A long time ago, I was visiting a game forum shortly after a new patch announcement. The name of the game doesn't matter and neither do the patch notes. But, as usual there were many angry complaints about the new changes. Something typical of many great games.

Having been through this experience before, I already knew what was happening behind the scenes. I've seen it a hundred times: a lot of game developers were probably pissed off, disappointed, or disheartened, while the community managers desperately tried to mitigate the rage.

Most players aren't aware that many employees routinely check forum posts, reviews, and sites like reddit to see what people are saying about their game. Or at least, THEY USED TO. Some members of the game team (whether they're writers, designers, programmers, audio engineers, IT support, or personal exercise trainers) may even obsess over their game reviews, or constantly search to see if their own names have ever been directly referenced.

There is a perception that developers don't care about game reviews or what people say, stemming from the fact that they rarely respond to criticism or speak publicly. Of course, the reason for this is because they're contractually obligated to keep their mouths shut.

Imagine that for a moment. You're trapped in a prison, unable to speak or defend against any criticism. People constantly attack you over a product you've spent years on your life on, but you can't speak. Or even correct their stupidity. It's a terrible existence. Within veteran studios, a "us-versus-them" mentality sadly develops as a result.


There have been cases where some employees can't hold back, though. =]

The younger or unwise may create online alias and use their disguise to fire back on the forums, defending their game. They know they're violating a contract, but they have to scratch that itch. Or sometimes more senior developers, sick and tired from years of abuse, will finally snap on their Facebook accounts, and say thing like "fuck that loser".

Employees and direct developers do read what you say, and it does impact them. Typically, it's a complaint about something they have absolutely no power or decision in. It can be very discouraging and harmful to their performance. They may harbor resentment towards their customers: users are allowed to complain about them, but they're not allowed to complain back in return?

The Sit Down

I had a different perspective towards community complaints, anger, and the toxic hateful response of fans however.

Many years ago, I would often sit down with discouraged developers to describe player resentment within a different context and open their eyes with some honest explanations. It was affecting their performance and morale after all. And one of the best ways to resolve an issue was by explaining the real root cause: why the hate?

Now.. this was a prepared speech that I've given many times over the decade, and it had always changed as my discussion evolved. I eventually create a standard script that I would always deliver, sharing my views.

This isn't exactly how I've explained in the past, but it went something like this. First, I needed to start with the basics.

This Is Your Brain On Drugs

I usually started out describing drug addiction. Starting out with something like: so, you're probably well aware of the extensive research linking drugs and video game addiction? Research has shown that video games can affect the human brain in the exact same way that addictive drugs do. They target the same area of the brain, they use the same neurochemicals and processes, and even have similar psychological and biological effects.

The road to game addiction mirrors that of substance abuse. A gamer might start playing a game for experimental reasons or out of circumstance (a marketing ad pushes it on them, their friends play it, or their parents do), they'll start out casually, eventually moving into more intensive gameplay sessions, followed by compulsive gameplay hours, further pushing them into addiction.


The psychological and personality characteristics between drug and video game addiction are nearly identical as well. A gamer may experience preoccupation, spending a lot of time thinking about the game. They'll crave the game, or feel restless, when unable to play video games. They experience withdrawal symptoms, and can even build up tolerance by playing video games that can provide more excitement than their old ones. Gamers will become more reclusive, give up on social activities, and no longer participate in recreation. They'll risk relationships and employment, continue playing games despite all of the problems happening around them, and they'll even lie about how much they "use". It's an escape for them to reduce stress or anxiety, rather than dealing with any problems they face.

The parallels to substance abuse and drug addiction are too significant to ignore, and they are further perpetuated and exploited by the industry for revenue purposes, because they fully understand this.

With that parallel in mind, always remember that when you're creating a great (video game) product, the process is nearly identical that of a chemist designing, trialing, testing, producing, and reiterating a highly potent and addictive drug product.

No matter which area of Game Development you're in (e.g. music, programming, art, UI, UX, animation, story, etc.), your job is to make the game fun. But what is "fun"?

