Ever wondered how you can become so engrossed by those changing lights on a box? I mean, it is definitely cool that the lights change depending on what you do. Still, none of the things you do to the lights will influence reality, except maybe for increasing your energy bill. Unlike movies, game graphics are not even accurate depictions of reality. If you look at it that way, it is amazing that video games are so engrossing and rewarding. So how does it work? What motivates us to play games?
First off, for gaming to be any fun at all for someone, they must be willing to allow something called “suspension of disbelief”. Many people do not, and as a consequence they do indeed see gaming as an absurd pass time where sensible human beings devote hour upon hour to an unreality that looks nothing like real life. When you allow suspension of disbelief then you let yourself be sucked in by the fantasy, instead of criticizing inconsistencies and absurdities innate to gaming. Everyone has a different capacity and willingness to suspend their disbelief. Gamers are notoriously talented at it.
Yet why do they do it? Gaming does not satisfy physical needs as most of us do not play games for food or shelter. Instead it satisfies psychological needs. No one knows exactly what those needs are, but there are some plausible theories out there. Biology might give us a stepping stone toward where the answer might lie. Koepp et al. has found that a high release of a certain neurotransmitter makes people feel very “rewarded”. I’m not sure if that is the same as “happy”, but it is a good feeling nonetheless, and it will make you want to repeat whatever action gave that feeling. The neurotransmitter in question is dopamine, and researchers found that a successful gaming bout puts as much dopamine into your system as a shot of amphetamines. Dopamine fulfills a variety of roles throughout the body, but the most relevant of those is acting as reward and reinforcement for positive actions such as eating and sex.
And gaming.
So why do our brains respond so positively to gaming? We all play games for different reasons. Different researchers recognize different patterns in our motivations. Richard Bartle defined four gamer personalities based on ones playstyle and motivation. He recognized the “Achiever”, “Socializer”, “Explorer” and “Killer”. You can find out which you are here. The motivations for the Achievers and Socializers are clear from the name. The Explorers are novelty-seekers, while the Killers look for competition. This model is appealing in its simplicity but I have not been able to find what psychological model it is based on. Without a psychological model to support it, we are left to wonder if, for instance, novelty-seeking is a basic human need, or why in-game achievements are satisfying at all.
One psychological model that is intuitively appealing to many people is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. There are 5 layers and the idea is that the lower down a need is, the more crucial it is to our wellbeing. We will seek to fulfill a lower need before moving on to higher one. Here the hierarchy is shown as a pyramid:
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