How to Improve Any Game In 3 Easy Steps

There's no denying the gaming market has many games. They can range from terrible to amazing and each employs a specific set of practices to help ensure success. After gathering information on the gaming industry all of my life, but especially over the last half decade, I've compiled a few simple steps that are foolproof for improving any game. For the sake of posterity, since I suspect this will be relevant for at least a year or so, I will keep the tone of this article as neutral as possible and directed at nobody in particular. So for devs, players, and everyone else, here's 3 ways to improve a game - guaranteed.

1. Manipulate Emotions

Manipulation of emotions is important for keeping a player engaged. As an artistic medium, the job of a game is to typically make the player feel something so that they continue playing and become immersed. That way, even when they're not playing, they'll tend to think of the game and talk about it with their peers. They may even come back for more!

One way to evoke emotion is to add a lot of randomness to the game. After all, while it feels good to win, it only feels good to win intermittently since constantly winning devalues the feeling until there is nothing left. Randomness accomplishes this well since it creates those rare times of something going a player's way, causing them to feel good about it.

In addition, a game should be incredibly difficult to evoke frustration. This strong negative emotion has a high chance of making the experience more memorable. It may even motivate a player to try harder, because they absolutely should be doing that. If confronted on social media by a frustrated player, it is highly recommended that fellow players and developers alike tell them to "git gud."

Finally, it is important to bring a player out of the experience too by putting up roadblocks that stop them from playing entirely. It would be highly irresponsible of the developers to not stop their players every once in awhile. Such a practice also helps to create a feeling of anticipation in the player to the point gaming activities are scheduled intensively. The exception to employing this practice is if the player has money like a responsible person would. If this is the case, it's considered acceptable to charge a few dollars to let them keep playing... at least for a while.

2. Reward Loyalty

Veteran players are always the most important customers since they've spent a lot of money on the game. The sunk cost fallacy is an important trait of such players since it allows practices such as increasing the cost of goods. Because the players are so immersed in the game, they won't notice or care about the change and typically attempt to justify it in some way. Furthermore, incredibly stalwart fans of the game will defend such practices against harsh, pesky criticism.

In addition, veteran players should feel like they are powerful and in control so it's important to put more effort into those players' experiences. This is typically done by selling them a form of power and developing content exclusively for them. It may even be lucrative to abandon concepts like new player experience since new players are basically just fodder meant to sate the needs of superior players. Besides, these new players might not even spend much money if any at all, so they're better off leeching off another game once their usefulness has been expended.

3. The devs are always right

When all else fails, remember that the developers of a game can see everything regarding its inner workings. They are basically wizards and there's simply no way a consumer can understand their ways without undergoing the extensive education and ordeals they went through to join their ranks.

Thus, suggestions from some random person on the forums or the like mean nothing since until it's actually added into the game, it's just a bunch of words that can easily be edited or deleted. To put it another way, the final call lies with the developer and it's fine to protect the artistic vision, design philosophy, or whatnot of a game. The process typically involves ignoring criticism and doing whatever they wanted to do anyways, explaining the reasoning for their decision afterwards.

Conclusion

And there you have it. These are tips that will ensure any game is successful. Please for the love of gaming don't actually do any of this.