Difference between revisions of "Compulsion Loops"

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[[Image:compulsion-loops-Maggie-Nichols.jpg|center|600px]]
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===Definition===
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Artificial incentive systems are part of our cyborg reality. The concept is called "intermittent reinforcement". It came out of Skinnerian experiments that found that rats who got irregular rewards from food-bar-pushing were far more driven to compulsively push the bar.<ref>Intermittent Reinforcement - Are You Addicted to Email and Smartphones? Author Unknown. Published Sep 1, 2010. http://factoidz.com/intermittent-reinforcement-are-you-addicted-to-email-and-smartphones/ Accessed Jun 2011.</ref> If all E-mail arrived in one's mailbox once per day, society would revolve around checking for mail once a day. Instead, E-mail can appear at any time, day or night. This intermittent reinforcement causes an increase in information addiction as more and people check their mail and social network inboxes more frequently.  
  
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===Compulsion Loops in Video Games===
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===Compulsion Loops in Games===
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Compulsion loops are also found in all video games. In Super Mario Bros., for example, the reward is reaching the next level, and the method of reaching it is completing the current level. When a player's skill in the game is below the threshold required to complete the level, they become frustrated and feel the outlay to achieve the goal is too high, and are lost. Conversely when the outlay is very low the goal is devalued, which can also lead to disengagement.
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Games can also contain compulsion loops revolving around virtual characters with intermittent actions and effects. The structure and obligations of Farmville are very similar to those of the Tamagotchi. Many mechanics involve caring for needy animals, crops, and plots of land. "The secret to Farmville's popularity is neither gameplay nor aesthetics", writes A. J. Liszkiewicz, "Farmville is popular because in entangles users in a web of social obligations. When users log into Facebook, they are reminded that their neighbors have sent them gifts, posted bonuses on their walls, and helped with each others' farms. In turn, they are obligated to return the courtesies. As the French sociologist Marcel Mauss tells us, gifts are never free: they bind the giver and receiver in a loop of reciprocity. It is rude to refuse a gift, and ruder still to not return the kindness.<ref>Mauss, Marcel. The Gift: forms and functions of exchange in archaic societies. W. W. Norton & Company. 1967. http://books.google.fr/books?id=xlkVAAAAIAAJ. Accessed Aug 2010.</ref> "We play Farmville, then, because we are trying to be good to one another," says Liszkiewicz, "because we are polite, cultivated people".<ref>Liszkiewicz, A. J. Patrick. Cultivated Play: Farmville. Media Commons. March 09, 2010. http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/content/cultivated-play-farmville Accessed Jun 2011.</ref>
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In real life, the time and space between goals and accomplishments is often large. For some, it is physically impossible to achieve certain things, like purchasing a Ferrari or rising above middle management in their career path. Online gaming, especially sites like Farmville, step in to fill that void.
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Whereas one doesn't have the money, time or room for a real garden, Farmville gives you one without the back-aching labor. All reality is replaced by small icons, and time is compressed so that goals and accomplishments are right next to one another. Everything has a point value and a reward. When real life takes so long to reward someone, online gaming is often a better and more enjoyable alternative.
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"The secret to Farmville's popularity is neither gameplay nor aesthetics. <strong>Farmville is popular because in entangles users in a web of social obligations.</strong> When users log into Facebook, they are reminded that their neighbors have sent them gifts, posted bonuses on their walls, and helped with each others' farms. In turn, they are obligated to return the courtesies. As the French sociologist Marcel Mauss tells us, gifts are never free: they bind the giver and receiver in a loop of reciprocity. It is rude to refuse a gift, and ruder still to not return the kindness.[11] We play Farmville, then, because we are trying to be good to one another. We play Farmville because we are polite, cultivated people.
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# Farmville is defined by obligation, routine, and responsibility;
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# Farmville encroaches and depends upon real life, and is never entirely separate from it;
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# Farmville is always certain in outcome, and involves neither chance nor skill;
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# Farmville is a productive activity, in that it adds to the social capital upon which Facebook and Zynga depend for their wealth;
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# Farmville is governed not by rules, but by habits, and simple cause-and-effect;
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# Farmville is not make-believe, in that it requires neither immersion nor suspension of disbelief.
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Of these points, the fourth is the most troubling. While playing Farmville might not qualify as work or labor, it is certainly a productive activity, as playing Farmville serves to enlarge and strengthen social capital. Capital is defined as "any form of wealth employed or capable of being employed in the production of more wealth."[13] New media companies like Zynga and Facebook depend upon such wealth in generating revenue, just as President Obama depends on social capital to raise money, to organize, and to communicate. Unlike President Obama, though, Zynga is not an elected official, and is not obligated to act with the public's interests in mind".<ref>[http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/content/cultivated-play-farmville Cultivated Play] Liszkiewicz, A. J. Patrick. SUNY Buffalo (Amherst). Accessed March 09, 2010.</ref>
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===Compulsion Loops and Email===
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Part of our cyborg future will be the creation of artificial incentive systems in digital space. This has already occurred with E-mail. The concept is called "intermittent reinforcement". It came out of Skinnerian experiments that found that rats who got irregular rewards from food-bar-pushing were far more driven to compulsively push the bar. <ref>http://factoidz.com/intermittent-reinforcement-are-you-addicted-to-email-and-smartphones/</ref>
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The structure and obligations of Farmville are very similar to those of the Tamagotchi.
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===Related Reading===
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*[[Playground as Factory]]
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*[[Automatic Production of Space]]
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*[[Tamagotchi]]
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==References==
 
==References==
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Latest revision as of 00:14, 1 December 2011

Definition

Artificial incentive systems are part of our cyborg reality. The concept is called "intermittent reinforcement". It came out of Skinnerian experiments that found that rats who got irregular rewards from food-bar-pushing were far more driven to compulsively push the bar.[1] If all E-mail arrived in one's mailbox once per day, society would revolve around checking for mail once a day. Instead, E-mail can appear at any time, day or night. This intermittent reinforcement causes an increase in information addiction as more and people check their mail and social network inboxes more frequently.

Compulsion Loops in Games

Games can also contain compulsion loops revolving around virtual characters with intermittent actions and effects. The structure and obligations of Farmville are very similar to those of the Tamagotchi. Many mechanics involve caring for needy animals, crops, and plots of land. "The secret to Farmville's popularity is neither gameplay nor aesthetics", writes A. J. Liszkiewicz, "Farmville is popular because in entangles users in a web of social obligations. When users log into Facebook, they are reminded that their neighbors have sent them gifts, posted bonuses on their walls, and helped with each others' farms. In turn, they are obligated to return the courtesies. As the French sociologist Marcel Mauss tells us, gifts are never free: they bind the giver and receiver in a loop of reciprocity. It is rude to refuse a gift, and ruder still to not return the kindness.[2] "We play Farmville, then, because we are trying to be good to one another," says Liszkiewicz, "because we are polite, cultivated people".[3]

References

  1. ↑ Intermittent Reinforcement - Are You Addicted to Email and Smartphones? Author Unknown. Published Sep 1, 2010. http://factoidz.com/intermittent-reinforcement-are-you-addicted-to-email-and-smartphones/ Accessed Jun 2011.
  2. ↑ Mauss, Marcel. The Gift: forms and functions of exchange in archaic societies. W. W. Norton & Company. 1967. http://books.google.fr/books?id=xlkVAAAAIAAJ. Accessed Aug 2010.
  3. ↑ Liszkiewicz, A. J. Patrick. Cultivated Play: Farmville. Media Commons. March 09, 2010. http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/content/cultivated-play-farmville Accessed Jun 2011.
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