Enhancement is essentially the framework used by game designers to create an illusion/idea of winning and to keep players engaged, regardless of how much they’ve lost.
It is jarring that psychological tactics are used to exploit human nature, emotions, and cognitive processes through enhancement. Therefore, games aren’t just alluring and keeping us “hooked” by accident. I played online blackjack against another player that was the dealer.
Our interactions in the chat box were positive, likely because we weren’t playing for money. The only value-add was the experience. This game puts people at risk of addition through intermittent rewards and near misses.
Intermittent rewards are arguably more addictive than consistent rewards, especially when paired with engaging visual and auditory stimuli. We all have that image of the flashing lights in the casino that make everything feel so exciting. The sheer chance of getting a blackjack once and a while is so enticing for the player.
Alongside this, near misses occur when the outcome is very close to a win but falls just a little short. The chapter explains that near misses can be particularly enticing to players because they give the impression that a win is within reach, encouraging them to keep playing in the hopes of achieving a victory. We see this directly with the sinking feeling we get when we get a 19 or 20 compared to a 21 or just barely miss beating the dealer.
Compared to other games that use probability, like slots, blackjack has much more agency. You decide if you will take another card / a “hit”, so there is less luck informing who wins the gameplay. I like that the game is a mixture of luck and mind/choice. This makes for really exciting gameplay, as the playing field is more even since luck makes everything more variable. Grounding this insight in Randy’s lecture, we remember that four of randomness’s purposes are drama (including frustration and celebration), variety, chaos/surprise, and foils planning.
