Apparently everybody plays Angry Birds. Why is it so popular?
So I downloaded the app to my iphone and have played through a few levels. I’m not sure why it’s so sticky. The “what happens if I try this” hook that gets you to take another shot at a difficult puzzle and gets you to try the next puzzle is pretty effective. It vaguely reminds me of why Sid Meier’s Civilization is such a dangerous game. Civ is the most sticky, most life-interfering game I know, but I don’t know exactly why. You get into that loop of, “what happens if I try this?” and then you see what happens and it really captures you into trying the next thing, and the next, and then you notice 6 hours or more have gone by…
Angry Birds was originally recommended to me by a colleague at a different university (who is not really a game player). Then my kids mentioned playing it. Then I saw a faculty member playing around with it during downtime in a faculty meeting. Then I saw friends recommending it for entertainment for a friend who’s laid up for a bit. It has definitely pushed some people’s buttons.
UPDATE: I’ve been talking about how dopamine reward is maximized by unexpected success for days now and totally failed to put it together with this app until I found myself yet again think “oh, cool, I didn’t think that would work” after a surprising outcome led to beating a level. AB has a lot of that experience. I also feel like the best crossword puzzles do, too. Is this the main source of pull for the puzzle games?