In the modern world, companies, banks, the governments… and even our games use unethical methods that hack our monkey brains into acting in their interests. Companies want us to buy more of their products. They do everything in their power to make us consume more product. It is their nature, it is in their interests, companies are evolved multi-humanoid organisms built to make money, by hopefully selling a good product or service. They can also die. They live and evolve, just like animals, humans, cultures, religions, governments and everything else, they change slightly over-time according to environmental, sexual, genetic pressures.
Contemporary companies are just as evolved as you and me, and they use ever more sophisticated ways of making you buy their product. Companies that sell you video games, make you want to play more of the game. You play more, you pay more, statistically. Some companies make the act of playing a game rewarding. These companies give you achievements and number trackers that go up when you play the game. This is a very sophisticated, evolved, elegant psychological trap that takes advantage of the tendency of humans that want to do productive things. I have a bank account. In my bank account there is money. It is a number. If that number goes up, everything is better: more food, more status, more stuff, more everything. That number going up is good. Numbers that go up are good. So video game companies created numbers that go up in their games, artificial sources of productive-feelings in your brain. As if playing a video game was something productive. It gives satisfaction. It tricks you into playing the game more even if it is not fun anymore.
No, video games are not bad, in themselves. They are a tool, for entertainment, an art to be appreciated, a technical marvel, yes. A productive hobby, it is not. Woodworking is a productive hobby. Writing poetry is a productive hobby. Painting and sculpting and writing music and creating art and programming are productive hobbies. Gaming is not a productive hobby. Killing 20 boars is not an achievement. How patronizing it is that the game notices — cynical mockery — as if the developers were looking for any reason to pat out on the back. Mo matter how lacking are my efforts or how mediocre my results are, the achievements pile up. Exploring 100% of the map of a videogame might be impressive, but it hardly constitutes something productive. More like a skillful time-wasting. I reserve the word “Achievement” for more tangible, worthy of praise actions, in relation to video games or not… because I think winning an e-sport tournament is indeed an achievement. Anyhow my point is not about the worthiness of videogames as a hobby but about industry-wide psychological manipulation and condescension. I love video games. I hate “Achievements”. I wish I knew a more fitting name… Skinner box time traps?
“Gamification” is unethical psychological manipulation. Also “Gamification” is a terrible word, it makes it sound fun. I think a better name for it is “Diligence Hijacking”, or maybe “Diligence Hacking”. “Achievements” are hacks on the natural human tendency for diligence and productivity, meant to make video games more addictive. Useful idiots of authoritarians totalitarians want to make implement “Diligence Hacking” wherever possible supposedly to encourage good behavior, but it is naked population control to whichever ends the implementer choose.
There will be no misnamed “Achievements” in my game. I won’t treat gamers as if they were stupid pigeons. I won’t make my game full of traps that turn people into stupid pigeons.
Average Bear's GameDev 