I've personally struggled with video games a lot, going from a pretty severe addiction to cold turkey avoidance more than once. Nowadays I play rarely, especially if I'm alone. However, maybe once or twice a year I get cravings, find a game and play it intensely for a couple of days.
This March was the first time I downloaded a proper mobile game, called Archero. It is a quick-paced game where you control an archer who gains powerful and fantastic abilities to combat various enemies.
I found it very satisfying and addicting. In fact, it got so addicting that I started picking up some of the psychological reinforcement patterns which made pissed off.
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| Archero's lush colours and intense action make it very satisfying to play. |
However, this got me thinking about the addictive mechanisms behind games, as I had recently read some behavioral and affective neuroscience.
Below is a photograph taken from Jaak Panksepp's book "Affective Neuroscience". The graph in the photo shows how laboratory rats respond to different ratios and intervals of desirable reinforcement. In other words, rats can work very hard or be kinda lazy depending on how often and how much they get rewarded.
...and since rats are a way better model of human beings than rocks or plants, I'm going to assume that humans are going follow similar behavioral patterns as rats.
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| Panksepp's graph about behavioral reinforcement patterns. |
The four different patterns are as follows:
1. Fixed Ratio is like working for the job done. This is basically piecework pay, where you are paid for the job done. Rats work very hard on this schedule, but they stop for a moment to enjoy their reward.
2. Variable Ratio is like gambling. Rewards are given for work, but their size can vary, just like in the casino. This creates an incentive to keep on going, as the next reward could be the big one or the one that soothes the disappointment caused by a previous loss. As we will see, Variable Ratio is used heavily in Archero, and I believe it is the key to the success of the game.
By scrolling down in the Shop you'll find a slew of different offers for diamonds and coins, ranging from 1 € to over a 100 € per purchase.
From the point of view of the reinforcement patterns, the player can choose to invest money to get to the satisfying Variable Ratio pattern, from the more boring Fixed and Variable Interval patterns. The Fixed and Variable Interval patterns are both present because earning coins is relatively predictable (Fixed Interval), but earning items and diamonds is more random, and thus representing the Variable interval.
This creates a powerful motivation for the player to skip the arduous process of playing endless levels in hopes that the randomized process of in-game item rewards gives the 27th basic item to complete the fusing. Why not just put some money in, buy a bunch of chests and save hours of time...?
THE TALENTS
The player also requires the in-game currency to upgrade the Talents, with ever-increasing payments, once again incentivizing spending real money, instead of time.
By clicking on the previously mentioned present box icon the player is taken to different Packs. The Packs give the player resources and special keys, that can be used to open the Chests.
On top of the ads, the player can buy more Energy, the resource required to enter a level and play at all. Both Free-icons and in-game resources can be used for this, guiding the insatiable player again towards an actual purchase.
Finally, the game doesn't only incentivize the player to log in frequently, it also uses timed bonuses to keep the player within the game for as long as possible.
Before entering a level, you must tap on the floating entrance icon. This takes you to an intermediary screen, where you can choose the game Chapter by swiping left or right.
If you swipe to the far end of the Chapters, you will find a dark icon with a "Coming Soon!" message.
So with all the start screen and other stuff out of the way, let's get into the actual gameplay.
This way various combinations of abilities can be tried out and the player can develop a taste for his favorite combinations. Acquiring the abilities is somewhat randomized, so again the Variable Ratio pattern is used here, now based on the player's personal preference.
Archero doesn't only rely on the common language of the gaming culture, but it also uses very simple and easy to understand characters to aid the player.
A light blue blob-like figure called "An Angel" appears occasionally offering help for the player.
Like the Free ad-driven bonuses the Angel is a reliable and positive figure in the game, but it isn't quite as exciting as the Devil.
A single ability is always offered by the Devil, who demands a hit points in exchange for the ability. This is a great way to leverage the player's greed.
One of the most powerful and gambling-like elements of the game is the roulette wheel. Playing through a Chapter you can encounter this wheel several times.
This makes it very easy to learn the game quickly. But, as the enemies get tougher, moving around on the ever more crowded screen becomes very difficult.
As the Chapter progresses in the following 5-15 minutes, the player is endowed with increasing firepower. This makes for a succinct gaming experience, where a single round doesn't take too much time, and a possible failure is just the right amount of frustrating, that you'll start the next round.
When you complete a Chapter, you get a debrief of your results.
3. Fixed Interval is like a traditional wage work. The closer the reward is, the higher the effort. A great modern example of this is when a business pushes its sales team at the end of every month to close deals. You work hard, get your reward and then it takes a little bit of time to start pushing harder again.
