Why We Play Games

In this post I am going to attempt to answer why we play games.

In my opinion, there are three why games are fun:

• Learning
• Fake Accomplishment
• Real Accomplishment

Learning

The first reason why games are fun is that they teach us things. From an evolutionary standpoint, those that know things will do better than those that don't.  Your brain rewards you when you learn what a new enemy does, or how to beat that level you spent 3 hours on.

Now though we have a problem. If games are fun because of learning, why is school, where everyone is learning, so boring? The answer lies in how you are learning. In a game you learn by achievement. You figure something out and use it to achieve a goal, and your brain rewards you for learning something. In school though, you are learning through many different levels. Your brain doesn't actually know if something is useful, or even true in some cases. You trust that your teacher is teaching you something useful and true, but the lower levels of your brain don't know that, as all they see is a teacher talking. Therefore you don't get rewarded.

Fake Accomplishment

If learning was the only thing that mattered in games, what makes us keep playing after we have figured everything out? Fake accomplishment helps to add some more fun contrary to learning.

The best example I have seen of this is Guitar Hero. Guitar Hero/Rock Band is a relatively simple game. The main fun lies in pretending to be a rock star. If you had a goal to be a rock star, the game tricks your brain into thinking you have accomplished your goal, and your brain rewards you. This effect is usually coupled with others, as it varies from player to player how effective it will be. The spell can also be easily broken. Stories can also provide this effect, and players that are easily immersed will actually believe they are saving the world, and have a lot of fun.

Real Accomplishment

Real accomplishment is by far the most effective way of getting a player hooked on a game. If they achieve, or atleast think they have the chance to achieve, real world goals from playing the game, they will keep coming back. Examples of this would be high scores. If a game has an achievable high score, players will try to beat it in order to express their real world skill in playing video games, and differentiate themselves from their peers.

Sports also uses this, and as the thrill of victory outweighs the pain of defeat, people keep playing. Other examples would be pretty much any multiplayer game, and eSports.

There is actually a fourth reason as to why people play games, and it is fear of loss. If a player stands to lose something by quitting the game, they will keep playing in order to sustain their earlier accomplishments. Examples of this would be virtual pets that die if not played with, or MMORPGs that delete your account if you stop paying them/playing. Using this in your games is ethically questionable, as people aren't actually having fun when they are playing your game.

Next post will be about what tools you can use in your game to make them more fun.