The chances are that at least once in your life, someone has said this to you: ‘Video games are addicting.’ This serves naturally as a warning, but how do the companies do it? How do they convince millions and millions of people, both children, and adults, to spend countless hours thinking, clicking, staring at their screens? How do they make hours seem like minutes?
‘Neon White’, a first-person shooting game released in 2021, is an excellent example of how games create motivation and interest between their levels and their players. A very subtle item is very important in doing so. According to an article by the Washington Post, “‘Neon White’ Makes You Feel Like a Speedrunning God, Even if You Suck,” Neon White has short levels that only last about thirty seconds each— the outset of each level is simply to use an array of cards, some of demon-killing guns and some of one-use special abilities— to kill demons and get through the level, simple as that. The outset itself has no sleight of hand. However, in each level, are gifts that are never placed on the main course. Giving gifts can strengthen the friendship between players. It might not seem necessary, but the gifts changed something.
Suddenly, ‘Neon White’ isn’t just about shooting NPCs and using whatever card you want whenever. Not being on the main route, to getting the gifts needs planning and utilizing the cards carefully, as well as strategizing how to use them to finally reach the gift. It’s challenging, but not enough so the player can’t see hope. After developing and replaying thirty-few times, you will be acing every turn, perfecting every jump, toggling the cards as precisely as the second, and getting the gift. You’re amazing! You’ve figured out how to elude the game, a way outside the script—you must be so good at this game—and there are 96 more levels to go through. ‘Neon White’ is meant to be played this way, engaging the players by making them believe they found a way to skip and beat the game. It’s also why the game can be ‘addicting.’
Kristen Kalning, the reporter for NBC News, asked Jason Kapalka, co-founder of casual game company PopCap, if companies try to make games addictive on purpose, and this was his response recorded in the later-published article, “What Makes Video Games ‘Addictive’?”: “Yes, totally. That’s the main goal you have when designing a game.”
Of course, there is rarely a chance that someone would find game developers scheming around a table on how to make a game addicting. “It’s hard enough to make the game compelling in the first place … most people say, ‘I wish I had that problem with the game being too addictive,’” he says. “By definition, it means that the game is a success,” Kapalka says.
Kalning also asked Shane Dabiri, lead producer of “World of Warcraft,” and Clint Worley, senior producer on “Everquest” whether they intend to make their games addicting. Shane Dabiri answered in an emailed statement that they used many “of the same conventions employed by other roleplaying games,” and Clint Worely replied that “it’s not the games themselves that are addictive — it’s the social aspects of the massively multiplayer genre.
“Social networking is really kind of the glue that pushes people to sit in the game for long periods of time,” he says.
Video games are addicting, and they are made to be. There can be obvious signs, but it’s what the details matter. Like ‘Neon White,’ even something as small as “gifts” can completely switch a game from mundane to interesting.
‘Neon White’, a first-person shooting game released in 2021, is an excellent example of how games create motivation and interest between their levels and their players. A very subtle item is very important in doing so. According to an article by the Washington Post, “‘Neon White’ Makes You Feel Like a Speedrunning God, Even if You Suck,” Neon White has short levels that only last about thirty seconds each— the outset of each level is simply to use an array of cards, some of demon-killing guns and some of one-use special abilities— to kill demons and get through the level, simple as that. The outset itself has no sleight of hand. However, in each level, are gifts that are never placed on the main course. Giving gifts can strengthen the friendship between players. It might not seem necessary, but the gifts changed something.
Suddenly, ‘Neon White’ isn’t just about shooting NPCs and using whatever card you want whenever. Not being on the main route, to getting the gifts needs planning and utilizing the cards carefully, as well as strategizing how to use them to finally reach the gift. It’s challenging, but not enough so the player can’t see hope. After developing and replaying thirty-few times, you will be acing every turn, perfecting every jump, toggling the cards as precisely as the second, and getting the gift. You’re amazing! You’ve figured out how to elude the game, a way outside the script—you must be so good at this game—and there are 96 more levels to go through. ‘Neon White’ is meant to be played this way, engaging the players by making them believe they found a way to skip and beat the game. It’s also why the game can be ‘addicting.’
Kristen Kalning, the reporter for NBC News, asked Jason Kapalka, co-founder of casual game company PopCap, if companies try to make games addictive on purpose, and this was his response recorded in the later-published article, “What Makes Video Games ‘Addictive’?”: “Yes, totally. That’s the main goal you have when designing a game.”
Of course, there is rarely a chance that someone would find game developers scheming around a table on how to make a game addicting. “It’s hard enough to make the game compelling in the first place … most people say, ‘I wish I had that problem with the game being too addictive,’” he says. “By definition, it means that the game is a success,” Kapalka says.
Kalning also asked Shane Dabiri, lead producer of “World of Warcraft,” and Clint Worley, senior producer on “Everquest” whether they intend to make their games addicting. Shane Dabiri answered in an emailed statement that they used many “of the same conventions employed by other roleplaying games,” and Clint Worely replied that “it’s not the games themselves that are addictive — it’s the social aspects of the massively multiplayer genre.
“Social networking is really kind of the glue that pushes people to sit in the game for long periods of time,” he says.
Video games are addicting, and they are made to be. There can be obvious signs, but it’s what the details matter. Like ‘Neon White,’ even something as small as “gifts” can completely switch a game from mundane to interesting.
