Game On! The Neuroscience Behind The Popularity Of Games

Games are one of the oldest past times known to humanity. Over the centuries games have been used to teach problem solving and survival skills, socialize community members and of course - to entertain and have fun! However recent developments in gaming technology, interactive media, digital entertainment and knowledge industries are converging to create new forms of learning and entertainment.

One of the reasons that games are so popular is that they have mastered the art of engagement by tapping into how the human mind works more than any other medium. The exponential rise in the millions of people playing online and console games around the world is testament to this.

Games & Neuroscience

The human brain is complex and understanding the underlying physiological and cognitive drivers enables game designers, web developers, organisational and instructional designers to develop sustained engagement and motivation.

This has led to the recent growth in the neuroscience behind how games engage people, which is of keen interest for business, marketers, government and schools.

The neuroscience behind how games engage is compelling as there are many elements to what constitute ‘people engagement’ and one of the more interesting ones is that our brains make a critical distinction between wanting and liking.

Wanting is associated with dopamine release as part of the neurological reward system in the mid-brain region that affects our motivation and drive to seek and acquire pleasure such as food, sex and gambling.

Liking however is neurologically disassociated from wanting, as the hedonistic enjoyment of pleasure itself takes place elsewhere in the brain and within the central nervous system.

The implications for game design and more recently, the ‘gamification’ of marketing, education and web services, are important for sustained people engagement.

Designing Game Elements

Entry level game design elements tend to focus on stimulating hits of dopamine for which humans are wired to seek. These include winning points, acquiring badges, adding friends, rising in rank on a leaderboard etc.

The dopamine release is then complicated by other things happening at the hormonal level with the release of testosterone and cortisol as we are engaged in periods of concentration and competition during gameplay.

At this level, gaming elements have only engaged people with sectors of their brain that have no interest or connection with purchasing a product, using a web service or learning an e-lesson.

The transition of the player from the 'addictive' elements of gamification into a purchase or learning outcome is tenuous and requires a different set of design skills to entice the player to engage with the prefrontal cortex, where key cognitive decisions are made on what you like and what you will act on. This requires a more immersive experience.

The transition from the neurological wanting of a dopamine hit to the cognitive decision of liking and acting requires gamification elements that take into account a multiple of different perspectives that enrich human experiences. The elements of Csikszentmihalyi's 'flow' are central to this.

Games And Flow

The conditions of flow that inspire people to do amazing things in any activity that engages them can be found in the following ‘higher order’ game elements:

• Psychological hook and buy-in
• Setting of clear goals
• Autonomy and personal control
• Direct and immediate feedback
• Challenge matched to ability
• Intrinsically rewarding activity

A creative combination of these elements into a holistic experience will engage people beyond initial excitement into a more meaningful engagement with your game, product or service.

However outside of a game environment, there appear to be a few pre-conditions to flow. Certain personality traits are more likely to experience flow in more frequent and deeper doses, such as those motivated to do things for intrinsic reasons (just because it interests me), curiosity (wow, how does that work?), persistence (not giving in 'till I get it), low self centeredness (teach me, show me how to do that).

And of course, environment plays a big part. To induce flow, the physical spaces in which we live, work and play need to be designed to stimulate our senses and curiosity and to engage people with everyone around them.

We've all seen pictures of the workspaces built by Google, Facebook, MySpace, etc where they have created spaces that entice their people to enter, stay, play and love their work.

Great game designers create an entire world in which flow is incorporated into every task for every level for every player, as they know how to engage and involve people. No-one sits around as a passenger in a game, everyone has an important, active role to play.

Now here's the best bit - player disengagement is not blamed on the player, it is a limitation of the game. Disengagement is not an option for a game designer. Why then should it be for a manager, a teacher or you?