The oldest trick in the game addiction book. If high score tables weren't a mainstay feature during the golden age of arcades, it's questionable as to whether or not there would ever have been a golden age in the first place. Anyone that's seen Seth Gordon's fascinating geekumentary, The King of Kong, will have witnessed just how obsessed some players can get about the high score.
And while most gamers aren't playing to break world records or earn a place in the rankings over atTwin Galaxies, the idea of notching up a gargantuan numerical tally and proving just how incredibly awesome you are is a pretty potent motivational tool.
This generation has revitalized the number war in spectacular fashion. Gamer scores and trophy collections provide bragging rights and are seen by some as an indicator of hardcore gaming skill. In reality, it's just about who has the most free time.
Achievement and trophy farming may not have changed the way games are designed, but the introduction of these rewards has completely changed the way games are played. They have provided games with yet another weapon in their arsenal of addictive firepower. Or at least they have for the 90% of gamers that possess that strong competitive edge.
An incredibly ingenious implementation of high scores is used in Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved (and other games since), which displays the high scores of friends on-screen and offers a very real sense of competition, even when playing alone. The prospect of being able to parade an intimidating ass-kicking score in the faces of your friends appeals to a very basic instinct of competing for superiority within a social group. It's alpha male shit for gamers. And hell yes it keeps us playing.
1. The quest for more power
The daddy of game addiction. There is absolutely nothing more irresistible to the gamer psyche than the act of leveling-up. It's an often tedious process that demands hours of slog, generally endured with a minimum of enjoyment and tackled with a workmanlike mentality. But we can't get enough of it.
The incremental improvement of a character is another addiction that exploits the desire to be better than everyone else. To gain the upper-hand. It's widely accepted that MMORPGs are the most addictive games out there. We've never heard of any Korean dropping down dead after an exhausting three day session of Mario Kart. At the core of every MMORPG is the level-up grind. It's no coincidence.
And other types of game have adopted these same mechanics. When first released, Modern Warfare 2 got the shooter crowd totally fried on leveling-up. So-called 'boosters' focused all their attention on farming an ass-load of XP by deliberately not playing as intended. Leveling-up actually becomes the game. It's not proper.
But leveling-up is still super strength addictive even in single-player games. Obviously this is because we want to have the most bad-ass character possible at our disposal. But we also like receiving presents. And knowing that we'll be rewarded with more gift-wrapped points to upgrade skills is all the excuse we need to keep trading precious time for XP.
If developers ever devise a more effective way than leveling-up to keep gamers playing... God help us all.