Most developers never consider this.. what is fun? Usually they'll immediately jump to certain gameplay mechanic designs or story development strategies. They don't understand that fun is simply a neurological reaction to certain stimuli. Fun, just like love, hate, anger, and other emotions, are really -- in the end -- just bioelectrical and neurochemical reactions within your brain. You cannot experience any form of enjoyment without the manipulation of certain brain chemicals. That's all you really are in the end: a brain riding around inside a fleshy vessel. If you want to truly understand what "fun" really is, developers need to understand the neuroscience behind it. This understanding aspect is extremely rare however. Therefore, the only alternative is copying existing gameplay and experimenting on users, through trial and error, until you get lucky.

When you create, or are directed to create, video games that are fun, you are creating a process that targets the pleasure and reward center of the brain in the same way as highly addictive drugs. So, you can expect that your users will react to your game in the exact same way that users (of illicit drugs) will too.

Drug Dealers Call Their Customers "Users" Too

Imagine yourself from the perspective of a VP or Director overseeing a drug operation. This can be a hardcore illegal drug cartel or a legal pharmaceutical corporation - it doesn't matter. They're both run in the exact same way.

You are responsible for creating an addictive product. You have a team of chemists creating the components (ie, content like art, music, coding), teams that focus on designing the product to be as addictive as possible (game directors, user engagement, psychologists, business intelligence analysts), you have a financial division managing your money, you have enforcers (lawyers, community managers and public relations), you have specialists trained in government bribery (lobbyists), your organization mostly employees a high number of dealers who push the product on children and addict as many as possible (marketing and sales), and you have loyal addicts that protect your reputation and incite severe or brutal peer pressure to addict others (fanboys.) The game development industry copies, learns from, steals from, and is run like the gambling industry, the tobacco industry, the drug industry (legal or otherwise), and the sex industry. It's the pleasure business and you can learn the most from the oldest professions.

Yet, developers still don't understand WHY their customers complain when the product changes (even an seemingly insignificant way.)

This is what you need to understand about our work and industry:

• you've created a drug that many people are addicted to. There are shitty drugs but no one uses those for very long. And then there are really good drugs, because they create highly pleasurable sensations exactly as designed. These are labelled as "really fun" games, "the best" and are the most successful.

• when users use your product, they become accustomed to a certain high. And they expect the same high, to satisfy their addiction, when they return to the game.

• you, the developer, are not immune from this. Try not surfing the internet, or using your mobile phone, for a week and see how you feel. Irritable? Craving? Withdrawal? If a game acts on your brain like a drug, have you considered what it does to other people? Especially ones more susceptible than others.

• your users will crave a stronger high, usually seeking it in other products (new games) or new activities within the same game.

• users will crave the dopamine/serotonin (or other) triggers, or feel restless, when they are unable to play the game. There's a difference between making a choice not to play, because you're pre-occupied with something else, and being unable to access your drug. It preoccupies the mind. Tuesday Maintenance cycles, for examples, or those massive server outages during the first few years of service. People joke about user reaction being "withdrawal", but that's actually something different and longer term.

• players can build up a tolerance to the game, and therefore require new engagement strategies to provide the same level of high as before. This is why developers create New Content.

• when users are given a certain product with a certain expectation, they NEED that same high at a minimum. They expect it every time. But what happens when you change the sensation?

• when you change a product (ie, patches, hot fixes, content changes), you are changing the sensation or high that they expect or receive. Often, due to the inexperience and incompetence of Game Directors (or the other decision makers), the new changes actually reduce the high, or remove it completely, rather than change it.

• it's like delivering a high quality drug product, but then switching up the chemical components, reducing the high. To further insult your customers, you sprinkle in some Chili Powder to add a little variety. But, you've still eliminated the core pleasure generators of your product.

