Two types of addiction for games - coming back for further sessions, and being "unable to stop playing" during a session.

For the latter, a lack of hiati (hiatuses?) is important - if the player ever gets to a point where everything stops, there''re no ongoing sidequests, no critical plot developments, no "just 6 more Exp then I level up and get access to the cool new ability", just, say, a page of text and a couple of minutes loading time for the next level, then the player is going to bail out there and then (assuming he intends to stop any time around then) where with a continuous game where even between moments of high tension there''s still something to do, some 5 minute goal - solve a puzzle or gain a level or take the magic horseshoe to the farrier (in addition to the 1 hour goal - complete a mission, gain 10 levels or complete a dungeon and the 20ish hour goal - win the game) the player may well keep going for an hour or two longer - in some cases all night

When I was younger I played "Fraction Munchers". The only reason I continued was to watch the funny intermission movies. It''s a strange goal, but it works.

quote: Original post by neurokaotix
One thing that makes any game addictive to me is the ability to gain expirience or skills etc.

James Simmons
MindEngine Development
http://medev.sourceforge.net

*nods in agreement* This was my observation as well. I also think people like to collect items as well, be it armor or rare pokemon

One word:

Replayability.

You can only become so addicted to a game that has no replayability.

Now how to make a game with high replayability? Variety. Variety of paths, variety of characters, enemies, make it where the player literally can''t do everything in the game the first, second or even maybe third time, no matter how hard they try.

I think naked girls make game addictive

Well i''m very new to this buy i''m a highly expereinced gamer, what i find addicting more than any other game out there would be starcraft. I think the reason for this because it''s a simple game but at the same time it''s so complex it doesn''t eve make sense. Also playing online helps you always know there is someone better than you and that makes you want to play to get better than them. There is just so much to do and the action is really fast pace and you have to think real fast and it makes everything else seem boring after that thus making you want to come back to get that fast pace feel again.

One of the key things, I think, is how the player feels when they lose the game.

Take regular breakout, for example. If you can''t keep the ball in play, it''s your fault. The ball''s physics were predictable; the game didn''t try to distract you or trick you; you are the only person to blame for your failure to keep the ball in play. So you think "Damnit! I know I can do better than that!" and you play again.

Contrast that with a version of breakout where the ball occasionally changes direction in a random way, at any random time. If you lose because the ball changed direction when it was across the other side of the playfield from you, you''re not going to be pleased. It wasn''t your fault; the game picked that precise moment to send the ball where you wouldn''t be able to reach it in time.

So, I''d say, remove luck from games, completely - a good player should always do well, and a bad player should always do badly. Bad players will strive to improve; good players will also strive to improve, though eventually they''ll reach what they consider to be their personal best, and move on to something else. (That''s probably a good thing - nobody should be addicted to something for too long).

Richard "Superpig" Fine
- saving pigs from untimely fates, and when he''s not doing that, runs The Binary Refinery.
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OpenGL is a language

I agree with superpig''s reasoning, in that randomness can definitely take away from a game (I feel CS became too random over the last many versions, which is probably the main reason I stopped playing it), but I think that some amount of luck is also required. Otherwise, a newbie won''t be able to compete at all in any way and will feel like the game is beyond him/her.

Also, complete apparent randomness can be very addicting as shown by the great number of people that lose everything playing slot machines or the like =-)

I think the real factor in addiction is risk and reward. The more you put at stake, the more you stand to win and the worse off you will be if you lose. You can go head to head vs the most powerfull monster in a game, and if you win you get all kinds of cool stuff and lots of experience etc, but if you lose you get to start the game all over(assuming the game has permadeath like most do). That is too much risk for most players, so they stick to stuff around their own strength (with in RPGs means an easy kill most of the time and very very rarely death). They feel they are doing something, that they can both reap rewards or lose, even if their chance of loss is very low it still SEEMS not so low, so it feels like a risk when it really might not be.

<a href="http://googlefight.com/cgi-bin/compare.pl?q1=addictive&q2=addicting&B1=Make+a+fight%21&compare=1&langue=us">addictive is the winner</a>

addictive is the winner