The document discusses how games use conditioning principles to influence player behavior. It explains that reinforcement and punishment are two tools used in operant conditioning that can encourage or discourage certain actions. Games provide rewards to reinforce behaviors and punish players through consequences like withering crops if actions aren't taken in time. These conditioning methods aim to get players engaged and returning day after day through techniques like social elements, levels, unlockable items, and dopamine release from anticipating and achieving rewards. The document argues that games blur the lines between fiction and reality and effectively condition players using stimuli and responses.

1. Conditioned
to PlayAs people play, theorists have explained
the nature and classification of games.
Important constituents of games include the
way elements reinforce or punish actions
and trigger desired behaviours.The question
then arises of how games are constructed to
induce behaviours and condition us.
by Vandana U.
Photo Credit: Rage.com.my

2. Kuliza Social Technology Quarterly Issue 07
“Come, there’s no use in crying like that!’ said Alice to
herself, rather sharply; `I advise you to leave off this
minute!’ She generally gave herself very good advice,
(though she very seldom followed it), and sometimes
she scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into
her eyes; and once she remembered trying to box
her own ears for having cheated herself in a game of
croquet she was playing against herself, for this curious
child was very fond of pretending to be two people.`But
it’s no use now,’ thought poor Alice,`to pretend to be
two people! Why, there’s hardly enough of me left to
make ONE respectable person!”
All the world is a game. Or at least it is starting to seem that way.
The only reason people play is to have fun. There is no conscious
attempt to do any other function other than having fun. While playing,
unconsciously we end up performing several other functions: realize
a few traits, behaviours, think rationally, apply ideas, fasten thought
process, improve dexterity, presence of mind, get an adrenaline
rush, derive pleasure, create an adventure, face a mental challenge,
get relief, and even create alternative identities, but none of these
are a part of the primary motive of playing.
A game’s value proposition is how it makes its players-customers
think and feel. We devote a great deal of our time into playing games
consciously. Unconsciously we are all the time stepping into or
creating game-like situations. Therefore a game is not a surprising
source of inspiration for marketers. We play all the time. Plus, we
are conditioned to play. When marketers convert customers into
players, the level of involvement they are seeking for customers is
tremendous. This article attempts at a better understanding of the
Campaigns

3. methods of reinforcement being utilized in order to examine how and
why people naturally return day after day to play games. It goes back
to conditioning: primarily operant conditioning. The objective is to
shed light on the practical as well as ideological use of conditioning
in constructing games.
What is Play?
Writers, researchers, scientists, and psychologists all stress on
the need and significance of play. To explain play is to describe its
“meaningfulness” for the players.
According to Johan Huizinga, “Play is the primary formative element
in human culture.” His book Homo Ludens describes play as “A free
and meaningful activity, carried out for its own sake, spatially and
temporally segregated from the requirements of practical life, and
bound by a self-contained system of rules that holds absolutely.”
Robert Caillois describes play as a free and a voluntary activity. He
adds, “The spirit of playful competition is, as a social impulse, older
than culture itself and pervades all life like a veritable ferment. Ritual
Photo Credits:
Lego Batman: floodllama
Soccer Fans: Monteism
Toy Blocks: Ryk Neethling
grew up in sacred play; poetry was born in play and nourished on
play; music and dancing were pure play… We have to conclude,
therefore, that civilization is, in its earliest phases, played. It does
not come from play… it arises in and as play, and never leaves it.”
While playing, rules may not pre-exist. When I think of times when
I would play with toys such as dolls or made origami shapes, there
were not existing rules I would go back to but I conjured them based
on my observation of surroundings, interactions, experiences,
perceptions. I made my own set of rules, which made feel bad if I
flouted them; just as how Alice (Wonderland) did going to the extent
of punishing herself.
These definitions do not make play a simple voluntary activity, but
a complex one. When semantically we would consider play as
the opposite of serious, play can intensely absorb the player and
unconsciously making the play rather significant and serious. Let us
take a step back and look at how we are inclined to play as well as
how Operant Conditioning affects the way we play. While playing
people get angry, excited, and on occasions even cry.

