Gamewad.com offers a short post analysing the sorts of reward systems games use to keep us playing. They start off with the obvious one - points - before going on to consider character development, the sheer enjoyment of the audio visual experience and the desire to attain unlockable content. It doesn't mention the Xbox achievement system, the most fabulously literal exploitation of our desire to 'gain' something from the experience - even if that something has no real transferable value to us.
In fact, the article doesn't say much, but has been Dugg like crazy, suggesting gamers are genuinely interested in, and also somewhat unsure of, what makes them play. I often wonder this after a mammoth multiplayer session on GRAW, or a whole night dominating the planet in Civ 3. What the hell made me do that?
I'm sure all gamers have different triggers, different moments when they think 'yes, this game has got me now'. And I think these link in with the habits we all develop as gamers - the little methods, the ludic idiosyncracies we bring to the games we play.
Mine are pretty simple and probably universal - if I'm playing an FPS and wander into a room which offers more than one possible exit, I know I absolutely have to check them all out, immediately - even if one looks as though it's going to lead off in an interesting new direction - I absolutely won't open any doors on that route until I've opened all the others in the proceeding room. I can't just wander off on one route and think 'well, I'll come back later'. When I was a kid, I mapped games obsessively. I always had a pad of graph paper and a sharpened pencil next to my Commodore 64.
What are your gaming habits? What are the things you always do? Any obsessive gaming disorders you need to come clean about? Because deep down, these are probably the things that keep you playing...
