Having played plenty of Poker with friends and family, I decided to play Governor of Poker online with strangers to face a completely different experience. Governor of Poker 3 is a 2016 gambling game on PC, iOS, and Android, developed by Youta Games (PC) and Playtika Ltd (mobile)—I played on iPad. Despite being rated T for Teen and 17+ on the Google and Apple Play Stores respectively, the official website states an intended audience of ages 21+.
Governor of Poker 3 includes traditional Texas Hold ‘Em Poker tables with varying buy-ins and ante amounts which scale with player level, as well as daily missions, special events tasks, slot machines, and other provisions to simulate a casino experience. Like casinos, games are bound by probability such that any player has minimal control, but includes enough strategic multiplayer elements where players perceive immense strategy to their decisions. The combination of probabilistic outcomes with strategic input gives players the notion that triumph was due to skill, and that failure was due to random chance; combined with the artificial currency and gratuitous feedback system, Governor of Poker encourages and rewards daily, continuous play—all factors feeding towards addictive tendencies.
Most notable about the game is the probabilistic aspect—Governor of Poker is fundamentally Poker at its base, and shares many of the same facets; there are set odds of winning with any given hand, and players cognizant of these odds tend to think of the game as strategic; there was one game I played in which one player folded with their opening hand a majority of the time, and whenever they didn’t, they had an above average hand. Governor of Poker’s/Texas Hold `Em’s dynamic of set probabilities create a dynamic where every player is probabilistically on the same playing field, with variance established by player interaction, such as analysis of playstyle tendencies. Despite the game fundamentally relying on chance, this creates an aesthetic of the game as one primarily of skill: players attribute success to their own skill (triumphing by properly analyzing opponents), and failures to pure chance (along the lines of “there was nothing I could do, I got unlucky”). In doing so, players typically view winning as “more positive” than losing as negative, regardless of the net change in chips (the game’s currency).
Beyond classic Texas Hold ‘Em elements, Governor of Poker further engages to keep players playing, creating an environment that can feed addiction. The game enforces fast-paced gameplay: turns are capped at 10 seconds, and the base ante increases every few minutes; this encourages continuous play and engagement, and has players complete games and move on quickly from any losses they may accrue. This creates interaction loops where players play with minimal upset by losing, until they complete an arc of winning a table, and face a barrage of positive feedback (bonus chips, awards, missions) that satisfy the player regardless of win rate. This interaction loop is facilitated by the game’s virtual (fake) currency, which players don’t value as much as they might in real life: I played one table where a player went “all-in” on the opening hand, and three players (including myself) called. Despite it being strategically and probabilistically a horrible play by all, I won, and felt a rush of dopamine—and if I had lost, I likely would have laughed it off as a silly maneuver—things I wouldn’t have done if I was playing with real money.
Governor of Poker engages players with constant positive feedback. Emotes get prompted when one wins a hand, your name lights on fire if you win a big pot, and each win contributes towards daily or weekly missions—by highlighting the highs and quickly moving past the lows, Governor of Poker leaves the feeling of success as the primary memory for players, regardless of how a playing session actually went. If one tires of Poker, they move on to slots—and if one eventually runs out of chips, they can always buy more with real currency. All of these elements with fast-paced rounds, completed in under 5 minutes on a mobile platform, enables players to play in any environment; in doing so, Governor of Poker tailors itself for continual play, establishing an environment ripe for addiction.
