What makes a game addicting?

[GameDeck]

I'm one of those people who resisted Angry Birds until the end, then I got sucked in with version they made for the movie Rio. It's become my go-to game whenever I need a break from the world and I don't get it. It's repetitious, it's frustrating, it feels unbeatable at times and yet I keep going back.

It makes me wonder, what is it about certain games that keep you coming back for more? What's your trigger? Is it variety? Is it graphics? Is it easy enough to win, so you keep playing? I really want to know.

Cyn

[Echoseven]

There are far too many aspects to addiction, but the one common theme I've noticed is making the player feel like they've "almost" achieved something. To that end, what you need are instant restarts. If a player can't get into the action right away after you've completed/failed a level, then you're losing that buzz of achievement.

[Shadowking2214]

If you've played left 4 dead 2 then what does it for me is the thing about that it's different every time you play,and the speacial infected,the finales,multiple campaigns,if there are any app developers than please clone left 4 dead 2 with a versus mode and offline solo mode,8 speacial infected and four characters (must all be present as AI's even if you aren't playing as them) I'd beta test it and everything

[skeletonlord]

I get drawn in to games with good graphics personally. I also like a good story in my games. A good game needs to have story, gameplay options and good graphics.

[psj3809]

Just gameplay for me. Graphics don't do it for me or we'll all be playing the latest x box game. Seen too many games over the years with great graphics but dire gameplay.

That's why retro games are so popular as the gameplay for them are often (not always) very good so you don't worry about the graphics

[foxmulderino]

the person who plays the game of course

[LOLavi]

Gameplay over graphics. Mc3's gameplay was superior to mc2 before and I played it for over 300 hours. Then hackers and lag ruined it and I went back to mc2 which has worse graphics but superior gameplay ATM.

[jameshood]

Graphics and the best features of the game can an human being to game addicted.

[TheFrost]

Originally Posted by Echoseven

There are far too many aspects to addiction, but the one common theme I've noticed is making the player feel like they've "almost" achieved something. To that end, what you need are instant restarts. If a player can't get into the action right away after you've completed/failed a level, then you're losing that buzz of achievement.

This ^ is what I think too, 100%

[GeekyDad]

Fair rewards for the time and effort you invest. Too much given, and it becomes boring; too little, and a game becomes loathsome. Game makers should be considering what they themselves would want to play, not simply how to try and squeeze money out of people. It's a delicate balance to strike that perfect formula.