Oct 12th, 2020
Vol. 5
BELFIELD BANTER THE
Th e S t . An ne’s -B el fi el d S choo l S tud en t New s l etter
In This Issue:
VIDEO GAMES EXPLAINED: THE WHY AND HOW OF ONLINE GAMING PERFORMATIVE ACTIVISM ON THE HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL LUCIFER: A TV REVIEW POETRY INSERT: Hayley Chisolm BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH FACULTY FEATURE: MR. ROSS
VIDEO GAMES: WHY THEY’RE ADDICTIVE AND HOW TO PLAY THEM EFFICIENTLY by Qiming Fu — The video game: a tool we are all familiar with, and have probably interacted with at some point in our lives. Parents and teachers alike often do not approve of the use of games that can be distracting, considering them a waste of time. However, these statements’ truth does not diminish the popularity of video games or help explain why we keep playing them. So why are they so addictive? Are video games truly bad things? How can we efficiently use them in our lives? In this article, I will explore these topics and uncover some new angles from which to view this virtual world. Video games release large amounts of dopamine to the brain, thus creating the desire to play these games repeatedly. Video games trigger a dopamine release, thereby putting into action the chemical in our brain that makes us happy. Hundreds of thousands of employees and professionals in the gaming industry combine all of their ideas to try to maximize that effect. There are many tricks that game production companies use to make their game attractive and addicting. Here, I will address a few common tactics within the field.
gardless of the target audience or the genre of the game itself. For example, most video games have their own theme music. Background music in games serves the primary purpose of focusing the user by employing specific progressions and instruments that focus the brain to such an extent that your mind temporarily disregards everything else. You may forget completely about a quiz that you didn’t study for because you were too busy gaming. A brilliant demonstration of this effect would be the classic Plants VS Zombies background track, and the upbeat music of Geometry Dash. Leaderboards Humans like competing. It is a part of our nature that we simply cannot help, especially in player v. player games. Presenting a leaderboard in a video game encourages players by showing them that “this person is better than you at this, and the world knows.” Sometimes, it can take participants months, or even years, to be on the leaderboard. There is usually nothing physically rewarding about actually being on it beyond bragging rights, yet we care immensely nonetheless. Rewards Although player v. computer games seem to utilize these systems more, almost all games include a reward system. Whether it be through quests, daily logins, or gifts via events, rewards are a cheap and efficient way to bring users back. Arknights, for example, has more reward systems than I have cells in my brain. To maintain their player bases, some games even have a “penalty” system. In the case of a “cumulative sign-in” penalty system, for instance, if you do not sign in for a day, you will lose a big reward and have to start again. This is basically an invisible fist pressuring the user to actively play the game everyday. All this pressure culminates in nothing more than the pleasure inherent to receiving another virtually useless line of code that developers somehow think is worth selling their soul to the industry’s machine for.
Music Having music in video games is essential, re[cont p2]