These days I am hooked on Clash of Clans. I play this game from time to time if I have some free time. I don’t feel any strong interest in the game but unintentionally push the start button if I am not doing anything that needs my immediate attention. Clash of Clans is a well-made mobile game, which is one of the most popular games in the mobile application market. However, it is not that sophisticated or does not show great performance when it is compared with PC or video console games. Many gamers are eager to play the game repetitively and its daily revenue estimate records almost $ 1 million according to statistics of ThinkGaming (http://thinkgaming.com/app-sales-data/1/clash-of-clans/). What makes us get obsessed with this game?
Screenshot of Clash of Clans
Nir Eyal mentions Hook Model in his book Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. The model consists of four consecutive processes: Trigger, Action, Variable Reward, and Investment. According to the concept of this model, gamers are running in the loop of this process and the habit is formed by repetitive actions. Habit is a very powerful mechanism to make people do something iteratively. In order to make habit, certain factors to intrigue people or motivate them are needed. The former is the passive mechanism and the latter is the active one, which makes people work hard or try to get a goal.
In most cases, games lean on the passive mechanism to stimulate gamers’ zest. These mechanisms are based on emotions that people feel under a certain circumstances, enticing people to react as they are intended to do. There are two types of enticement to get them addicted to games. One type is necessary and the other type is unnecessary but effectively helps the necessary factors.
First and foremost, desire is the most important and necessary sentiment that pushes gamers to be in repetitive actions. This feeling comes from the gap between aspiration and satisfaction. In order to fill the gap, most games adopt a grade or a level system that makes gamers to try to increase their levels. This sentiment is closely related to reward, which controls an entire difficulty or a cycle of the game. If desire is fulfilled easily or too many rewards are given to users, gamers easily lose their interests on the game. Sometimes this sentiment is used on the other way as in Flappy Bird. These kinds of games stimulate gamers to concentrate on them, but the duration of popularity seems to be limited.
In addition, there are three important factors even though they are not necessary to intrigue gamers’ interests: curiosity, worry, and peer pressure. In terms of curiosity, I think Heroes of Might and Magic is a representative example that shows this characteristic. The game is full of imaginary characters and items, which continuously stimulate gamers’ curiosity. A new building, a new item, and a new character always refresh gamers’ boredom. Worry is a sentiment that users feel when they play online real time games such as Clash of Clans. This game effectively notifies gamers that their protection is about to expire or other players are raiding their territory. Gamers repetitively check the status and take actions to these situations when they receive alarms. Peer-pressure is recently getting more important in that most mobile games are based on social networking and provide real time information such as messages from friends and give some items or troops to allies. In 2012, Anipang hit the mobile game industry in South Korea. It was so popular that the number of download was more than 20 million domestically. Considering that the total number of population of South Korea is less than 50 million, Anipang was a tremendous hit. One of the important reasons that made the game so popular among many people is its unique ranking system. It did not focus on entire rank that includes all gamers but showed only the social rank from friends and acquaintances. Generally, a score or a rank appears to motivate a gamer to play the game harder. However, many gamers do not care about others’ scores or levels since they are irrelevant to them. In the case of Anipang, gamers could know who played a game and who were better than them. This small change made people to compete with each other.
There are many reasons why people get obsessed over games aside from psychological factors. Regardless of other approaches, I think sentimental issues mentioned above are surely pertinent to push gamers to play a game and this approach can create more diverse strategies for a game business.