If you’ve ever wished to feel a real sense of existential, tech-driven terror, this has been a great month for you. At DICE 2010, Jesse Schell envisioned a world where all of our daily activities might be tied into an endless series of point-based metagames. Today, Cracked.com’s 5 Creepy Ways Games are Trying to Get you Addicted examines similar ground, but without Schell’s bizarre optimism.
Cracked’s essay deals with the same sort of stuff many designers have been decrying for years — namely, that games like World of Warcraft are less interested in providing meaningful experiences than they are turning players into mindless addicts who don’t realize they’re being manipulated — but if you have a hard time listening to Jon Blow talk at you for an hour, Cracked’s always-efficient “legitimate information plus boob jokes divided by list organization” formula should nicely put things into perspective.
Read it here. As for me, I’m torn between feeling (A) immense pride that I never got into World of Warcraft, and (B) crushing fear that it’s only going to become more and more profitable to treat the player like a junkie.
