great read (I’m curious how this jibes with how +Jay Schneider sees the landscape). Originally shared by Greg Linden. Brilliant article on how Facebook games, rather than try to be fun, try to be addictive. They feed on the compulsive until they give up their cash. Amazing statistic in this article, that some people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mind-and-brain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":881,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876\/revisions\/881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}