Game rewards and addiction
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Introduction
Caillois (Caillois, 2001, p. 10) argues that play is “unproductive: creating neither goods, nor wealth, nor new elements of any kind; and except for the exchange of property among the players, ending in a situation identical to that prevailing at the beginning of the game.” He (Caillois, 2001, p. 6) argues that professional sportsmen or professional poker players are no longer playing, but working. Basically I agree with his point of view, although there are examples which show that playing can be productive. If someone plays World of Warcraft[1] and his character loots a powerful artifact and the player sells this artifact to another player, he sells something he did not possess before he played the game and therefore earns real money by playing this game. However this is one of very few exceptions where a game is really productive. Nevertheless every game offers a reward for successful playing even if this reward does not create any wealth or products. The rewards differ from game to game, but all of them have in common that they are one of the most important reasons for someone to play a game and to continue playing that particular game. Lets take a closer look at the different rewards. The first reward allows a gamer to advance further in a game, e.g. to the next floor or level. The second reward enhances the characters abilities either by providing the character with powerful items or by letting the character reach a higher character level. This in turn lets the character explore new areas and fight stronger opponents.
Highscores
Although a highscore does not grant any benefits concerning the game, a highscore is nevertheless another form of reward. Highscores allow gamers to compare their results with those of other gamers and the reward is the feeling of satisfaction one receives for being better than another gamer which is a very basic feature of games. By winning a game you beat somebody and this makes you feel more powerful. Although the desire to win is one of the most important reasons for playing games, there are games where winning is only of secondary interest. In board games like “Cranium” or “Tabu XXL” where the players have to explain words by drawing images or mime, it is not so important who wins in the end, because what is important is the fun all of the players have performing and watching the other players perform their tasks.
Comparisson of the addictiveness of Poker and World of Warcraft
Since there are many different rewards the question arises whether one form of reward causes a higher addictiveness than the others. Currently two games with a very high addictiveness are very famous: Poker[2] and World of Warcraft. Poker is a special case since it is according to Caillois no longer a game if the players play in order to earn money, however poker is often played with low antes and therefore at least in these cases the main motivation cannot be earning money. Nevertheless poker is addicting even if the antes are very low. So what kinds of reward does poker offer the player. The player neither advances to new levels within the game by winning, since there are no different levels, nor does the player play a character whose abilities may improve. Although it is possible in poker to set up a highscores or at least winning a competition against other players, this is still not the only reason poker is so addictive. The main reason for continuing to play poker is probably that the player always has in mind, that if he continues to play he may enhance his position within the game. Let me go into detail. If a player has lost more money than he has earned so far his motivation to continue playing is to regain his lost money. On the other hand a player who has won more money than he has lost will continue to play, because he thinks he has a winning streak and is going to win even more. What about World of Warcraft? The following analyses will show why World of Warcraft is so highly addictive. By playing World of Warcraft a player may loot new powerful items and level up his character which enables him to fight stronger opponents and advance to new areas within the game. Furthermore the players may fight each other in the player vs player mode to compete directly with other players. Although the story of this game is not so important it is still a reason to continue playing this game. A far more important reason is that there are certain areas you may only enter with a certain number of group members. Therefore people have to arrange to meet each other within the game which leads to people having to play at a certain time even if they would like to do something else. Last but not least the competition for highscores is very strong in World of Warcraft. Everybody wants to reach the highest level as quickly as possible. Since you can play all day long, there is no real limit to the time you can spend with leveling your character. There are many people who play more than ten hours a day, so if you want to keep up with them you have to play as much as they do. The result of this attitude is a vicious circle, because everyone wants to be better than the rest and therefore everyone tries to play more than the rest and so the time needed to be the best increases steadily until you play all day long. All in all World of Warcraft combines all possible rewards in one game. One can play this game all day long and since one gets better the more time one spends playing this game it is no surprise that World of Warcraft is so highly addictive. Almost the same applies to Poker where the player hopes to enhance his position by continuing to play.
References
Caillois, R., 2001, Man, Play and Games, Illinois: Univ. of Illinois
Contributer: Rüdiger Roy for "Pedagogical Media Theory and Game Based Learning"
