What makes you keep playing?
Dues
Member Posts: 1,159
As the title says...
What keeps you playing and make you want to keep progressing in a game?
How important is it with new objects/powerups/environments in every level?
I can find myself coming back to a game even though the only thing new in each level is the actual layout of the level itself. No new graphics/powerups/interactional object etc.
But I can't really say why.
Thoughts? 
Comments
Well, for "singleplayer" games I would say hard things that need to be finished. Like a hard level that kills you often and you know you can beat it because it is just one easy jump away and it is really easy to get past this thing that pushes me into the abyss but I have to time it ri- still died. That is what I would say. Or, a new level or new gameplay mechanic every so often. Also, fun fun fun! That is what I want to do when I turn on a game. IS HAVE FUN! Be it destroying things, beating someone else so bad they rage, or getting so much loot from something hard that you want to play it again and say, "Psh, you've done that? I've done it twice." And if you can stir up competition between players so that they want to beat each other while playing said super fun, rewarding, and easy to play game that shuns cheating, you are doing great! So, to sum it up, game should be: rewarding, replayable, easy to play but at the same time hard, it should make sentence, sense, and should have new things every so often. But, even if it is AMAZING, it will eventually grow old and not be played as much. Okay, well that is what I think about it...
For me it's achievements in-game. For example, Jetpack Joyride has various in-game achievements to complete. When completed, these achievements give you stars, movie, etc.
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For me...its about completing a level...or because my roots...(Im old)...are to get a highest score (old arcade days). Also certain games I want to get the next weapon...strat with pistol...upgrade to auto mags...or smg...on to the shotgun or nades...the "BFG"....as the level of difficulty increases...but not so much its unable to be played. Nothing loses me faster than a game you cant win without crazy IAP that never help you.
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https://www.ted.com/talks/tom_chatfield_7_ways_games_reward_the_brain?language=en
For me, though. I find it's "One More Turn" syndrome (see entry: Civilization franchise). If I have a lot of little overlapping goals/tasks, where I'm completing them about as fast as I gain them, and there are no long gaps between completions, I find I just keep going.
Very good insights there @jdlcrater That "just one more try" feeling is something that can be extremeley addictive.
@Braydon_SFX
I personally never got hooked really bad on just achievements in-game. However that depends on how you look at it. Fininshing a level is also a kind of achiement if you look at it in a bigger perspective
I feel you @Thunder_Child
Old school progression at its best
Thanks for the link @Moik
Yeah the "One more turn" seems to be a strong addictive
i play mainly blizzard stuff. I trust in their game balance skills and their games having a deep gameplay based on solid core mechanics.
So I want to master their core to become really good.
Even tough their moba Heroes of the Storm has a progression/level system with no real impact on the gameplay..
(just unlock master skins to show off other players that your bad ass with this hero)
..i still came back and played every day a few sessions. Maybe the daily quests worked on me. Or maybe its just that the game feels round and I want to become better.
I have to trust the game to treat me right if i turn in the time and if this only means I actually become better and not my hero stats.
multiplayer for me is big overall I don't play any single player games anymore.
I enjoyed stuff like ff7,medievil,zelda back than but now.. just multiplayer..actually just blizzard games
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That's a good point to bring up. Daily Quests/Daily Rewards. If someone does something every day for two weeks, a habit is sub-consciously formed. They won't feel right unless they do the thing. So if you have a full two-week roster of escalating Dailies, the user is likely to keep coming back, then by the end of the two weeks they'll feel "off" until they play again.
Also good points!
For me (when I actually had the time, last console gen) it was all about the achievements and competition. Even though I really didn't like the game I always returned and actually had fun hunting the chivos. And it depends on the game. Is it multiplayer, then leaderboards are great along with detailed stats like K/D ratio, accuracy and such. In a single player game I enjoy collectables but when having very little time they can't bee too many or too hard to find. Has to feel somewhat fun. It also depends on if it's an old school hard core game or a casual one I guess.
Saw this one a while back, might been you who tweeted it haha! But anyway, it has a few great tips for anyone who's interested: http://www.gamified.uk/2015/02/04/47-gamification-elements-mechanics-and-ideas/
Cheers!
Haha yeah i tweeted that link
But good to post it here too!
Seems like we all have different things that keeps us hooked.
@Dues It really depends on the game I'm playing. Call of duty makes me come to play online with friends and unlock achievements. Monument valley just looks really beautiful, and it makes me curious what the next level will look like. Nuclear Throne makes me come back because I never reach the throne, its just a really hard game, but really awesome at the same time because it's randomized and kickass gameplay. Its never the same game. And of course it's really cool to play a game with a new kind of mechanic, or a mechanic that keeps evolving because the game gets harder and harder.
