Are games a Persuasive medium? Can games change the world?
This was the question posed by the latest brief and my immediate personal response is a yes. Of course, this is purely a subjective response so over the next few weeks I hope to look at a number of different sources and games in order to answer that question.
Gaming Addiction: Is it possible?
One of the first things that this task reminded me of was a BBC Panorama episode that looked at Gaming Addiction. Now as a gamer I have played games that are addictive -Games for which it has been very difficult to present a better argument against playing it than the argument that the game itself was presenting for playing it. The immersive worlds, the great stories that wouldn’t be out of place in a best-selling novel, the cinematic quality and of course the opportunity to beat a close friend – the odds are always highly stacked in the pro-playing column. However this Panorama episode looked at the serious side of addictiveness in games.
Unfortunately the episode is no longer up but a solid article summarising the key points raised in the program could be found at:
Raphael Row (2010). Can video gaming cross from innocent fun to addiction? Available from:
(23/03/2012)
Two points of interest for me from this article was the presence of Video game Addiction clinics in South Korea, whereby 12 people havd died from blood clots from sitting in front of games consoles for large periods of time (Row, 2010) and also the idea that scientific tests have converted into tried and tested game mechanics designed to keep us addicted to games:
“Adrian Hon, chief creative officer of SixToStart, said it is based on research carried out in the 1950s, when scientists discovered that rats which had been trained to feed themselves by pressing a lever would press it obsessively if the food was delivered randomly.
"People have discovered that this works on humans as well. If you give people a lever or a button to press and give them random rewards, they will press it all the time," he said.
In computer games, instead of food, players are randomly rewarded with extra lives or extra in-game features. The idea is to create a compulsion loop that keeps them wanting to play on.”
(Row 2010)
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| Animal Crossing - an addictive game, but maybe there is a science behind the addictive nature of the game? |
Animal Crossing Screenshot. Available from:
http://guidesmedia.ign.com/guides/682878/images/acww_02_money_06.jpg
(23/03/2012)
Drawing up my own experiences, I can think of more than one occasion that this technique has been used in games. An example would be in the highly popular “Animal Crossing: Wild World” game for the Nintendo DS system. In this game, each day the player can find random items dispersed around the world. By talking to different inhabitants, they might be offered quests or rewards. And finally the items change day by day in the shop.
These things no doubt contributed to the sense of addictiveness from the game. I would play the game every day to see if there was an item I liked in the shop. Likewise, I would wander the town for hours searching for items and talking to inhabitants in the hope that I would be rewarded. The effort involved in doing these things was minimal and in the short term the rewards do seem worth the time put in. It is almost like gambling. By rewarding the player early on for a little effort, then wean them off the actual rewards, soon the gameplay time increases for a decreased amount of actual reward.
Free Online browser based games are another example, with their entire revenue stream often being related to advertising. They will implement this system and others in order to keep their stream of players high – in return meaning they can sell advertising space for higher fees. One of these other techniques for keeping a player ‘hooked’ involves giving them a certain amount of Action points.
Action points (or whatever the system is called in different games) dictate how many actions the player can execute before calling it a day/ waiting X amount of hours. Restricted play time can be an infuriating thing to deal with for a player – it makes playing the game seem more attractive and with it all of the gameplay features. The developer will take advantage of this and allow the player to purchase more points for a premium price, developing yet another revenue stream for their game. Additionally they are keeping their non-paying players interested by limiting the amount they play, thus meaning they will always have something to do in the world
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| Spiral Knights - Keeping the Player involved |
(23/03/2012)
An example of this in use would be Spiral Knights, a free to play game that can be obtained via Steam. In the game the player character has a certain amount of ‘Crystal Energy’. Crystal energy is spent every time the player enters an in-game dungeon or progresses onto later levels. When the player has spent all of their Crystal Energy they cannot move further in the dungeon/ visit other dungeons, meaning they cannot play anymore.
With all of the games mechanics (earning money, levelling up, playing with friends, obtaining better items) only really accessible via exploring dungeons, unless the player has purchased points with actual money, they would have to stop playing. And one factor that will bring them back is the sense that they have unfinished business within the game world.
Overall it is really interesting to see what lengths a developer will go to in order to keep a gamer persuaded to play a game and also what they will draw upon to do so. Clearly games can persuade a gamer to play them but referring back to my initial statement; can they change the world?
As stated above the other thing that interested me about the Panorama article was the situation in South Korea, and by simply researching further, I stumbled across some startling information that no doubt proves that in some cases video games have changed the world.
In an article I found online it details some horrific deaths that have occurred as a direct result of video games, and in particular addiction. In July a 21 year old addict was found dead in his home. In 2005, a 28 year old man collapsed and subsequently died after playing for 50 hours straight after having lost his Job to his online gaming habit. The highest profile of these cases came from a couple who cared for a virtual infant while their own starved to death. The pair got two years in prison for this (Sun,C 2011). These are absolutely diabolical results of the persuasive power of games on people who cannot handle it.
(The article)
Carolyn Sun (2011) Online Cravings. Available from: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/10/16/south-korea-s-video-game-addiction.html
(23/03/2012)
Another article, this time from CNN mentions a law that has been dubbed the “Cinderella law” which has been introduced in South Korea which prohibits online gaming to players under the age of 16 from Midnight to 6am. This hopefully aims to combat this addiction, although early signs simply show gamers trying to dodge this law by connecting to Western servers.
Jiyeon Lee (2011) South Korea Pulls plug on late-night adolescent online gamers. Available from:
(23/03/2012)
Eliot Lefebvre (2011) South Korea puts the ‘Cinderella Law’ into effect. Available from:
(23/03/2012)
The situation in South Korea clearly demonstrates some of the worst sides to video games, especially given their persuasiveness to gamers. There have been deaths and laws to prohibit gaming, in addition to clinics being set up purely to combat addiction to gaming.
However, if there is a negative point to gaming, which this is, then surely there must be positive ways that games have inspired, persuaded and changed the world. And this will be my next point of research over the coming weeks.
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