• your marketing teams are also constantly increasing your users expectations. In marketing, ads, videos, streams, and conventions, they are constantly telling customers that the "next product will be better than the last", "get hyped", "raise your expectations", "a much better product is coming, we promise". And I use that term "team" loosely: often is the case that marketing department works against other organizational members, making promises they can't keep on their behalf or were never aware of.

• The job of the marketing team is to always promise a better high for the NEXT product to increase sales, but without the product to back it up, you're still shoveling out shit under a different name. It's always the NEXT product that's better, right? Stringer Bell would be proud.

• within most industries, a "team" is really just a group of people, each fulfilling a role but rarely communicating with each other due to weak management.

• when you change the formula, in any way, you can increase, change, or remove the high/pleasure for the specific user. It's mostly the removal however, due to inexperience.

• so, what happens to substance abusers when their only source of joy in the world is taken away from them? Use your imagination. One obvious answer is that they lash out, scream, and yell through any medium available that can possibly get the attention of their dealer. What if your dealer can only be reached through their website or Twitter handle?

• they may further withdraw into reclusion, lash out at others, project on relatives, explode in anger, become desperate, seek other alternatives. There are many different things that happens, with most of it happening in their homes that developers never see. The fraction of their reactions that you do see, are on gaming community websites, boards and forums.

• they complain about the changes to the game, but they still keep coming back don't they? That's the nature of the dope fiend. "They may buck a little, but they're not gonna walk."

You could say that they love your game, and they complain about it because they care about it or "they're passionate" about the game. But in reality, it's for selfish reasons: it's all about their own personal gratification and pleasure. (Within the gambling industry, two common terms used are 'stress' and 'pleasure'. Stress is used a tool specifically tailored to increase pleasure, but the complete removal of pleasure is a big no-no.) And this is fine. Everything we do is for selfish reasons, and you would still act in the same way they do in the same situation.

In the end, the reason users are angry and venting is because you were too good at your job. The more they complain, the more successful you were in creating an engaging video game. Congratulations.

So, how did they react?

I can't recall how many times I've had this, usually private, discussion with various employees. But as I've said, I'm paraphrasing a little and my version of explaining changed a little each time. Although it applies to all members of the game development process, most of the people I spoke to were managers, supervisors and coders. A few artists, but I didn't really talk to any of the musicians.

I'd say that 90% of them didn't believe me. Complete denial. =]

A small percentage took it to heart, learned from it, and in fact helped make their design choices easier (or even creating their own successful development company in a couple cases), leading to them creating some incredibly successful games you've no doubt played. But I remember one certain employee that truly understood the process. They spent a lot of time researching the subject on their own, and ended up feeling guilty about what they were doing. In the end, they ended up quitting, but found a better job building internal apps for their own employees. It paid significantly more but they're much more happy where they are now.

So for those developers who truly want to be in "the game", I have some advice.

If you find someone that legitimately tries to encourage and support your game development journey, cling onto them for dear life. A person like this may only happen once in your entire life. Only a foolish person throws away the opportunity to receive wisdom. Most developers, even longterm AAA devs, never learned any of those high-level game design strategies often discussed in closed-door meetings.

I won't say which AAA, but I was lucky enough to attend many psychology related workshops paid for by the company and get to work consultants that helped explain what exactly "fun" is. How to create fun, how to mold it, and how to repeat it. It's incredibly rare to find professionals talented in both game design and the psychology discipline, so it requires a lot of personal research on your own part. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, there are almost no online resources available that touch on key high-level game design methodologies that ensure the success of games. And I can guarantee you that 99% of indie developers don't know what "fun" is. Even AAA coders. They will typically clone another successful execution or create something they think they'll like themselves.

So, my recommendation is to attend, given the chance, as many workshops as possible that focus on psychology, addiction, or how video games affect the brain. If your studio employs any psychiatrists or psychologists that focus on player engagement, you need to bend over backwards to listen to them. There are a couple key players out there, who are expensive to hire, but completely worth it. Those AAA publishers should know who I'm talking about. Some of the most successful games out there were a result of their consultation services. They'll change your life personally, and show you game design approaches that you never considered before.