February 8, 2008 at 7:23 pm
When I was developing Sunset, an odd moment occured when I decided to display an experience bar in-game. After implementing it, I proceeded to play the game for well over an hour. I didn't do that for QA purposes. I did that because I was hooked. That experience bar gave me a constant visual reminder of how far I had to go to attain the next level. I highly suspect that the experience bar is a very significant part of the addictive quality of World of Warcraft.
A similar moment occured with a game I'm writing now. I added a display in the game that shows your current score and the highest score you've achieved. I immediately spent an hour trying (and sometimes succeeding) to beat my previous high score.
It kind of surprises me how simple it can be to push the player to keep playing. Simply presenting a clear goal for the player to achieve can do wonders.