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A few weeks ago, I subjected myself to another round of self-analysis, trying to figure out why I enjoyed video games with machines in them: for example, the Feed the Beast mod pack for Minecraft; My Time at Portia; Blueprint Tycoon; Factorio; Factory Town; and now Satisfactory.
And I think I found the answer: I’m a sucker for Skinner Boxes. You know the sort of thing: push button; (often) get reward.
Machines are a great mechanism for being a Skinner box: usually you put something in, and after a period of time, you get something out. But I also had the realisation that it’s not just the end product which my brain interprets as a reward: it’s the action of the machine itself. “You did that. See all that stuff moving? You made that happen! Who’s a good boy?” Once I reached that conclusion, another came to me: this is why I became hooked on playing slot machines… I love to see the reels spin, and the lights flash. The money is, to an extent, secondary – though I’d always get depressed when I blew through yet another £20, less than an hour after being paid.
[As it turns out, the Wikipedia article for Skinner Boxes – aka Operant Conditioning Chambers – mentions that slot machines are viewed as an example of the type. I didn’t know this before looking up the term for this article.]
I did manage to get myself out of the habit of blowing money on slot machines, thanks to slot-machine emulators such as JPeMu. I could play my favourite machines until I got bored, and not have to worry about how I was going to afford to make it until the next pay day. A very recent release for PC, The Coin Game, is also entertaining me in this regard, although it’s the type of arcade where you get tickets instead of money. As the game’s still in early access, there’s the possibility that playing for (in-game) money could appear, down the line.
Enjoying the process of getting to the result is also, I think, why I enjoy incremental games, albeit to a lesser extent. I say that because, by their very design, the bigger goals get farther and farther away by orders of magnitude, and I just get bored with them. And those which require to you start all over again, via “prestige” mechanics to boost your progress, really do my head in.
Of course, the addition of quests/milestones in a game is another layer of Skinner-boxery. I like having a direction when doing things, so I’ll be itching to turn in the next quest, and the next, and the next… The downside of that is that, when the main story quest line is perceived as being completed, I’ll stop dead with a game. My Time at Portia is a good example of this; I have other examples, but they’re not in the “machine games” category.
Oddly, and for reasons I don’t understand at all, casino games which aren’t slots bore me rigid, even though there are still reward mechanics involved. I used to enjoy playing the likes of roulette, craps, and the like (though I never did it for actual money) – but then, one day, my enthusiasm for such games vanished. No idea why – oh, and this occurred before the fruit-machine-emulator discovery.
As for being a total sucker for Skinner Boxes, it seems to me that it stems from my need for validation. Having that need is, again, a total mystery to me. I certainly wasn’t starved of affection at home, far from it! Regardless of the reason behind it, I have that need, and reward mechanics are rather like self-medication for me. On the upside, although I’m still occasionally spending money on buying games with factory mechanics, at least it’s not hundreds and hundreds of pounds!
So, there you have it. I like games with machines in them, because I need validation. Not great, but still better than some of the behaviours which exist in humans! 😀
The Digital Quill 