Dopamine Driven Game Design

[wraith808]

Now in 2013 I have been using the term Dopamine Driven Design (DDD) privately for the last year to describe the use of techniques to optimize dopamine delivery in interactive media products. It is my belief that DDD is being used on a very rudimentary level in most social network and many mobile games currently. One company, Riot Games, has been deploying DDD capable scientists to optimize their product on a level that is beyond rudimentary. Most if not all major studios have been creating business intelligence units to optimize engagement, which in my opinion is tremendously inefficient without the presence of an embedded DDD capable scientist.

Great Read:

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RaminShokrizade/20130725/196848/Game_Dosing.php

[Deozaan]

Interesting article. Thanks for sharing it. (c:

[TaoPhoenix]

I think it goes even broader to the internet as a whole. I think Internet activities as a whole are Dopamine boosters. The trick is to decide what that means in the long term holistically. I don't yet have an answer!

[TaoPhoenix]

New take:

1. All of the Internet is Dopamine Driven
It's a "minor" problem for businesses when their employees lose more-than-normal (whatever that is) productive time, on the net. The best models for Net news sites are "frequent and compelling updates". So your favorite seven sites might chew half an hour to an hour of your time.

2. Quit being cavalier with Brain Words. Look at old literature and notice the huge chunks where people were bored out of their minds. First World Problem - Oh Look, people post notes on the Internet and sometimes too many at work!

Dopamine triggers with a "Payoff". So a good designed game will be ... "fun" ... to play.

3. Watch out for ReFraming. As an eight year old, I played Atari PacMan for so many hours our machine caught on fire. I think. So what. Me and my device Dad bought me. But gaming now has a lot of Sharing. Be careful. What exactly is the "gripe point" here?