Why People Are Drawn to Games They Cannot Predict
A game where you win every single time, and you know you will win every single time, isn’t a game. It’s also not winning. You cannot win if you cannot lose, and that, at the core, is why we love games that we just cannot predict.
Even with story-driven games, predictability can be a killer. Add in game mechanics, and predictable results can be the death knell for that title.
People are drawn to games they cannot predict for many reasons, but it ultimately boils down to a few key elements.
How the Dopamine System Reacts to Unpredictability
Ultimately, having fun is down to how active our dopamine center is at any given moment. Dopamine is that feel-good chemical that makes us feel all the happy, rosy emotions like love, fun, and even pleasure. It doesn’t, however, work the same every time.
• Dopamine and Unpredictable Games
Luck-based games are completely unpredictable, which means there could be a loss or a win at any moment. Take online roulette. Each spin of the wheel has its own chance of winning. Chances won’t accumulate the more you play, and therefore it’s completely unpredictable. Slot games are also incredibly engaging and fun (so long as you play responsibly) because your dopamine centre is focused on the anticipation of that win.
• Dopamine and Replay Value
The first time you play a game, you’ll get that dopamine hit if you enjoy the gameplay and mechanics. If the game ends the same way every time, however, you’ll slowly lose enjoyment during each replay, no matter how much you’ve enjoyed it in the past. This is where narrative games with single-story pathways and minimal gameplay mechanics fall short, because unless there’s some other factor (like difficulty level), you just won’t continue to love playing a game over and over if the result is the same.
How High Cognitive Engagement Helps Us Feel Locked In
There are a lot of distractions out there in the world, which is why enjoying things can feel difficult. If you’re playing a game and watching a movie while you’ve got dinner on the stove, your brain is focusing on three different things instead of being locked in.
Being locked in isn’t great all the time, but when you finally find that game that just immerses you, there’s no better type of entertainment. The secret to staying locked in, however, is adrenaline, and you can’t feel that adrenaline if you can accurately predict how a game will go every time. If it’s impossible to lose, for example, you won’t have that adrenaline rush.
The Rush of the “Win”
As stated before, you cannot actually win if you cannot lose. Players need to be able to lose, regardless of what the loss looks like. In RPGs, for example, it could mean your character dies. In arcade games, it could mean starting from the beginning and losing a streak bonus or your place on the league table. These losses make wins feel more exciting because they are not a guaranteed outcome, and therefore it takes skill, perseverance, or just plain luck to get there.