What make people drawn to certain video games, and what are the psychological phenomena behind it?
There are many reasons why video games appeal to people, and people are drawn to different appeals. There are, however, some appeals more common than others, and you can find at least a couple of the big ones in pretty much every game. In this article, we’ll go over five of the more dominant ones, and we’ll end by looking at some examples of how games incorporate them.
Disclaimer: This article was written by a game designer specializing in online multiplayer games. If you like to play more casual, single-player games, then the dominant appeals might be entirely different — I wouldn’t know.
Background
In my last article, I briefly mentioned how the Fundamental Game Appeals play a big role in differentiating between average and good games. Their prevalence of course makes a significant difference on all levels, but at the highest level of games, they are never neglected. In game design, I believe that by having them in mind, regardless of what level you are at, you have the chance to improve your game significantly.
As mentioned, there are many more than five. Appeals such as socializing, narrative, destruction and exploration are examples that didn’t quite make it on my list. We’ll take a look at what I’ve identified as the five biggest ones.
Competition
Simply put, many people are competitive. This is a psychological trait that is the foundation of the entire sports industry. And for competitive people, multiplayer games versus other players are going to feel very rewarding and appealing. The desire to constantly get better and to never get tired of practicing is common in this appeal. Competitive games are the most commonly appreciated by viewers, for instance on Twitch and YouTube Games.
Gathering
The whole mentality around accumulating and gathering things ties into the phenomenon of hoarding. Although most people aren’t hoarders, I think we all more or less recognize the urge to want to keep things and not throw them away. Some games have invented the perfect way of rewarding you for hoarding and gathering. Accumulate things to improve your character in different ways. The fact that so many people spend countless hours just running around gathering herbs to make a couple of potions is a very good indication of how your mind rewards you for it. Competitive games, such as Battle Royale games, revolve around gathering/looting to some extent as well, but due to the fairness principle of hardcore games, the loot typically doesn’t persist between games.
Achievement
This appeal is predominant in casual games, and revolves around the positivity of affirmation. You get achievements in computer games by for instance completing levels and winning awards. Some competitive games do incorporate small elements of this (like how Apex Legends has badges that you can win if you perform certain tasks), but you will see a limited focus on this appeal in competitive gaming. However, games like Candy Crush and Angry Birds are good examples that center much of their progression around achievement.
Construction
Building and constructing is also one of our fundamental psychological appeals that many are drawn to, not only in gaming, but in real life as well. Thus, it is not strange that it gives so many people satisfaction to construct things in the cyberworld too. This trait can be found in games of many different kinds, from casual to hardcore.
Cooperation
It comes as no surprise that the last appeal we’re talking about today revolves around working together and playing as a team. People trained in psychology are in a resounding agreement that socializing and spending time with people is the best thing you can do for your mental health. Playing team games with friends is a necessity for a lot of people to be able to appreciate a game. In competitive gaming, this trait is especially interesting, because despite that many of the teamplay-centered competitive games have a big appeal to many, the communication within the game more often than not revolves around raging. Still, people find satisfaction in participating as a group.
Quantifying Appeals
We’ll soon talk about some examples of games, and rate how well they have implemented each of these five appeals. The process of quantifying them relies on a number of questions I ask myself.
Competition:
* Is the main game mode a versus mode?
* Is it fair? Do you go to battle on equal terms?
* Is it sufficiently difficult to master?
* Is it played in tournaments and/or eSports events?
Gathering:
* Does the game have loot?
* Does the loot persist between game sessions?
* Are there different kinds of beneficial loot?
* Is looting essential to the gameplay?
Achievement:
* Are there elements of completion, such as levels?
* Are there rewards that give a visual affirmation?
* Does the game have a tracker for your achievements?
* Is there a social context where you can compare achievements?
Construction:
* Can you build things?
* How central is the construction aspect for your success?
* Can you improve or otherwise add to buildings you’ve already built?
* Does the building process require creativity?
Cooperation:
* Do you play in a team?
* Is working together essential to succeed and improve?
* Would playing this game alone work or be meaningful?
* Would practicing with the same teammates make a big difference?