I also think that unlockable guns, characters, levels etc. are really important in order to keep the player progressing and coming back. If you take Super Crate Box for example, you keep unlocking new weapons by replaying the game over and over and over again. This is really engaging for the player because they don't necessary need to get better, they just need to keep on playing. The same thing applies for Crossy Road, you don't have to be extremely good to unlock all the characters.
There is a podcast called Game Design Dojo with a whole episode related to Deployability I believe.
Cool, thanks for the tip.
Here is the link if you guys are interested:
http://gamedesigndojo.com
The more I hear peoples opinion on this the more I realize the width of the question I asked
There seems to be hundreds of reasons that people come back to a game. What I also realized from the posts above is that all of you mentioned some kind of feeling connected to the game you play. This is probably one of the most important things.
@Dues Related to the broadness of the question, how deep down how many rabbit holes would you like us to go (your thread, your call)? Because if we're adding in general design theory, there's the whole UX sphere that can be looked at.
http://gamasutra.com/blogs/CeliaHodent/20150406/240476/5_Misconceptions_about_UX_User_Experience_in_Video_Games.php
It deals with things like smoothing the experience of the game so there's fewer hassles and frustrations and gives the player more... I wanna say "fun momentum". Since more of the gameplay session is play rather than management, you get better connectedness.
There's also little immersion tricks like the UI in Dead Space which fully blends into the game (ex, your health bar is on your character, part of its design).
Let's take the red pill and stay in wonderland and you can can show me exactley how deep the rabbit hole goes
For me it's gameplay, gameplay, gameplay! I play things like "unblock me" over and over and it has non of those things you mentioned. Jaime Griesemer said "In Halo 1, there was maybe 30 seconds of fun that happened over and over and over and over again. And so, if you can get 30 seconds of fun, you can pretty much stretch that out to be an entire game."
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I'm not especially well-read on UX in general yet, so I can't speak in depth or accurately. The concept of "games UX" is also relatively new, so tried and true fully applicable guidelines are generally hard to find in the wild.
One thing that I think everyone would benefit from as a design consideration is assessing the "First Time User Experience" in depth. This is about the connection/continue to play decision that occurs within the first few minutes. I think "onboarding" is also a useful buzzword to google. I've seen "First Date" applied to it as well. I'm going to try and limt how much info I dump at once. This presentation is probably the most impactful breakdown of of all that which I've seen so far:
http://www.slideshare.net/DoriAdar/how-to-make-people-love-your-game-in-90-seconds-ors-less
Outside of that, most of the other links I have seem to be more App UI stuff, so I'm not sure it's entirely relevant to everyone.
Thats a perfect example of a game that does not change anything but the layout of the levels.
I also love those type of games.
I think the main reason a game like that makes you forget about all the stuff around it like graphics, achivements etc is that It's hardcore problem solving. That makes you focus entierly on the problem and not the noise around it.
Just a thought
I keep playing a game when its interesting. Daily rewards is one thing that increases my interest in playing a game. Also the interest level varies as per the game. Multiplayer games like Call of Duty attracts me because I get to play it with friends.
There's a talk that goes with that slide show, I'll see if I can dig it out, it's on CasualConnect's Youtube channel I think . . .
EDIT . . that was quick, found it already !! . .
Nice!
@Socks
It is interesting to try and figure out what makes people tick when it comes to game genres. I guess for me I grew up when Zelda was popular and I really enjoy it. Now games like Diablo and World Of Warcraft eat up my time when I play.
Having a character that can be leveled. Exploring new areas. Figuring out boss fights. Being rewarded with gear and weapons. If you think about it, its a common model.
People want to feel rewarded for their hard work, and people like to feel epic.
@crestwoodgames
also my direction of games, but i played them mainly because of the social components,
cooperative PVE competitive PVP.
Every Game becomes more meaningful to me by being able to play with another Human.
Unfortunately one of the hardest things to build. (servers,lobbys,chat,account creation..)
Single player games I would say I play mainly because of atmosphere, addicting core mechanic, progression, accumulation (only if I can compare it with others somehow).
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Mostly, I find that an interesting story and/or character(s), drives me forward. Even after I've conquered it, I still like to revisit the whole thing.
This is mainly what keeps me going in an RPG.
As for any kind of action game(fighting, adventure, etc.), I enjoy stumbling upon new environments, but I mostly enjoy being thrust into fast-paced action and reaction situations. I'm simply terrible at exploring and usually wind up passing over many bags of goodies, unless I'm really poor.
For me the most important thing is challenge. Power ups and items and such are great but make sure the challenge increases in the same beat as the player. I always go back to classic Sega games for good examples of really balanced and challenging games.