Tetris theory
The Nature of Addictive Games and a Unique Solution
B. N. Dent
Over the past year, the chrome extension “Tetrys” has transformed from a game into a parasitical creature that has affected almost all students at Shore with access to a laptop. This simple game is able to target even those with disciplined self-control and possesses the power to glue fingers to arrow keys, and as a result letting hours pass by. This addictive game can corrupt one’s ability to study and consequently a solution for overcoming this temptation must be created; one that involves deconstructing the various aspects of video-game based entertainment.
In order to approach a solution for solving this problem, we must first understand the factors that contribute to the addictive nature of various video games. Statistically, some of the most addictive video games prevalent in the past decade include Fortnite, Candy Crush Saga, Minecraft, and Clash of Clans. These games and many more have been intricately created by multi-billion-dollar corporations that specialize in maximizing the level of addictiveness pertinent to given games. A key issue that consumers cannot see is that addiction is not solely reliant on enjoyment. Meaning that oftentimes you will find yourself having a compulsive need to play a game even if you find that you receive little enjoyment from it.
To explain this from a psychological perspective, dopamine (a type of neurotransmitter and hormone) is released in the brain in response to a pleasurable experience (e.g., reaching a new high score in Tetris). If a person experiences pleasure whilst playing video games, the brain associates the activity with dopamine. The person can therefore develop a strong drive to seek out that same pleasure again, thus choosing to partake in that activity again (pressing the reset button in Tetris). In summary, video game addiction is almost entirely based on pleasurable past experiences that dictate one’s decision to play the game again in the spirit of trying to obtain a similar experience.
So yes, initial game enjoyment is an important aspect involved in developing addiction, but past that first experience enjoyment is no longer a key factor – it is one’s ability to continuously experience positive mental stimulation therefore luring them back again and again. Arguably the most effective tactic used by games to instil this positive stimulation is progression-based satisfaction. This refers to the self-esteem boosts which individuals experience through their ability to see their own progression or development of skill within a game. This phenomenon can be translated into real life scenarios as well – if someone is experiencing little progression in a sport/occupation/skill, then it is likely that they will lose motivation for this given activity and choose to stop. Given this information, it can be clearly assumed that a game’s ability to reward and obviously present skill progression to a player will dictate its level of addictiveness. Subsequently, often poorly developed or simplistic games are able to become extremely addictive if they are aided with fast progression to empower and entice players to continuously return. In Tetris, this is the endless desire for a greater high score or score that puts competitive friends to shame.
Therefore, the ultimate solution to ending addiction within progression-based video games such as Tetris is to end progression. Unless you are extremely bad at the game and lack basic motor skills to control arrow keys, and hence creating your own end to progression based on your poor ability, the only solution is to fully master the game to a point where you will never lose no matter the situation. An inability to obtain the satisfaction from progression will destroy addiction and end the loop. Freeing up time to focus on more important things like obtaining a new high score on snake.
You must now be wondering, but how do I become a Tetris master? Well, the easiest thing to do is to learn basic Tetris game theory. It is a very simplistic game and following a few sets of rules, as well as optimising consistency, will enable you to play the game with ease; beginning to see the lack of difficulty, your desire to play will fade.