[MUD-Dev] Finding What a Gamer Lacks in Their Day

[John Buehler]

rayzam writes:
> From: "John Buehler" <johnbue at msn.com>

>> But what does any of this have to do with my original point that
>> entertainment provides stimuli that players are seeking?  If we
>> look at entertainment at that level, then we should be looking at
>> the things that the target demographic groups are most desireous
>> of.  Do we have any psychologists running around here who care to
>> speculate on the American psyche?

> Or it provides avoidance of other stimuli. Play solitaire not
> because you enjoy it, but because it fills time so you're not
> bored. Watch tv, even when there's nothing on, because you're
> procrastinating from some chore you really dislike.

> You don't need the empty room to provide you with a stimulus, it
> may just provide you with an escape from a stimulus you don't
> like, such as a boring person.

Sure.  While that's a good point to understand when realizing that
my design of a game feature might produce success for 'backwards'
reasons, I hope nobody here plans on implementing game features so
players can avoid other, onerous, game features.  I'm sure that
there are other treatments like this, such as Raph's one-time
observation about downtime being necessary so as to give a break
from the ordinary stimulus of the game (my memory of the
observation).  Eventually we don't want to process any more stimuli
and we want to take a break.  So the game might want to supply a
feature to get some downtime.

In the end, however, games that are designed to address these
lacking stimuli will be most successful because players will most
readily be drawn to them.  As evidence, consider the lack of desire
for 'more of the same' in games.  New and different is the rule of
the day.  I will claim that part of this is because the
entertainment stimuli that players are getting from these games
really isn't what they're after.  They're after something else, and
they'll keep playing games, searching for that ultimate experience
of satisfaction.  In the meantime, they derive what enjoyment they
can from the games that they play.  This is not intended to
disparage existing games.  It is intended to suggest that a
phenomenon of 'seeking' exists, based on the idea that there is a
stimulus or stimuli that lacks in the lives of players.

Think of the most balanced, calm, happy and content person that you
know.  What games do they play?

JB

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