Tantalize Me | Filament Games

Ever heard the Greek myth of Tantalus? It's about a man whose punishment is to forever sit in a pool of water. Every time he tries to drink from the pool it recedes just out of reach and he is unable to quench his burning thirst. As weird as it sounds, if game developers can do this well they've got a game with real staying power.

Blizzard Entertainment, well known for their smash hit World of Warcraft, might as well have written the book on how to effectively tantalize players with a robust reward structure. You can't take two steps without hearing a loud 'gong!' noise and seeing fireworks all over the screen. It makes you feel great while providing a sense of constant progression. However, it took some time before they really mastered the art.

The initial release of WoW catered mainly to the hardcore raiding crowd. During that time the best items in the game were only obtainable by players who knew a minimum of forty people and didn't have a job that required a minimum of forty hours per week. The problem was that the more casual players quickly realized they'd seen all the game had to offer and subsequently stop playing. Enter The Burning Crusade; the expansion that effectively leveled the playing field. By giving players with different in-game interests (like player vs. player combat) and full time jobs (95% of the population) a chance to obtain items on par with the hardcore crowd, a large number of players, including myself, returned to the game.

But exactly what was it that made me want to keep playing this time around? A small yet steady stream of updates and content releases at perfectly timed intervals, that's what! Blizzard must have hired a team of experts in the field of drip irrigation because they provided juuuuuuust enough content to keep me sustained. After weeks of playing I would finally be able to get the mighty...I don't know, let's say the Mighty Super Magic Sword. Yet every time - every SINGLE time - I got my fancy new sword, they would release a swath of slightly better items, one of which would be the Mighty Super Magic Sword v1.01 (comes with a wacky hat!). It was never that much better...just enough to make me feel like it was worth a few more weeks of dedication to the game.

Frustrating? You bet. But developers would much rather have their player base be slightly annoyed than completely satisfied. I don't even think gamers themselves fully understand what it would mean if they were able to achieve every goal a game had to offer. It's like buying an HDTV; after a few days you realize it's like every other TV you've ever owned. Once you obtain what you desire there is no incentive to keep playing, and that's why you want developers to keep you tantalized. Players are distracted from the realization that they're one item away from leaving the game and Blizzard is $165,000,000 richer every month.


	Mon 13 Jul 2009 - 10:42AM — Ever heard the Greek myth of Tantalus? It's about a man whose punishment is to forever sit in a pool of water. Every time he tries to drink from the pool it recedes just out of reach and he is unable to quench his burning thirst. As weird as it sounds, if game developers can do this well they've got a game with real staying power. Blizzard Entertainment, well known for their smash hit World of Warcraft, might as well have written the book on how to effectively tantalize players with a robust reward structure. You can't take two steps without hearing a loud 'gong!' noise and seeing fireworks all over the screen. It makes you feel great while providing a sense of constant progression. However, it took some time before they really mastered the art. The initial release of WoW catered mainly to the hardcore raiding crowd. During that time the best items in the game were only obtainable by players who knew a minimum of forty people and didn't have a job that required a minimum of forty hours per week. The problem was that the more casual players quickly realized they'd seen all the game had to offer and subsequently stop playing. Enter The Burning Crusade; the expansion that effectively leveled the playing field. By giving players with different in-game interests (like player vs. player combat) and full time jobs (95% of the population) a chance to obtain items on par with the hardcore crowd, a large number of players, including myself, returned to the game. But exactly what was it that made me want to keep playing this time around? A small yet steady stream of updates and content releases at perfectly timed intervals, that's what! Blizzard must have hired a team of experts in the field of drip irrigation because they provided juuuuuuust enough content to keep me sustained. After weeks of playing I would finally be able to get the mighty...I don't know, let's say the Mighty Super Magic Sword. Yet every time - every SINGLE time - I got my fancy new sword, they would release a swath of slightly better items, one of which would be the Mighty Super Magic Sword v1.01 (comes with a wacky hat!). It was never that much better...just enough to make me feel like it was worth a few more weeks of dedication to the game. Frustrating? You bet. But developers would much rather have their player base be slightly annoyed than completely satisfied. I don't even think gamers themselves fully understand what it would mean if they were able to achieve every goal a game had to offer. It's like buying an HDTV; after a few days you realize it's like every other TV you've ever owned. Once you obtain what you desire there is no incentive to keep playing, and that's why you want developers to keep you tantalized. Players are distracted from the realization that they're one item away from leaving the game and Blizzard is $165,000,000 richer every month.