GUEST BLOG: The digital pinatas.

Creating a game itself can be understood as an act of psychological study. For games are digital piñatas, stuffed with rewards that satisfy deeply ingrained human needs. Or rather, a given level, stage or in-game task is a conceptual piñata of its own, and as each is cracked, the contents tumble forth, showering the player with a bounty that replenishes our internal reservoirs of mental wellbeing. 

Will Freeman, freelance games journalist and former editor of Develop 

We humans crave interaction, freedom over our own actions and the ability to achieve; they are what keeps us happy, and games can satisfy all those needs. Game designers may not consider it to be so, but in every choice they make as a project takes life, there is an element of predicting how to best satisfy those base-level human desires. And so it is that psychologists, like F2P Summitspeaker Berni Good, have applied their craft to games design, helping developers to better understand how to make players enjoy their games.

But game psychology is not only about making your games more playable; it can also make them more bankable. Designing game mechanics to encourage the player to commit to microstransactions is rightly a much-debated topic, and there is a paper-thin moral line that must always be considered with this kind of approach. From A/B testing to academically elaborate methods, psychology’s application to free-to-play and monetisation must always be considered in a firm ethical framework.

Yet that does not mean it is inherently wrong. From advertising to packaging, psychology to sell is a long established model that can – and should – be applied in a way that is not exploitative. Indeed, game psychology can be called on to better a freemium title’s ethical standing. And, most intriguingly, applying psychological theory to free-to-play game design is no longer the strict reserve of the model’s giants, who have long paid handsomely for academics to assist in making their creations turn a profit.

Free-to-play can, of course, today serve as a vital monetisation model for start-ups, and for small teams it makes for a hugely tempting way of bankrolling a studio’s first months or years in business. But those teams are unlikely to have the budget for much in the way of psychologist, be they on staff or in a consultant capacity.

But, Good, who is always a fascinating speaker at conferences, once again looks set to reveal that the tricks of understanding the human being are well within the realm of the layman, as she this time takes a look at the psychological perception of the value of purchasing online game items. She will explore how human traits like jealousy and envy impact the player’s buying process, and it should serve up vital lessons for designers looking to better understand their player’s minds.

If a start-up can add psychology to their arsenal of game design tools, they may well make not just more profitable releases, but creatively superior ones. Indeed, psychology could be the key that unlocks that ultimate in free-to-play creations; a title where gameplay and monetisation mechanics are inseparably fused, for the benefit of the game as a creative endeavor, the player and a developer’s need to pay the rent, all within a ethical credible framework. It’s something every studio should pay attention to.

This blog was written by Will Freeman, former games journalist and former editor of Develop. Berni Good is speaking at F2P Summit, 10 October 2013 at RichMix in London. www.f2p-summit.com