4. Variable Interval is the least motivating of the lot. Because the interval varies, no feeling of a causal connection between your actions and the reward can be built. This leads to low levels of consistent effort. As the reward doesn't seem to be connected to action, the behavior won't be reinforced that much and the actors self-efficacy - the feeling that they can influence what happens - remains low.
Based on these four patterns I'm going to analyze Archero, so I can better understand why it is so addicting. I also believe this will deepen my understanding of the human mind.
THE START SCREEN
Here is a typical start screen view from the game. The top part shows you the progress and resources used in the game. The key resources are the Energy (lightning icon), Currency (yellow rectangle) and Diamonds (green hexagon). All of these resources can be earned by playing, but they can also be bought with actual money too if you feel like you need more.
Below these are interactive icons for time bonuses (the arrow clock), special gifts (the present box) as well as the technical support and messaging options.
The middle of the screen shows the level you will enter if you push the big yellow Play button. Starting a game costs Energy, so you have to think about where to use your Energy.
On the left of the Play-button, you may choose the difficulty. The harder you go, the more prizes you get (more on those later).
The bottom of the screen is reserved for the five icons. From left to right:
1. Treasure chest is the Shop where you can acquire more Currency and Diamonds and special items.
2. Armor icon takes you to your character screen, where you can do various things with collected items and weapons, enhance your hero and get new heroes to play with.
3. Next is the world map, which is also the start screen.
4. The arrow icon here takes you to your character's special skills that you get by gaining experience through defeating harder and harder levels.
5. The bullseye is for special challenges that change daily.
The start screen is very colorful and engaging. Several of the icons flash, glimmer, and move in various ways to attract the player's attention. The most obvious of these is the red exclamation mark, that the player quickly learns to associate with time-restricted special offers and unexpected bonuses - just like in the Variable Ratio reinforcement described above.
THE SHOP
This is how the Shop looks like. Colorful and intrusive marketing messages promising irresistible rewards populate the screen. "4x the value", "NEW!" the screen screams at you, coupled with colder, more official-looking reminders about how the offers are for a limited time only.
Unlike in the Start Screen, the player is alerted to the option that instead of playing the increasingly difficult game, they may use money to advance in the game. Instead of spending 9.99€ to get 300 diamonds and 10000 coins you can get it for 2.29€. Quite a bargain, right?
Different kinds of chests demarcate the difference between low-level and high-level rewards. The more resources you have, the more often you can claim the rewards unless you are putting in the time to beat the levels.
After a couple hours of playing, the resources, especially the diamonds become harder and harder to come by. But luckily there his help available.
By scrolling down in the Shop you'll find a slew of different offers for diamonds and coins, ranging from 1 € to over a 100 € per purchase.
The urge to buy is increased by flashy and exciting looking "X10" chest offer, with which you can get various valuable items for your character.
Here the reinforcement patterns diverge. On the one hand, you can make the game more predictable by investing money, which then gives you resources to acquire new items. This is more akin to a Fixed Ratio pattern.
But ultimately, the player is forced to abide by the Variable Ratio pattern, because the chests that yield the items can't be controlled. Sometimes you get something rare and useful, but most of the time not. This is precisely the same mechanism that gambling operates with, and keeps the player engaged.
It's also noteworthy, that the player's current resources are virtually always shown, so it is quick and easy to check how much you need for the next chest or other purchase.
THE EQUIPMENT
In the Equipment screen, you are called to enhance the items you've collected. Special weapons, rings, armors, and helper creatures demand your attention - and resources. By investing coins and specific Materials - earned or bought - you can essentially increase your durability and firepower in the game.
The background colors of the items show their rarity. The rarer and more powerful the item, the harder it is to acquire. The harder it is to acquire, the more tempting it is to use money to speed up the process.
So essentially, this screen shows a powerful mechanism, whereupon the player gets to choose: do you want to work several hours, defeating many frustrating levels, or do you want to buy your way through the troubles.
From the point of view of the reinforcement patterns, the player can choose to invest money to get to the satisfying Variable Ratio pattern, from the more boring Fixed and Variable Interval patterns. The Fixed and Variable Interval patterns are both present because earning coins is relatively predictable (Fixed Interval), but earning items and diamonds is more random, and thus representing the Variable interval.
By tapping the "Fuse" icon the player enters a screen where items can be combined to make for more powerful items. To combine items you need three of the same kind, yielding a single item of a higher rarity level.
As there are several rarity levels in the game, this results in an exponential growth curve. To get 1 super rare item you need 3 rare items, 9 good items, and 27 basic ones.
