The Addicting Factors of NonAgressive Games

There seems to me to be two compelling reasons to play a non-aggressive game like a virtual pet game - 1) the charm of the community, and 2) the sweetness of the game itself, which relaxes you and is the actual addiction factor.

Erik seemed to grasp that 'community' was of fundamental importance, but he seemed completely oblivious to the opiate of sweet tranquility of playing the game itself as a primary factor in gaining, keeping and building users.

For me, the first addicting factor of GoPets, and ultimately the most addicting factor, was the shere, peaceable sweetness of the game. If I make a virtual pet game, my first goal will be to create that peaceable sweetness of playing the game, and I believe the sweet, funny community will follow.

With Erik, the sweet peacefulness of the game was all mixed up with the aggression of games like WoW; he didn't realize that tranquility was a haven to millions of players.

Any thoughts?

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To be fair to Erik, now that I'm playing more games, I see this is a mistake the whole industry makes. He's just believing the conventional wisdom, and he doesn't see the flaws, but neither does anyone else. I think game designers don't understand the appeal of simplicity, perhaps because it's not the kind of game game designers themselves usually play.

You might be interested in this article recently written by Erin. One thing she talks about is how other game designers looked down on her for trying Facebook games.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_264/7896-How-Social-Games-Ate-Our-Lunch

But even the Facebook games are missing some of the market, driving people away by getting more aggressive and complicated. I'm still convinced there is a huge niche of people who aren't gaming now, but would gladly pay for sweet little games if they were simple enough and marketed correctly. Who knows if anyone with the money and programming ability to do it will ever realize this. Many of the discussions I see on the Pet Society forum and the FooPets forum, for instance, are almost exactly the same as the discontent I saw at GoPets.

My philosophy now is to enjoy what I can when I can, and try not get too wrapped up in the problems and controversies. Try to find the simple things I enjoy in a game, and not spend more time complaining about a game than playing it, LOL.

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hickerson4611 wrote:For me, the first addicting factor of GoPets, and ultimately the most addicting factor, was the shere, peaceable sweetness of the game. If I make a virtual pet game, my first goal will be to create that peaceable sweetness of playing the game, and I believe the sweet, funny community will follow.
Any thoughts?

One of my favourite things to do in the game was really just to watch my pets interact with the items and with other pets.
I would go to my farming land and watch them push the wheel barrow around, sometimes I'd fish, or watch them talk to other users' visiting pets.
That's what I found the most relaxing about it; just watching them play. ^_^

One of the things I liked most was watching my pets on my 2D swimming pool environment. It made me feel like I was really poolside, watching my pets play while I chatted with a friend. Eventually I changed it because we were getting bigger things and they needed the 3D environment, but I'll never forget the tranquil feeling of those first few months.

Asynjur wrote:To be fair to Erik, now that I'm playing more games, I see this is a mistake the whole industry makes. He's just believing the conventional wisdom, and he doesn't see the flaws, but neither does anyone else. I think game designers don't understand the appeal of simplicity, perhaps because it's not the kind of game game designers themselves usually play.

[...]
But even the Facebook games are missing some of the market, driving people away by getting more aggressive and complicated. I'm still convinced there is a huge niche of people who aren't gaming now, but would gladly pay for sweet little games if they were simple enough and marketed correctly. Who knows if anyone with the money and programming ability to do it will ever realize this.

Is this why we GoPetters refer to GoPets as a "niche" game? Because it managed to tap into the gentleness and tranquility and fullsome community that seems to be overlooked by game developers everywhere?

Very interesting comments, Asynjur. Just got to thinking about it again, and wanted to reply. Is there any site where a coallition of players could petition game developers to try a sweet, funny game for sweet, funny people that had tranquility as it's addicting feature?

Edit : I thought Erin's comments about discovering that generous players tended to be long term players, and that the game capitalized on this, was Very interesting. It seems intuitively valid that generous players would enjoy a sweet game with rich community interactions. So a sweet game would reinforce it's long term player base.

hickerson4611 wrote:Very interesting comments, Asynjur. Just got to thinking about it again, and wanted to reply. Is there any site where a coallition of players could petition game developers to try a sweet, funny game for sweet, funny people that had tranquility as it's addicting feature?

If there is a place like that, let's find it! I've been seraching *since GoPets stopped* and I can confirm that there is no other game like it, or that even comes close. U_U
I just want another fun game like that... =(

I think we can all sympathize with this post. Asynjur is right in saying that even the Facebook games are getting more competitive and difficult to play, and to get items.

I remember having almost any item I wanted in GoPets and being able to buy multiples of whatever I needed to make my space how I wanted to. I don't think many others had this problem either unless you were a beginner. In Facebook games you have to play every day for hours and keep on top of it to get things. That's not how I like to game. No one can keep it up all the time.

One of the most quiet games on Facebook to me is Super Poke Pets. I like the decorating feature and you can make money quickly enough to be able to buy what you want to decorate your environment. The only "rush" to do something I've run across in that game is when you're in the stores and they have only one of a certain item - it's really a chance to whether you'll get that or not when you checkout.

Pet Society makes me go "ugh" when I look in the stores and see all these things I can't afford because I don't have enough friends on my account. I hate that these games are "friend based". If you have more friends you do well. If you don't have any friends, you won't excel at getting the better things in the game. It shouldn't be a competition of how many friends you have!!!

I also have looked and haven't found any other games like GoPets. I think we've all searched. There's just nothing out there now that has that same feel. One day maybe, but it's not there now as far as I've seen.

I agree. I really hate the friend-based games.

What drew me to GoPets was the ability to interact with pets in more ways than you could in Neopets. The second thing I loved about it was the ability to decorate my space with neat items. When I first started playing (the month the fishing pond was a premium item), what impressed me most about GoPets was its generous community. I agree with Erin in saying that is what makes long term players. If it wasn't for the community, I might not have stuck around so long.

When GoPets first closed down, I went looking for similar games without any success.

So far, the only game that fulfills my need to decorate and collect items is Farmville - and that comes with its own set of problems.

I too would dearly love to find a game that would replace GoPets.