Progress Wars: A Game Mechanics Parody
Posted on Feb 13, 2011 by Michael Gugel in Gaming
Jakob Skjerning's Progress Wars
Jakob Skjerning’s Progress Wars is amazingly insightful.
Progress Wars doesn’t have any fancy graphics or a compelling story. You just push a button and level up. Somehow, I still managed to get all the way up to level 6 
Jakob is making fun of how game designers focus in on classical conditioning to increase user engagement. Users get rewarded (experience, golds, points, etc.) for a “good” behaviors in the hopes they’ll keep playing. Classical conditioning definitely works, but there’s obviously more to it than that. We’re not lab rats that can be motivated to push a lever for a food pellet. That’s only part of what makes a good game…
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