Victus Spiritus

Mark, here's my take on the success of these browser based games.

Firstly, as you said they are tapping into a growing audience. But more then that, they are also tapping into a previously untapped time block. Before browser based low-resource cost games, people at work were forced to play things like poker/chess/etc… on yahoo or whatnot to kill time. However, those older games never had the viral channels and social “hooks” that these new social based games do.

The combination of viral channels for bringing in new players (facebook updates and game invitations from friends), gift economy based game structure (using reciprocal gift giving motivation to keep players buying and giving back to their friends), low barrier of entry (even work computers can play these games) and universal access (almost any device that exists can play the game) all come together to create the perfect game to waste company time on.

If you looked at how much work productivity these games cost companies across the globe, we would be looking at eight figures or more. Browser based games are also easier to hide from a surprise visit from the boss.

And finally, even though farmville has a huge amount of players, they have no brand/game loyalty whereas World of Warcraft creates many barriers to players switching to different games and virtual worlds.

To be honest, I am sickened by the psychological tactics Blizzard and Zynga games uses on their players. If you take a step back, look at the inputs and outputs and see the games for what they really are (an elaborate attention trap), you will see how much effort these companies put towards trapping players. It is reflected in every choice they make.

I recently spent some time researching the psychological principles that exist behind peoples' motivation for buying virtual items, things that do not have any existence in the real world. I posted some info about that awhile back when we were talking about … something. Sorry I can't remember exactly.

Anyways it all boils down to the fact that the operator of a virtual world, as opposed to the real world, can absolutely control the realities of people who reside in that virtual world. The operator, in the interests of profit, will:

1. Control the boundaries of achievement that players can reach for (mudflation)
2. Create artificial scarcities to keep players hooked (artificial rarity of items, time and utility)
3. Continuously introduce new ways for high-ranked players to flaunt the time that they wasted inside of the virtual world (this makes my blood boil, as it is directly playing with our natural motivation to desire a higher social position to our fellow man… but in the end, this is just an illusion created by the game designer to keep his players addicted)
4. Periodically destroying existing social structures and values (this allows newer users to have the carrot lowered closer to their face, increasing the amount of new people coming into the system)
5. Exploiting outside events and movements from the real-world and other virtual worlds (for example, special clothing that says “I hate BP” on the front.. in the virtual world)

If you apply these 5 principles when looking at a social game or virtual game world like World of Warcraft, the actions behind changes in the system will become transparent.

It is just a money grab and an attempt to addict as many people as possible. The days of game designers making a game “just for entertainment” are reaching an all-time point.

I hope this didn't turn into a rant, but I have very strong feelings about bending peoples' psychology like this in order to turn them into slaves to the game.

This is why World of Warcraft creates suicide in rare cases.