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[Bottleneck]

My gf has worked for several years in the game industry. She only stopped quite recently to get a masters degree in Human Computer Interaction at a University. To fill up the free time she has left she started her own blog about psychology in video-games. This post is about the difference between wanting and liking. Thought it might interest some of you.

https://sitavriend.wordpress.com/2017/05/29/the-stiking-difference-between-liking-and-wanting/

[SchriefFighter]

It is a key difference. Because you can like how a game looks or sounds, but then have no interest because it doesn't mean that much to you.

[Bottleneck]

The best example is a drugs addict. They do not like to take drugs but they do want the drugs.

[Fat Pug Studio]

Great article, let us know when the next one is online.

[JWK5]

It is degrees of attachment, bonding. We momentarily have an emotional attachment to things that draw our attention and the attachment strengthens as we take in more and more information about what we are observing and find things about it that resonate with our values, ideals, interests, identity, etc. Some things you will have a passing, momentary attachment to, some things will draw you in and you will attach to for days, years, or a lifetime. The ways you attach will vary as well.

I think a lot of mobile games tend to leverage attachment cycles that are a lot like gambling addiction and hoarding, and I've noticed a lot of people I know who suffer from either affliction really like mobile games like Farmville, Candy Crush, etc. Keep throwing your resources out for the possibility of the instant bigger and better, keep stockpiling stuff because it feels good to find and have things, etc.

The best example is a drugs addict. They do not like to take drugs but they do want the drugs.

Drug addicts do like the drugs and want the effect of the drugs, but they don't like or want the consequences of it. Most drugs work by excessively triggering the pleasure and reward centers of our brains and all the parts that make us like and want at all. The "sick" feeling addicts have during withdrawal is partly that by comparison they can't feel a pleasure or wanting that strong beyond the drug, it takes them to the peaks of that experience. They feel depressed because other experiences by comparison to the heights of the drug don't feel as fulfilling, and sometimes they can't actually feel pleasure at all without it until the withdrawals pass (and even then, hardcore users pleasure/reward systems can remain damaged lifelong). Most former addicts I know still say they like the drugs, and would still do the drugs (and still have the urge to do them), but they don't want to destroy their lives with them again.

The hardest part about quitting is resisting that wanting, the craving, and what is generally key to that is finding something aside from the object of addiction to want more (i.e. something that will have positive effects on your life rather than the negative effects of the substance abuse).

tl;dr: Addiction is both liking and wanting, but pushed to their extreme.

[Agreeing Machine]

Interesting read, and that goes for your post as well, JWK5.

Of course my thinking goes straight to my old favorites. I wonder if you could view Pikmin through this lens- the "resource" that leaves you wanting more, of course, being the limited time you get to accomplish your goals each day. ...Imagine if you only could play one session per day in real-time!