8.9. The Conditioning TrapΒΆ
Before we finish discussing players, we must consider the role of conditioning in games. Operant conditioning is the psychological term for changing the behavior of an animal or person by providing reinforcement after they do something: a reward or a punishment that teaches them to repeat or avoid an action.
The principles behind this are commonly used to train players to keep playing games. To build a compulsion to get “one more level”. The Extra Credits guys introduce the idea here and present the case for why designers should be careful in using it:
Mentioned in the video is the idea that the reward schedule can shape the behavior pattern that is trained:
A reward given after a fixed number of actions (Fixed Ratio) tends to produce lots of activity as the person gets close to the goal. Think collecting coins in Mario:
Initially you are collecting them just because, well, shiny!. However, once you get 100 you are rewarded with an extra life, which reinforces your desire to grab coins. But once you figure out the reward comes after every 100, you probably end up in a pattern of grabbing coins without worrying too much about them until you notice the counter is in the 80s or 90s. Then you start focusing on the coins, trying to grab every one you see to get to that next free life. Once you get it, you go back to not obsessing about the coins as much.
A reward given after a random number of actions (Variable Ratio) generally produces the strongest conditioning. Think random loot drops:
People in MMORPG games will fight bosses ridiculous numbers of times, spurred on by the knowledge that its next death could be the time that it drops an uber legendary item. There is no good time to stop performing the action - they know that “one more time” could be the magic one.
Rewards given after a fixed or variable amount of time (Fixed Interval or Variable Interval) will result in conditioned behavior, based on time instead of actions. With a fixed interval (“You can harvest your farm once every 24 hours”), players learn to ignore a behavior until the right time has passed and then engage in it. With a variable time interval, players can’t predict how long to wait, so they have to keep trying the behavior, but they generally will not sit there trying the behavior over and over waiting for the mystery timer to elapse.