I'm playing a game on Facebook called "Hatchlings". You collect Easter eggs around the site which hatch into pets: colorful fish, cute pachyderms, googly-eyed chihuahuas. Each egg you collect makes your score go up, and you can watch how you do against the Facebook community. Some eggs are "limited editions" which, or course, are hard to find. As your egg count amasses, you earn credits to "buy" other limited edition eggs from a warehouse.
When my husband first heard of it he asked me what you got for your efforts.
"A picture of an egg." I told him. "And later a picture of what the egg hatched."
So why are more than 770,000 people are signed up to play a game that just gives you pictures? Some even paid to become premium members.
And why are so many advertisers paying to be patrons of the game? There are 26 pages of them. (When you patronize an advertiser, you get credits for warehouse purchases.)
Surely the players are getting something beyond colorful eggs and cute hatchlings. By figuring out what they get, we can tell a lot about value, not just for games, but for any purchase.
About half my Facebook friends play the game. Some are addicted (you know who you are). I'm asking if you'll comment on what you get out of playing. Here's things I can think of:
The Treasure Hunt
I play the game just to see what comes next. When will I click on a basket and find a Limited Edition egg? What will hatch from it? Last week I wildly ran my score up to 1000 shells because the Warehouse eggs that cost 1000 shells were grayed out and I couldn't see what they were until I had earned enough to buy them. When I got there, I gifted my purchase to a player who I knew would appreciate having it more than I would. Like a gambler, I just want to see what the next card, next spin, or next click will bring.
Pride in Gamesmanship/Competitiveness
Again, the game scores one point for each egg you find. It displays how you rank against all the players and against your own Network (you join a network in Facebook, usually your city but could be something like your school). There's something compelling about having a high rank, and even more compelling is keeping the high rank once you get it.
Seeking Fame
If you make the top ten in either the general community or your network, your name will show up on the list that every user sees when they look at their Hatchlings page. There's a real high in knowing you are on that list, especially when you know your friends can see your name.
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This application is popular not because of the its technicalities, but because of the psychology behind it. The developer did a great job building into it the things that make people keep coming back every day. By the way, when I checked the developer's profile, I couldn't see the whole thing, but I did see that he just graduated from high school two years ago. I'm sure he has help with this application, it's too big for one person to handle, but still, -- nineteen years old -- dawgs!
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1 comment:
I started playing because my friends were playing and I wanted to surpass their efforts and drive their high scores down the list - possibly obliterate them all together. The game has enough postive reinforcement that I continue (think caged rat and food bar). In other words, the developer has shaped my behavior (continued game-play) through conditioning and giving me just enough rewards and the right balance of empty egg baskets (found hatchlings and special eggs) that I keep hunting over and over again.
Also, the developer has put secret x-ray technology in every basket that forces continued gameplay - resistance is futile. I read about it in the hatchlings discussion board today and now only play the game while wearing a tinfoil hat so I don't get suck in too much. Apparently you can also wear sunglasses or use a mirror to view the computer screen rather than looking straight on. Tests have shown that a combination of all 3 measures will dramatically reduce addiction but I am not ready to give it up just yet so I am just sticking with the tinfoil hat for now.
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