I’m sure most of us are aware that a lot of the mechanics of incremental games rely on things like skinner boxes to make us want to keep playing by just promising us future positive moments, rather than just giving us positive moments.
Where do you think the line is, between genuine fun vs just being manipulated into wanting to keep playing? Or is there no difference?
Additionally, awareness of video game addiction is pretty important within the genre. The community has a lot of young people who could be harmed if playing games long enough into the night as to disrupt their sleep cycle, for example. To that end I’ve been considering adding a notice to my future games when the game has been actively played a lot, that mentions video games addiction along with some resources to help. When do you think it’d make sense to display this? I was thinking about showing it if the player has been active within the game during 6 of the last 8 hours.
I’ve played games that would, while running full screen, also show the current time and included an alarm you could use in case you got a little too buried in it.
I found them both effective.
When it comes to manipulation in media, games with subscriptions or MTX are more manipulative than games without simply because the owners want more of your money. It’s the difference between, “Here is our game, how much money will you give us over x time? What if we tweaked this gameplay, and made this look nicer, and used FOMO while selling this cosmetic item, and made this piece of kit a today-only ‘bargain’?” versus “Here is my game, like it or don’t but it’s already made.” The latter feels like a more authentic piece of media than the former, which feels entirely extractive.