Certain games and game mechanics are sometimes described as giving players a "shot of dopamine". But what does this mean? Is it good? Is it bad? Is it pseudo-scientific techno-babble? This talk will lay out the current science on dopamine and how it relates to games - watch the talk here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAuFvK864mE The blog where the references for this talk can be found is here - http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/BenLewisEvans/20130827/198975/ All images used in this presentation belong to their relevant copyright holders.

1. DOPAMINE AND GAMES
Dr. Ben Lewis-Evans

2. DR. BEN LEWIS-EVANS
@ikbenben
ben@playerresearch.com
Gortag
LaglGortag
Laglgortag
Lagl Gortag

3. PLAYER RESEARCH
...and many more
unannounced
titles for 2013/14

4. NEUROSKEPTICISM

5. DOPAMINE

6. MUTANT MICE

7. DOPAMINE FREE

8. PLEASURE?

9. PRESS A LEVER, GET DOPAMINE

10. SHOT OF DOPAMINE

11. GIVE ME SOME SUGAR

12. IN HUMANS?

13. PLEASURE
“I no longer believe that
the amount of pleasure felt
is proportional to the
amount of dopamine
floating around in the
brain”
Roy Wise, 1990

14. LEARNING?

15. PRE-REWARD PEAK

16. VARIABLE REWARDS

17. MUTANT MICE MAZE

18. LEARNING

19. WANTING?

20. MUTANT MICE

21. NO MAZE MOTIVATION

22. SHOPPING SPREES

23. PRE-REWARD PEAK OF WANTING

24. VARIABLE REWARDS = TRY HARDER

25. COMPELLED TO PRESS

26. TURN ME ON

27. WANTING! (?)
“What does dopamine do?”
“Confuse neuroscientists”
Berridge, 2005

28. SO WHAT?

29. THE BRAIN IS (THANKFULLY) COMPLEX
“If our brains
were simple
enough for us to
understand
them, we'd be so
simple that we
couldn't”
Ian Steward

30. BE NEUROSKEPTICAL

31. OBSERVE BEHAVIOUR

32. LOOK FOR PRACTICAL FINDINGS
Unpredictable Rewards
Meaningful Rewards
Immediate reward bias
Provide good feedback
Don’t be seen as manipulative
And so on…

33. READ MORE
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/BenLewisEvans/20130827/198975/
CONTACT ME
@ikbenben
Gortag
LaglGortag
ben@playerresearch.com
Laglgortag
Lagl Gortag