Rapid's Expos: Why Mobile Games are Addicting

This is my expository in use since the Grizzly Invitational forensics meet in Nov. 15, 2014. As such, this script is meant to be read with visual aids. Either way, feel free to enjoy the script in it's glory.


We video gamers are constantly stereotyped as lazy, antisocial misfits. But why should we be ostracized? It's not like we do anything special. Most of you have a phone. And most of you with a phone have downloaded at least one free game. Today, everyone plays mobile games. Why do so many people play them? The fact that they're mostly free helps. But there's some sort of addictive quality to these games that makes them so successful. In fact, these games are specifically designed to appeal and addict, even at a neurologic level. Why is mobile gaming so darn addicting?

The first trick comes from the design of the game itself. There are generally 3 types of mobile games: There's the infinite-runner type genre, the FarmVille clones, and the console or PC releases. There's one trait that many games throughout all three genres share- They're generally easy to play in short bursts. This is really important! Console and PC gamers can usually dedicate as much free time as they want, so the games they play are hard to put down. Mobile games, on the other hand, are made under the assumption that you're taking the train or bus home. You might need to stop playing at a moment's notice, or you could miss your stop. And the challenge they hold keeps you motivated- Maybe, just maybe, if I try one more time, I could just barely beat that high score. 

Most of you are probably familiar with Flappy Bird. It was so addicting, it became the best-selling app in a short time. And everyone hated it, it was so darn frustrating! Why was it so popular? According to The Guardian, that's the exact reason that it was popular: It was frustrating! Originally, during development of Donkey Kong, legendary game designer Shigeru Myamoto spent days studying why arcade titles like Pac-man were so successful. After some time, he figured out why: It was from the gamer's frustration. He concluded that the key was to make the controls simple, fair and easy, so the gamer's interactions with the game would be compulsive. With just the perfect balance of difficulty and control, Myamoto applied what he learned to his new game. And the rest is a clichéd statement. But back to Flappy Bird- It was this combination of ease of control and impossible difficulty that drove players everywhere to complete addiction. Also, because of the ease of starting a new game, it turns itself into a huge compulsion loop, making gamers play over and over again and driving them into some kind of obsessive-compulsive madness.

But not all games are created like Flappy Bird. They take the entire design to a neurologic level. By no doubt, you've played one of the many color-swapping Bejeweled  clones, like Candy Crush and, well, Bejeweled. These games take into account the key ingredient to addiction: Dopamine. For those of you who fell asleep during health class, dopamine is a neurotransmitter that travels along neurons in your brain. When you receive a positive stimulant, dopamine is fired into dopamine receptors and provides the pleasure sensation you receive when you eat a delicious food, or finally earn that one prize you've wanted for so long. This is one aspect that mobile games cover well: When you pull off an amazing move in Bejeweled, the game produces massive, game-lagging explosions of vibrant color, and sends positive vocal feedback. Your brain is sending dopamine like crazy! However, if you oversaturate your receptors, they start to shut down, meaning you have to get more dopamine to produce that original feeling of gratitude. This is known as desensitization. 

Now, mobile games can't have you getting bored and stop playing. According to youtube channel Game Theory, while normal games require you to play through and earn your rewards, mobile games just give you a bunch of rewards at the start and send you flying through the first stages. But as you progress, the stages become harder, and the dopamine bursts become more random and sporadic. It becomes more gratifying to pull of that miracle game-winning move. And the rewards also get better and better over time. Even though the game becomes extremely challenging, the challenge just drives you to play more. This is known as "variable-ratio schedule of reinforcement", and this is the same concept they apply to casino slot machines.

The second example of dopamine manipulation is an example of the "hedonic treadmill". In some mobile games, such as Candy Crush and Real Racing 3, the game will stop you for a certain amount of time. This is both a cheap marketing tactic and a dopamine manipulation trick. As we mentioned before, desensitization is when your dopamine receptors become oversaturated from too much of a stimulant. Mobile games have another way to deal with this. When you're most engrossed in the game, and you just don't want to stop, the game doesn't care and stops anyway. It can then take from a few minutes to a few hours to start up again. This can do two things. First, if you're like me and don't have the cash to spend on paid content, you just wait. Your dopamine receptors don't oversaturate, and it becomes more rewarding when you start up again. However, they also provide paid items that allow you to skip through and start playing again. It's a cheap marketing tactic, asking people to pay up if they want to keep playing, even though they don't need to. However, seeing how successful these games have become, it's still a valid strategy.

So sure, mobile games have all sorts of underhanded psychological strategies to keep you playing. But it's not only their fault. According to Game Theory, studies have shown that 10-15% of people have addictive personalities, making them more likely to be addicted to things like drugs, alcohol, or video games. In fact, within that 10-15%, a large amount of these are gamers. Another neurological study looked at young gamers, and how much they played in a week. Using giant magnets, because neurological studies always use giant magnets, scientists observed that the gamers that played more than 9 hours a week had a larger ventral striatum. This is the part of your brain essential to dopamine and it's addictive qualities. 

In fact, most gamer stereotypes come from this addictive personality. We do repetitive tasks, grinding levels for hours. We go to extreme measures, earning every achievement possible. And we isolate ourselves from others, immersed in the game. Mobile games take advantage of the mind to keep players hooked, and gamers are more likely to fall to these tricks. But in no way is it a bad thing! Gamers are also shown to be great self-starters, unafraid to take risks. We have higher IQs on average, and make highly capable leaders. And even though gaming all day while inhaling Mountain Dew and Doritos is highly unhealthy, which is why I don't inhale Mountain Dew and Doritos, it's not as bad as, say, getting hooked on crack. We're way too busy to be doing that, now.

Even though mobile gaming isn't as immersive as console or PC gaming, it's made specifically for the platform it's on. It uses its platform to take advantage of brain chemistry, and structures itself for even the most rushed businessman to waste a few minutes. Mobile games draw in players in their own unique and highly addicting ways.