Trigger Happy
Trivial Pursuit, Risk, tennis, dominoes, chess or football, your increased sense of power and selfrespect is the only reward on offer. The game remains the same. (The transaction of capital in the coin-op arcade game seems to be a positive if still strictly extrinsic phenomenon. The psychologist authors of Mind at Play, Geoffrey and Elizabeth Loftus, wrote that paying money for a videogame actually increases the pleasure one derives from it. This is due to “cognitive dissonance”: faced with incompatible beliefs, the brain acts so as to reduce the conflict. Videogames take your money and give you nothing tangible in return . . . they must really be fun!)
But whereas chess or football remains the same kind of game no matter how good you are, modern videogames, as Richard Darling points out, change as you get better. Attaining a new level in Tomb Raider III means having a whole new virtual world to explore, moving from India to the rain-soaked rooftops of London. Collect enough coins in Ape Escape and you can play an entirely new mini-game on skis. Many videogames even keep something back after you have finished them, in order to encourage you to play the game again, only this time under new rules. Metal Gear Solid, for example, rewards the player with a
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