I expected to really get into this game. Thomas described Candy Crush Saga as video game “crack.” I’m not going to lie; I have what one would call an addictive personality. I’ve been playing Puzzle and Dragons, a game similar in objective and style to Candy Crush Saga, intensely for the last few months, but for some reason the fruity images and light booping of disappearing candies did not do anything for me. My own feeling aside, Candy Crush Saga is clearly a very successful game. Available for free to play (f2p) on Android, iOS devices, and Facebook the game creates an incredible amount of revenue from in-app purchases (IAP). So someone has got to be playing right? Why do people like the game this game so much?
To answer these questions — I got a little investigative. And by investigative, I mean I asked my friend who plays Candy Crush why she liked it. She responded with an enlightening: “I can do something else at the same time and I like levels” and “they add obstacles and that’s fun.” Not exactly what I had expected from one of my most articulate friends. Something about a video game gets obscured, most people are not used to thinking about video games critically (myself included). For many, video games are used purely as distractions, procrastination tools and ways to avoid reality.
Stepping back — Candy Crush provides a structured gameplay. The player simply matches three similar colored and shaped candies: a simple enough task for anyone with basic gaming skills to complete. Layers of difficulty are added by limits on turns, randomization of candy drops, shapes of play areas and differing objectives. Part luck (hoping the right candies will drop) and part skill (matching the right candies at the optimal time) the reward to work ratio in this game seems optimal for getting a gamer hooked. Because there is this essential element of skill required to pass continually more difficult puzzles — each level you complete offers a sense of satisfaction, of accomplishment of working those brain muscles. When a level is failed, a player wants to try again (just one more time I swear I’ll get this), in order to gain that sense of accomplishment (this is where the IAP comes in, you buy extra turns at levels — trying to get those special three stars for your success). So I suppose I’m fortunate that I got turned off initially to this game.
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