作者：Geoff Howland

是什么让游戏具有成瘾性？要让游戏具有成瘾性，就必须存在保持玩家玩游戏的驱动力，比如：完成游戏；与他人竞争；精通游戏控制和界面；探索游戏；获得更高分数或评级。

game addiction(from choosehelp.com)

完成游戏成瘾性

完成游戏成瘾性的基础要么是想要看到最终结果，要么是想要打通游戏。尝试完成游戏这个目标可以被视为一种挑战。对于难度特别高的游戏来说，完成游戏能够让人产生自豪感。但是，如此设计成瘾性带来的并非总是良好的结果，因为有些能够激起某些人挑战欲望的任务可能会让其他人觉得过于困难，从而放弃体验游戏。对于有着强烈胜利欲望的人来说，如果你能够提供富有挑战性的游戏并最终让他们获得胜利，那么这部分玩家会认同你的做法。这是个有效的设计选择，但是必须针对特定的目标用户。

如果玩家完成游戏的目的是看到故事结局，那么这属于故事激励。即便在《超级马里奥兄弟》这样故事简单的游戏中，故事同样也存在结局。许多玩家想要知道，当他们打通游戏并救出公主后会发生什么事情。他们打通游戏后，游戏又重新从第1关开始。他们已经完成了整个游戏故事，所以这些人可能就不会再继续玩下去。

竞争成瘾性

竞争成瘾性有着强大的力量，能够在相当长的时间里保持游戏的繁荣和成长。存在竞争内容的游戏寿命往往比单人游戏更长。竞争是电脑游戏的基石之一。它允许人们在游戏规则内与他人互动，游戏的大部分内容取决于玩家而不是开发者。玩家会根据不同的对手制定战略和战术，其范围往往超过开发者的预想。如果你制作含有灵活规则的游戏，那么就可以允许玩家创造出自己的玩法风格和战术。

精通成瘾性

对游戏或者控制的精通成瘾性也相当强大。汽车驾驶模拟游戏的主要内容是模拟操控车辆。玩家打通游戏后，往往还会继续玩下去，不断改善和提升自己的操控技能。使用某些技巧来设计优秀的界面，可以实现上述目标，比如制作考验玩家控制能力的关卡。比如在驾驶游戏中，可以通过简单的弯道设计来呈现挑战，玩家如果想以最高速度通过弯道，就必须熟悉道路状况，适时利用漂移。让玩家学习游戏控制的关键在于你向玩家呈现的反馈。通过音效可以让玩家知道汽车轮胎正失去牵引力，转弯时引擎的不同状态也可以通过音效来呈现。游戏可以通过许多元素来呈现其丰富功能，让玩家有通过训练来掌握的理由。如果玩家未获得足够的反馈或者界面过于单调，那么也就失去了提升控制技能的方法。如果初学者和高级玩家做成某些事情的机率是相同的，那么玩家就不会产生通过训练成为高手的欲望。

探索成瘾性

自电脑游戏面世之日起，探索成瘾性便已经存在。事实上，许多首批电脑游戏中只包含探索元素。《Adventure》是款文字游戏，玩家可以在区域内四处行走、查看和收集道具，组合使用道具来解决谜题便可以开启新的探索区域。最新版的《神秘岛》也将探索作为基础，它的流行表明许多人乐衷于探索有趣的地方，利用这个元素来盈利的游戏远不止这一款。《Zork》和《Infocom》文字冒险系列游戏也以探索为基础，很显然这是个值得深入探索的游戏题材。

隐藏关卡也成为许多游戏的关键内容，包括《超级马里奥兄弟》和《最终幻想7》，寻找隐藏关卡也是成瘾性的主要方面。我曾经听宫本茂（游戏邦注：任天堂游戏设计团队灵魂人物，制作过《超级马里奥兄弟》、《塞尔达传说》和《银河战士》等游戏）说过，电子游戏中40%的关卡应当设置成隐藏关卡。这个方法似乎很能吸引玩家。

高分成瘾性

高分成瘾性位于前两个类别之间，但是其重要性仍值得我们独立探讨。通常情况下，玩家尝试在电脑游戏中获得高分主要有两种形式：要么尝试超过其他玩家的分数，要么尝试更加精通游戏。大量游戏玩法就直接建立在超越其他人高分上。我认为，这种形式最初出现在弹球游戏中，现在互联网上的排行榜利用的是同样的原理。如果你还未接触过这种形式，可以去尝试下，这类游戏非常流行，已经形成了自己的亚文化。

高分成瘾性的另一种形式凌驾于打通游戏之上。玩家追求的不只是完成游戏。在《超级马里奥兄弟》中，打通游戏后你可以继续挑战更高难度。有些人乐衷于利用一次机会多次打通游戏，或者在不丧命的情况下打通游戏。比拼谁能够在最短时间内打通《塞尔达传说》也很流行。这些成瘾性类型是与他人或自己竞争的变体，同时也属于游戏精通成瘾性的类别。

开发者可借助成瘾方法来让玩家完成游戏后继续体验，加深挑战难度来为玩家提供更多玩游戏的动力。

游戏邦注：本文发稿于1999年9月7日，所涉时间、事件和数据均以此为准。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Game Design : The Addiction Element

Geoff Howland

What makes a game addictive? In order for a game to become addictive there must be a driving force to keep playing the game. Some reasons behind this are: to finish the game, to compete against others, to master the game’s control and interface, to explore the game and getting a high score or equivalent.