This creates a powerful motivation for the player to skip the arduous process of playing endless levels in hopes that the randomized process of in-game item rewards gives the 27th basic item to complete the fusing. Why not just put some money in, buy a bunch of chests and save hours of time...?
On top of this, by tapping the Change Hero icon you get to a page where you can upgrade your hero's powers and get new heroes - with very high resource demands, which again pushes the player to weigh the question of time versus money.
The hero classes, like the items, follow well-established tropes in the gaming world, making it easy for players to quickly understand what they might want based on their previous experiences. This way the player doesn't need to decode too much information that is not related to the most important question: do I use my time or my money?
THE TALENTS
As the player progresses, he is rewarded with Talents, special character skills that help him in the game. There are 9 Talents that can be upgraded several times, but the trick is that when the player earns a Talent point, the upgrade is distributed randomly.
This way the player can have a great deal of anticipatory anxiety and excitement, followed by relief or disappointment. I personally was anxious to unlock the last one of the skills, as my other skills kept on getting upgraded, while it took ages for one of them to open up at all.
When upgrading a skill, the icons on the screen flicker, with the aesthetic being borrowed from the world of roulette and one-armed-bandits.
The player also requires the in-game currency to upgrade the Talents, with ever-increasing payments, once again incentivizing spending real money, instead of time.
THE EVENTS
The final of the five bottom icons is the Events icon. Here the player is treated to time-restricted challenges with special rewards, as well as team-matches, where the player can play with their friends.
The urgency created by a ticking clock and a deadline is used frequently in the game, but perhaps it is the strongest in this screen. The time-restricted daily challenges motivate the player to check every day, what is rewards are available.
This way the player is engaged constantly in the game, developing all the relevant micro-habits for increased playing time, emotional investment in the game and a deepening sunken-cost-fallacy.
OTHER ICONS ON THE START SCREEN
By clicking on the previously mentioned present box icon the player is taken to different Packs. The Packs give the player resources and special keys, that can be used to open the Chests.
Some of the packs are limited time offers, some you get by logging in every day and some are only available through purchasing.
It's noteworthy to mention, that the player learns quickly that they get rewarded as soon as they make their first purchase. This way the barrier to entry is lowered and the likelihood of the player spending money increases.
Like in other screens, frequent visual cues direct the player's attention to offers that are constrained by urgency and scarcity.
Also, the offers are displayed in such a way, that the player always gets a chance to compare a very low investment option to medium and high investment options, thus planting the seeds of a possible bigger future investment.
An interesting mechanism used by the game is the Free-icon, which takes the player to an advertisement.
If the player doesn't want to use money, they are taken to a video ad, which they can't skip. The ads last about 30 seconds before you can skip them. This is a powerful mechanism to make the player frustrated at the sluggish speed of the ads, prompting them to make a purchase while creating ad revenue.
This Free-icon mechanism can also be seen in-game, as the player is given a choice to earn modest amounts of extra resources in both randomized Variable Interval and Fixed Ratio patterns.
On top of the ads, the player can buy more Energy, the resource required to enter a level and play at all. Both Free-icons and in-game resources can be used for this, guiding the insatiable player again towards an actual purchase.
What is fascinating about the path to an actual purchase is, that it can often take several taps and actions before the game asks for money. This is a classic trick used in advertising and copywriting, where the prospect is encouraged to say "yes" to several questions or take several actions before asking for the investment.
This way the sunken-cost-fallacy is utilized to its full extent, while also pushing the player down the funnel of more and more anticipatory excitement and anxiety.
Finally, the game doesn't only incentivize the player to log in frequently, it also uses timed bonuses to keep the player within the game for as long as possible.
Time Rewards work generally on a shorter interval than the daily login bonuses. Typically they can be hours, sometimes minutes. The rewards are not that great, but since they are completely free, they create a small positive feeling in the player.
The daily login bonus draws the player to open the app at least once a day. The hourly bonuses encourage several daily logins. As minute based bonuses come about, the player is encouraged to stay logged in for as long as possible.
This way the player is always prompted to take the next step for deeper and deeper engagement.
BEFORE YOU START PLAYING
Before entering a level, you must tap on the floating entrance icon. This takes you to an intermediary screen, where you can choose the game Chapter by swiping left or right.
Levels that are available to you are well lit, and as you progress you get access to more and more demanding levels.
If you swipe to the far end of the Chapters, you will find a dark icon with a "Coming Soon!" message.
This promises the player that the fun the game is providing is going to continue for as long as they can imagine, with new and interesting Chapters being published regularly.
This way the player doesn't feel like they are approaching a point where the game itself would become obsolete, like when finishing a book.
