We've all been there. Every one of us has looked down the scope, lined up the shot, pulled the trigger and let out an ululating roar as your bullet contrives to defy gravity and your opponent slips away into the night. We've all missed that open goal, let go of the e key while defusing the bomb, lagged at the critical moment. So what keeps us coming back to multiplayer games?
The purpose of this article is to think about the actual psychological effects that games have on people.At no point am I condemning gaming, as an avid gamer myself, but the truth is not always pretty.
At heart, all multiplayer games are designed around people's almost natural desire to compete. When playing against someone else, unless your just messing around (you monstrous troll!) human instinct commands that you beat that person. The reality is, if you've played for a long time and begin to consistently beat most people it becomes the norm. Messing up is something more infrequent and so much more frustrating than the amount of fun you get beating someone.
Despite that being the case, unless you (or the game) really sucks this is not going to be a regular occurance, and you may well revel in your superiority. Chances are to become good at a game you need some dedication and a certain type of competitive personality, so many players of a decent level are comparable in their attitudes. Men as a whole tend to like competing, the big, hulking ones in grassy arenas to show off their Herculean bodies and the small pale ones from the comfort of their own room, destroying with mouse and monitor. If your not really that kind of person, logic dictates you won't continue to hammer away at a game like that. But thats just not true.
People who begin to play online games often get warped. Genuinely mentally changed. Lets take World of Warcraft - how many souls have been consumed by that game? How many once outgoing people do you know who have been turned into elf-craving vampires who would sell their granny for a new steed? Well, this is achieved by a two pronged reward system.
Competitive Reward
This is the first and most obvious one. Going back to our desire to compete, we naturally feel good when we beat someone. When you start off at a game it often is that you are fairly poor, losing a lot and not really caring, and overjoyed when you do well. As you progress up the skill level, this balance slowly tips, until eventually you win most of the time, provoking little positive emotion, and lose on the occasion resulting in anger. Here it is interesting to look at another example - drugs. Often, drug users describe how in their addictions they are always seeking to replicate those first dramatic highs they got when starting out, but steadily their experience began to decline as it became more routine. Why should gaming be any different?
Often people at this point will join clans or start competing in some form of genuine competition rather than just against random people. Here the process repeats itself again - you start off rubbish compared to all the other clans and gradually work your way up. Obviously this is a slightly different case - most people can play until they dominate public servers, in competitive play there is a natural skill cap that only lets you progress so far.
Achievements
Now this is where it gets interesting, where the subtlety lies. Achievements can take many forms, but they have to be something you can actually earn. For example, most Steam games have achievements, unlocked by completing a certain action or series of actions. League of Legends does this too, but has characters available to unlock and use via ingame currency. Achievements give us something meaningful to strive for, an actual reward at the end of our hard work. Of course, in actuality they mean nothing, but that is not how our body responds. When you finally get that 10000th kill in Counter Strike and your achievement pops up, in your mind for a split second the entire earth is bowing before your glory. For those who do not necessarily want to compete, or those who are just bored of owning everyone, this is the ultimate optional alternative.
Provided we have something to aim for, most people will go for it. Sure some of the crazy achievements may be out of reach for the majority but theres often lots of easier ones that anyone can get. Hell, I replayed every part of Half Life and unlocked every achievement just to prove what a cool nerd I am. You get the small ones, and then you think why can't I get the big ones? I got 10 kills why can't I get 100? Before you know it, your a gamer. Not a singleplaying patient, story loving gamer, but one who is pushing himself to gaming extremes in an impatient desire to be given your reward cookie as quickly as possible.
So we take the two and add them together. You kill and kill until killing becomes as natural and exciting as a blink of the eye, you gain unlocks/achievements that you didn't think were humanely possible in your insane desire to be told your awesome by a machine. Is it any wonder then that the upper echelons of gameplay are often a sad place? Many people will be raging before a game has even begun and the only form of real fun is to troll around. People may switch games to try and replicate those previous feelings, but sadly, often once you've gotten good at games, your just good at games. Beating people is just what you do.
That ladies and gentlemen, is a very stark look at the mechanics behind the world of online gaming. It looks depressing, but the idea isn't to make you depressed, it's to make you think. Next time your owning that noob think how he is feeling. He doesn't care, hes a noob, you don't care, your pro. But it doesn't have to be that way. Think how far you've come, remember when you were like him. Think how far you've come. The reasons behind addiction to gaming may look fairly bleak, but thats no reason not to be proud of your ability and what you are now able to do. Feel good about it. Relive those feelings once more and truely enjoy yourself, and if everyone does that, the world of gaming may just become a much better place.
