On page 42 of Raph Koster’s article about games she discusses how once our brain stops learning new patterns and has new information to observe. For me I know this to be true. When I am playing a role playing game that have a straight or somewhat straight set of events I almost always play only once. Games that have a long term hold on me is ones where there is no “end” objective. Games like Sim City where the purpose is growth and creativity but with no specific goal to be reached have much more of a draw to me. With games like that I can play over and over again trying different methods of growth. In the game I can experience “new data” for my mind to process. However with a game like Zalda once I have reached the end I feel no incentive to go back and play again.
Koster discusses how the brain needs new information to learn and observe in order to remain happy. I find this is true in life as well as in games. When traveling I am much more interested in the world around me because there is a constant stream of new data for my mind to process. However when I am in the same place for a longtime there is little in my surroundings that supplies new information and entertainment must be found in other places, such as games or doing new stuff with friends.