Instead, endless fun can be expected, and thus the player is likely to keep on investing more and more into the game.
THE GAMEPLAY - FINALLY
So with all the start screen and other stuff out of the way, let's get into the actual gameplay.
Every level starts from a point when the hero has minimal special abilities. These skills can are earned as the player progresses through a Chapter. If the player completes a Chapter or loses, the skills are lost.
This way various combinations of abilities can be tried out and the player can develop a taste for his favorite combinations. Acquiring the abilities is somewhat randomized, so again the Variable Ratio pattern is used here, now based on the player's personal preference.
As you can see from the picture on the right, the start of the game looks relatively serene, with not that many objects on the screen. But, this will change radically as the game progresses.
Defeating enemies gives the player experience. Experience is needed to level up the hero and earn new abilities. Abilities are presented in random groups of three and the player gets to choose one.
The abilities borrow heavily from the gaming tradition, so here again, the game minimizes the mental work required to understand what the abilities are and the player can focus on weighing the options.
ANGELS AND DEVILS
Archero doesn't only rely on the common language of the gaming culture, but it also uses very simple and easy to understand characters to aid the player.
A light blue blob-like figure called "An Angel" appears occasionally offering help for the player.
A simple two-choice matrix is presented, usually either healing the hero from the damage caused by the enemies or giving a simple offensive bonus.
Like the Free ad-driven bonuses the Angel is a reliable and positive figure in the game, but it isn't quite as exciting as the Devil.
The Devil is the opposite of the Angel, offering a deal that both harms and benefits the player.
The player quickly learns to associate the Devil with dangerous bargains that imply bigger risks and bigger rewards.
A single ability is always offered by the Devil, who demands a hit points in exchange for the ability. This is a great way to leverage the player's greed.
The simple "evil" tone of the Devil-character makes the exchange feel more forbidden and dangerous, which becomes part of the fun for the player, as they get more comfortable and skilled in assessing the utility of the offer.
One of the most powerful and gambling-like elements of the game is the roulette wheel. Playing through a Chapter you can encounter this wheel several times.
Sometimes you get it for free, sometimes you need to watch an ad to get it, and sometimes it calls for resources to be used.
In each of these cases, the Variable Ratio pattern is used to keep the player's hopes high. ...and should the result be underwhelming, you only need to play a couple of minutes more to encounter a new one, with bigger and better rewards.
THE FUN OF THE GAMEPLAY
The gameplay itself is very engaging. Your only job is to avoid getting hit by the enemies, by moving your hero using the touch screen. When standing still the hero automatically shoots with his weapon.
This makes it very easy to learn the game quickly. But, as the enemies get tougher, moving around on the ever more crowded screen becomes very difficult.
Arrows, bombs, tornadoes, lasers, archers, lizards, demons, golems and various other objects and entities crowd the screen to offer an extremely stimulating and fast-paced gaming experience.
Starting a Chapter with minimal skills and slow rounds builds the anticipation as the player starts fantasizing about the possible abilities and rewards that he might get this time.
As the Chapter progresses in the following 5-15 minutes, the player is endowed with increasing firepower. This makes for a succinct gaming experience, where a single round doesn't take too much time, and a possible failure is just the right amount of frustrating, that you'll start the next round.
The game also features classic boss fights, where the player faces a single powerful enemy, which is familiar to any gamer.
Defeating the bosses gives you access to the aforementioned Devil and roulette wheel rewards, so you learn to associate the bosses with overcoming difficult challenges and getting rewarded handsomely.
COMPLETING A CHAPTER
When you complete a Chapter, you get a debrief of your results.
You are congratulated on your performance, which builds positive reinforcement. An inventory of the collected items is also presented, so the player can already start planning what upgrades and investments to focus on.
Finally, the player's result is compared in a simple percentage number to the results of other players. This way the competitive spirit is kindled in the player, increasing the motivation to work even harder to progress and do well in the game.
SUMMARY
Archero is a well thought out game and produced game. It uses familiar gameplay mechanics, cultural memes, a gentle learning curve and a system of quick rewards to suck the player into its world.
Then, as the game progresses it cunningly transforms into a network of motivational feedback loops in which the player's emotional systems are leveraged to create the maximum amount of investment in time and money.
In every part of the game, there are several behavioral reinforcement patterns at play. As expected from a very addicting game, it seems that most emphasis is placed on the Variable Ratio pattern, which is familiar from the gambling-world.
That's what I have to say about this. Thanks for reading, I hope you found something useful in this!
That's what I have to say about this. Thanks for reading, I hope you found something useful in this!
