Often, what keeps our dopamine flowing isn’t just a steady stream of rewards, but the anticipation that a reward might be coming. You might relate this to certain cues in your day-to-day life, like the sound of a beer can cracking open, or the chiming of an ice-cream van, reverberating around a suburb.
The psychologist Ivan Pavlov helped to underline the role played by anticipation, through his work with dogs. But decades later, sophisticated gaming websites like the Mr Q casino site are taking advantage of anticipation to make the experiences they offer that much more compelling. Let’s examine how.
How Anticipation Activates the Brain’s Reward System
Dopamine is not, contrary to popular misconception, a molecule solely associated with pleasure. Rather, it’s there to make us desire things. It compels us to seek food when we’re hungry, or shelter when we’re cold. Crucially, it does this through a cycle of cue, response, and reward. We perceive a cue, we anticipate the reward, and we therefore take action.
Near-Miss Mechanics and Emotional Engagement
In life, we don’t always get the reward we want every time we take action. But the brain has ways of assessing whether a reward is near. If we catch a fish only for it to slip away, we might find ourselves encouraged by the idea that winning is possible.
A near-miss mechanic in a game might offer the same feeling as an actual win, because the regions of the brain being activated are so similar. Through this mechanic, game designers can incentivise further play – without having to actually dispense rewards.
Sensory Design and Suspense Building
A game that doesn’t look and sound compelling is unlikely to be compelling. After all, the rewards being dispensed, in a psychological sense, aren’t restricted to purely financial ones. Sounds, lights, and spinning reels might all be used to create additional layers of cue, reward – and mounting anticipation.
Storytelling and Thematic Layers Enhance Anticipation
Modern games aren’t just about stimulation. They also weave in narrative elements, and a sense of progress. Human beings are naturally receptive to stories, and attuned to mechanics that take their cue from storytelling. The best modern games, as such, take advantage of this. You might be treated to images of a heroic protagonist striving toward a distant goal – and, in cases where the game is based on a popular film or comic-book franchise, the character in question might be familiar!
