Game Designers check this out:
Kudos to John Hopson for detailing these fundamental game design procedures and the psychology behind them! It’s good to finally see some science attached to the concept of gaming and game design. There’s no question that every gamer, even casual ones, have experience at least one of these reward ratios/intervals - and there’s no doubt that every gamer has walked away from games that instill these concepts poorly.
More and more games seem to be exploring different combinations of each reward, or even avoidance system, though none seem to compare to the constant, rigorous obsession that Blizzard commands over their players through the hypnosis of World of Warcraft. It is apparent now that they have a variety of reward systems and avoidance systems in constant, successive motion. In one of the author’s recipes he asks “How do you make players play hard?” and claims the answer is a “variable ratio schedule”, in which each player action has the chance of producing a reward. In the case of WoW, this is highly accurate. Player’s know that they can do a myriad of activities that will reward them, even “when the player knows the reward is a long way off, such as when the player has just leveled… and motivation [should be] low [as well as] player activity” (Hopson). In WoW, if a player has just leveled they can upgrade skills, work on professions, seek out new dungeons for better gear, sell and/or buy items in the Auction House, socialize, explore, duel or PVP (player vs. player, used as a verb in this case) or even get their avatar stinkin’ drunk! And, yes, I know it sounds like I’m marketing this game, but the point I’m simply trying to make is that they have a clear understanding of how the mind of a gamer, or the majority of gamers, works. World of Warcraft is a multi-billion dollar asset to Blizzard and employs around 12 million players. Now that is certainly a successful game design - and it’s all thanks to the psychology of their reward systems. World of Warcraft gives players what they want.
However, that does not mean others games don’t, WoW is just a very easy example. It outlines how the right recipe of player reward will get your game design noticed and craved.
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