Invested: How Good Game Mechanics Hook Players
Invested: How Good Game Mechanics Hook Players
September 11, 2020
Summary
I'm not talking about the technical side of things, like the programming and asset creation, though there is plenty of challenge there; rather, I'm talking about the design itself: creating rulesets, game mechanics, controls and user interfaces, and deciding how much time and money to invest in graphics, audio, narrative, and other aspects of the design.
Too much challenge and the game becomes frustrating; too little and the game becomes boring.
I this article, I hope to stimulate some budding young game designers with a brief look at one of the most misunderstood aspects of game design: the relationship between investment and reward.
What Does It Mean to Be Invested in a Game? Investment refers to two distinct but related concepts: The amount of effort a player has put into mastering a game, and The amount of attachment the player has to a game.
The first definition can be understood as a sort of financial transaction: the more time and effort a player puts into mastering a game, the more they have 'invested' in it.
That effort refers to more than just learning the rules of the game and developing the skills required to complete objectives, it also includes things like paying attention to the plot, remembering the other characters' names and what their objectives are, learning about the background or lore, taking time to admire the virtual environments and ambient noises, etc.
The more focused attention the player has given the game in the first sense, the more invested they are in the second sense.
All of the time and effort put into learning the ropes and becoming involved in the story results in an emotional attachment to the game.
How Do Games Reward Players? Reward, by contrast, has to do with the satisfaction that a player gets from playing a game.
Games provide two principal types of satisfaction: Immediate gratification, or pleasure, like stunning visuals and epic musical scores, and Lasting enjoyment, the more abstract and deeper feeling of satisfaction that comes from being completely engrossed in a game.
Reference
Invested: How Good Game Mechanics Hook Players - LevelSkip - Video Games. (2020, September 11). Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://levelskip.com/misc/Investment-and-Reward-in-Video-Games