4. Kuliza Social Technology Quarterly Issue 07
conditioned to be able to perceive themselves as complying with the
more desirable behaviours.
Now that the conditioning affects our performance and behaviours
so well, what adds to it is the level of dopamine activity, stimulating
the appetite to play more. The neurotransmitter in the brain plays
significant roles in a variety of behaviours such as movement,
cognition, pleasure, and motivation. It is released when one has a
reward-based experience. Robert Sapolsky, Professor of Neurology
and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University, in his research
concerning dopamine release in the brain when rewarded and
when anticipating a reward, talks about how “near misses” motivate
and it is at this point dopamine level rises. These near misses are
effectively used in games. With an element of risk added to games,
as in Battlefield or in World of Warcraft, risks and rewards become
triggers for the release of dopamine, which definitely gives a sense
of satisfaction and is motivating enough to willingly indulge in more
risks and continuously perform risky and rewarding actions. While
both environment and genes are responsible for increased dopamine
activity and stimulation this is reason enough for the high statistics
in the number of players for each of the popular games. Farmville
has 14,200,000 plus monthly active users. From videogames to
Facebook and social games, millions play them. People maintain
their game statistics, leader boards, and seriously take the grades
given on their performances.
Playing games can be highly social, interactive, and stimulating
experiences. Elements of conditioning characterize the engaging
nature of games. These can make a player happy or unhappy; can
boost one’s ego or hurt it. If we define activity and feelings of success
or failure restricted to the fictive world then my argument would
collapse. Play and games blur the lines between perception of fiction
and reality. Perhaps, this becomes a key characteristic for marketers
to use play to condition us with stimuli and even our responses.
Not winning can go the extent of making one feel incompetent. No
wonder we give in to being conditioned to play because even by
instincts we are bound to play.
References
Salen, Katie and Eric Zimmerman. The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play
Anthology.Massachussets:The MIT Press
“Operant Conditioning.”Wikipedia,The Free Encyclopedia.
“Dopamine.”Wikipedia,The Free Encyclopedia.
Nacke, Lennart.“Reward anticipation – A powerful tool for game design.” The
Acagamic.10 March 2011.
“FarmVille Facebook Statistics.” Socialbakers.
The term Operant Conditioning was coined by a B F Skinner,
psychologist of the behaviourist school. Operant conditioning
features two key tools: reinforcement and punishment. Both of these
can either be positive or negative in nature. Reinforcement is a
consequence that causes a particular behaviour to occur in greater
frequency. Punishment is a consequence that causes a behaviour to
occur in less frequency.
While I took upon the tasks of playing games as well as comparing
my experiences of shopping online and offline, taking part in
promotions, etc., I realized rewards was a great component of
the game design. The premise is that a person is highly likely to
engage actively in an activity when there is bound to be a reward
for taking part. Also, many a times in the expectation of a reward we
do many actions even though they would not always yield a reward.
The more early successes we experience, the more we are likely
to continue the same set of actions even as the levels of difficulty
mount and rewards become fewer. We do of course have a need to
be recognized and commended for a job well done. Maybe unlike
Watson or Skinner whose animal subjects had food as the reward,
for humans rewards are in form of cash, kind, status, etc. These
work as reinforcers. It is quite obvious then, rewards are persuasive.
They work on aspirations. Any game-like context will already set
a goal. Although, it may not be coherent with what one needs, the
design can create an illusory belief of “I want it” in the very moment.
Popular games, such as Farmville, Cityville, Mafia Wars, and their
sequels all go back to operant conditioning or Skinner’s box. The
farming simulator game “Farmville” consists of a player being taught
how to plant crops by clicking on fragmented pieces of virtual land.
With only a few crops alone available easily, others need to be
unlocked. After a few hours or even days for some crops, people can
harvest these crops and gain Farmville currency, experience points,
and gradually move levels. Although the process sounds rather
simple, there is a great deal more to it. The earning of Farmville
currency gives rise to aspirations of users to purchase different farm
tools, even clothes for the farmer to look more attractive as well as
“unlock” different items. Such accessibility is responsible for the
behaviours the game wishes to induce. However, if crops are not
harvested in a certain amount of time they will wither and players will
not receive any rewards for planting them. This works effectively as
a punishment. The entire cycle makes one go back time and again.
As some crops require only a few hours to be harvested, one can
only wonder how much time people spend on such a game and be
absorbed by it. Moreover, the more people one gets in to play, the
more cash and “XPs” one can get. It has been effectively designed
to get more people to play, even get addicted, along with a horde of
social obligations of helping on others’ farms, sharing rewards, etc.
These impose conditions of continuous game play. Furthermore, as
playing gets more social, people modify behaviours on their own
accord to match the desired behaviours. In this way, people are