There is much criteria that have the player stay in the game: the story, the look, the happiness that is brought to us while playing it. Everyone has there reason, but every developer has to know what the people want in a game and know what game needs to drive the player in. Not all know what is or how it is made, but somehow it can be done, even if they don't intend to grab the audience completely.
Games like Undertale, Windlands, and Grow Home have a lot of inspiration put into it and very much a lot of work down to make it, but they don't create these great games to get money out of it, they create these games to give their inspiration to others and give the world a good game to play in a small period of time. They don't want to grab the player, but they do it anyways.
Even the most overused concept can lure the player to continue their journey in this simple, but rare game. Team Fortress, Half-Life and Portal were all simple games with lots of story to tell, but little time to tell them. Anything can lure the player to play a video game once more, but the story, the legends behind the game's history is what can bring them closer.
But the story is something that helps the game move forward, but the emotional outbreak of the character and the player can engage into an imaginary bond. Even though the character is just a small add to the game, the character seems to be real to the player. Most games can create this bond, but it's hard to get the player to love them or miss them. The death of our beloved hero can just be another corpse on the floor if it's not done correctly.
Even if we love the character, we will find some betrayal between the loved ones in game. The suspense of what might come next holds the player in the game and has all the people watching the gameplay left with the imagination as if this game was a perfect TV series. Telltale Games have this go to a new level of suspense since the character's lives are held in your hands hoping that your favorite character doesn't fade into death.
And as we find no other point of escape, there will be sacrifice. A sense of suspense no man will feel in normal reality, games such as Until Dawn or Life is Strange will have you choose a friend's death or yours. No matter the game, they always tend to fall on this conflict.
Besides that, every player wants to be something they're not. From a hero, to a super intelligent soldier, everyone wants the feeling of saving another person in trouble, or just simply saving the world.
or maybe the player doesn't care about being the hero, but wants to simply become a badass in another life. Game capture all types of topics that grasps the player to press continue once more. Even if they finished the game, they won;t leave it for they can just replay the game over. Even though they finished it, they just feel the need to experience the happiness and suspense once more.
All games have some type of trap to lure us in to play them...
Or an objective to have us finish it...
We all have a new world to finish discovering after finishing the last. We all have a reason why we press the continue button over and over again. But what is it? What is your reason?
Thanks for reading. 'Til next time...
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