Addiction of Finishing the Game

An addiction to finish the game is often based on either wanting to see the end result or just to complete it. In the case of just trying to complete the game it can be seen just as a challenge. A particularly difficult game it may be an act of pride to keep playing until the game is complete. This doesn’t always create the best results though because where some people may find a challenge to win, many others may just find it too difficult and give up. People like to win, if you can provide a game that challenges them and still lets them eventually win you will probably end up with happier players overall. This is a design choice though and needs to be made when your targeting your audience.

In the case where a player finishes a game to see how it ends, there is a story motivation. Even in a game with a simple story such as Super Mario Brothers there was an ending. Many players wanted to find out what happened when they beat the game and eventually rescued the princess. Once they found out the ending and the game started over on the first level again they had finished the story and this is where many people stopped playing the game.

Addiction of Competition

The addiction of competing against others is a powerful one and can keep a game alive and thriving for incredibly long periods of times. A game that two or more players find a good interface to compete through can last far longer than its shelf or hard drive life expectancy. Competition is one of the cornerstones of computer games. It allows people to interact with each other on a common level under the supervision of the game’s rules and really puts the game in the hands of the players, instead of the developer. The players will figure out their own traps and snares for each other and usually far exceed what the developer could think of before hand. If you create your game with flexible rules you can allow players to create their own playing styles, moves and tactics in your games that you had not planned for.

Addiction of Mastery

The addiction of mastery of a game or its control is also extremely powerful. Vehicle simulation games especially show this as their primary goal is to simulate the control of a particular vehicle. Often after a game has been beaten it will still be played to improve and refine the player’s skill. The trick in making a good interface to allow this is to create detail levels in the controls. For example in a driving game a simple turn can be done in a straightforward way, but to complete it with maximum efficiency you must be able to feel the road and give when your tires are losing traction. The key to allowing the player to learn your game’s control is in your feedback to the player. A sound signifying the tires beginning to lose traction, the sound of the engine in different states as you are pushing through a turn. Anything the player can use as a map to understanding how the game is functioning will let them grow into an interface and give them a reason to try to master it. If the player does not have enough feedback or if the interface is too black and white there may be no good way to master it and if a beginner and an advanced player have roughly the same chances of doing something there is no reason to try to become an advanced player.

Addiction of Exploration

The addiction of exploration has been in computer games since the beginning. In fact some of the first games were only about exploration. The game Adventure was a text game where the player could wander through areas looking around and collecting items, there were a few puzzles to be solved by getting items in combination to unlock more areas to explore. More recently the game of Myst also used this as its basis and has sold well over a million copies. The popularity of Myst cannot be ruled out as an anomaly as there is a strong urge in many people to explore interesting places and more than one game has capitalized on this. Games such as the Zork and Infocom text adventure series also were based on this premise and it is clear that this is a definite genre to be explored and not discounted.

Secret levels have also been the key of many games, from Super Mario Brothers to Final Fantasy 7, a main facet of the addiction was to find the secret levels. I once read that Shigeru Miyamoto (pride Nintendo’s design team who created Super Mario Brothers, Zelda, Metroid, et al) said that 40% of a video game’s levels should be hidden, it seems to have worked quite well for him.

Addiction of the High Score

The addiction of getting or beating a high score falls under two categories but is important enough to have a spot of its own. Normally someone who is trying to get a high score or some equivalent in a computer game is either trying to compete against other player’s scores or is trying to master the game. A huge amount of game playing has resulted simply from beating a high score of another. I believe this originated in Pinball games and still holds true in a more advanced way in the ladders of today’s Internet. If you haven’t already, take a look at them, they are extremely popular and have created their own sub-culture of sorts.

Another type of high score addiction is over winning a game. To do more than just finish the game. In the game of Super Mario Brothers, after you won you could continue to play with added difficulty. It became a measure of pride for some people to beat the game many times in one session or to perhaps beat the game once or twice without ever dying. For a while it was also very popular to see how fast you could beat the Legend of Zelda in one sitting. These types of addictions are variations of competing with others or with yourself and also fall into mastering the game.

Creating a way for your players to keep playing even after they have won the game, and giving them more incentive to play by making things harder and thus making it more challenging is another way you can add the element of addiction to your games. (Source: gamedev.net)