About the Game
I played a card game called Big Two, which originated in Hong Kong, on a website called GameSofa that hosts all sorts of gambling card and chess games (in the Chinese language). I chose to play Big Two because I grew up playing it in Taiwan (although I never played with money at stake because I was too young to be playing that way), and I chose to play the game on the GameSofa site because it has lots of players (~1700 online when I was playing) and has pretty good (i.e. addictive) design.
The objective of the game is to be the first player to use up all cards, and the players attempt to be the winner by making decisions about which sets of cards to use now or to save for later, based on the game’s rules about which cards and combinations of cards have higher value. It can be played by 2-4 players, and kids as young as 10 can likely learn to play it. Adults who play this game often like to play it for money, though the amounts are usually not huge since it’s mostly played in casual settings such as family gatherings or hangouts in the park.
Player Experience & Addictive Elements
I would say the Big Two card game itself is about 75% chance and 25% skill, which definitely makes it very addictive. (For some background information, each player gets 13 random cards of a full deck and take turns putting out sets of cards according to the game rules.) The skill component makes the player feel that they can keep playing to get better at it, and that they are still somewhat in control of their fate; the chance component makes the player want to keep playing because they can always turn the odds around when they get a nice hand. This chance and skill balance creates a dynamic that attracts the player to keep playing to see how well they are able to use their current hand and how lucky they can get in the next rounds.
The GameSofa version of the game has designs that makes this already addictive game even more so. These are some of the deliberate designs that can lead to addiction:
- The site’s appealing visual design makes it look and feel like a bustling online casino. The number of players currently online is shown in the top left corner of the page where the player can join any game room. The players all get an avatar that they can dress with different cute and even extravagant outfits, making players feel like they’re an attractive person at a casino when playing a game.
-> this is what a game looks like – four cute-looking avatars sitting around the game table
- The site’s reward system reinforces addiction by letting the player win big when they’ve played well and giving the player enough pity money to play another game when they’ve played poorly. There are different levels of bids that the player can choose to play a game for, and the higher stakes ones lead to big wins and big losses, both of which simply make the player want to play more to either see if they can stay on the winning streak or make back what they lost. The game also gives game money when you level up (by playing and winning games).
-> In this game I won sort of big (I was the leftmost player who won first place and gained 36 points which equaled 1530 in game coins) by using up all my cards while other players still had at least 7 left
-> In the next game, I lost big time because I had more than 10 cards remaining and didn’t use the Big Two card (double penalty)
-> I was rewarded 500 game coins when I reached level 4, and the notification message says that I would get 700 when I reach the next level. All this is to incentivize the player to play more games.
- Other players really do feel like real people. I believe that this makes a huge difference in keeping the player’s motivation to play more games high. Initially, I suspected that other players could be AI because I was always able to almost instantly join or start a new game (the wait time is basically 5 seconds) which seemed too quick to be involving real players. However, I became convinced that I was not playing with AI because I got to see other players’ stats (such as how many games they have won versus lost) and even interact with them through emojis and a chat interface. Being able to interact other players made it quite fun, especially when players express things like “ah such bad luck” when they aren’t able to use their cards, or “you can’t beat me in a million years” when they are on a wining streak. In addition, the site broadcasts how much money each winner has gained in recently finished games. New messages about these players’ triumphs pop up every 2 seconds, making the player want to partake in all the action that’s happening. If the game did not involve real players, I don’t think I would feel as accomplished when I win a game. I also might not be as motivated to keep playing knowing that I’m just playing with a machine.
-> On each player’s card, the player’s game stats are shown below the player’s name. Some of these numbers are crazy high, such as the rightmost player’s 19020 wins and 47166 losses. It makes me sad and concerned that people have spent this much time on a gambling game like this, especially since that I have experienced how addictive it is myself and almost couldn’t stop playing.