Examples
I’d like to bring up a few games and analyze how much focus they have on each of these appeals. I’m going to select five examples that I consider to be one of the most extreme games at each of the corresponding game appeals.
Starcraft
Starcraft is arguably the most competitive of all competitive games. Blizzard has put so much focus into making it not only competitive, but with an infinitely high skill ceiling, that it is very hard to enjoy for any other reason. Except construction — building that perfect base does create a level of satisfaction. Although maybe not why people play it at a high level, it does contribute to its popularity. It also does have an element of gathering, or accumulating resources. While on paper this doesn’t look like much of a reason to play it, it does create satisfaction to successfully build that expansion and start mining.
World of Warcraft
If there’s a gathering reward to hand out, it has to go to WoW. The game is essentially all about making your character stronger, going on raids to find loot or grinding for days to collect material such as minerals, skins or herbs. WoW was the most played game for over a decade (if I remember correctly), so is it a coincidence that it scores high in so many of the appeals? There’s a PvP arena where you can go and battle other players. There are crafting professions, such as alchemy, blacksmithing, engineering and more that one could argue is a type of construction. There are an endless number of quests for the achievers to complete, and the biggest raids require several dozens of people working together.
CyberPunk
The enormous futuristic single player shooter, providing adventures in a gigantic city. Granted, gathering and achieving goes hand-in-hand in a lot of cases. Often because achieving things like completing quests grants you different loot rewards. CyberPunk is more centered around the endless world of progressing in any direction. You can not only complete the game in several different ways, you can also try to complete every single side quest, thus making it the ultimate achiever game. You can also literally build on your body in this game.
Clash of Clans
Build, build, build. This is the name of this mobile game. Construct that base, build armies and go on raids and accumulate resources. By the end of it, it is so ridiculously expensive that you sometimes have to grind for days just to get to upgrade one piece of wall. It does have a big social element (clans) and a competitive element as well (clan wars), making it a decent game in terms of appeals.
Left 4 Dead
A zombie-slaying game revolving around a cooperation mode will be the obvious choice for the last example. While it has a PvP mode, where you can actually play as zombies, this isn’t the core game mode in focus. Tons of fun can be had with 3 friends, synchronizing every move and every shot to not upset the wrong zombie. You go on long missions, where you advance through a long map, gathering weapons and ammo to survive against the hordes. Completing all maps on all difficulties is what this game is about.
Appeals / Popularity Correlation
The games selected for this excercise are without a doubt among the most popular games in the world. And we can see they’ve all done a fairly good job at scoring high on at least 3 of the 5 appeals. CyberPunk may be the exception, but it it arguably also the least successful of the games. The one that scored the highest average score on this list is World of Warcraft — a game that happens to also have been the world’s most played online game for a decade. Coincidence?
Lastly, I would like to talk about how I’ve incorporated this mindset into the making of ZiberBugs.
ZiberBugs
We have designed this game with these appeals in mind, trying to fill as much of this radar chart as we can. The game itself will be competition-focused, meaning that the PvP game is the primary game mode, fulfilling all the conditions of a competitive game. We also have a PvE mode where you accumulate breeding resources, and certain powerups will be collectible in various different game modes. We will implement a level system for both your account and your bugs, giving a sensation of achievement when you pass certain unlocking thresholds. We have also made both PvE Raids and breeding revolve around cooperation to optimize accumulation and earning. With only a few buildable power-ups, it is lacking in the Construction department. It will find redemption in this area however, when we expand the Ziberverse and create our land, where you will be able to build onto your nests and hives.
Conclusion
We have identified (from the view of a game designer specializing in online multiplayer games) the five most common appeals, discussed what characterizes each one and how to quantify them and then applied it to examples. We’ve gone over some of the most popular (at one time or another) games in the world and we have also learned that gaming companies utilize these appeals in the making of their games.
Every person is drawn to different appeals and other reasons to play certain games. But there are clear tendencies and patterns with gamers wanting to stick to their favorite appeals throughout their entire gaming career. By implementing many different game appeals, you will increase the size of your target group.
Next article, we will make a thorough game design analysis of Teamfight Tactics, where I will talk about what I think are some great aspects, and also some flaws in the game design.
Stay Tuned!
//Simon
