Gunstar Green wrote:
Like I said, it's a little sticky. Video games in general aren't inherently addictive I completely agree there, but some are designed with addiction in mind.
I think many games are designed with similar hooks as MMOs. Obviously, those tend to be more overt about it, since part of the model is to keep people coming back month after month - though many F2P games are worse.
With players actively participating in games, it lets them stand in for real-life achievement. To a fair point, that's fine, good even. You can get that rush of seratonin n' dopamine or whatever because the game said you got to level 10/got a high score/unlocked something and thus are cool.
MMOs are designed to always be dangling some carrot in front of you, so you have that next thing to go for...but most games do the same thing on some level.
Drugs aren't an entirely off comparison, since what a lot of them tend to do is boost chemical output. Video games don't directly do that, but they do provide an environment where it might be easier, and certainly more consistent, to get that spike of satisfaction or happiness. Maybe not the same as being physically dependent on it, but motivationally, it might get a lot harder to put in the time and effort into getting that same feeling out of real life.