The Plight of a Dungeon Keeper — How Electronic Arts Destroys Video Games

Personally, I place Dungeon Keeper (Bullfrog: 1997, see link to the original game at the bottom of this article) at the same level as ground breaking video games such as Populous (Bullfrog: 1989), Sim City (Maxis: 1989), and Civilization (Microprose: 1991). Each one of these games came from the brilliant mind of directors such as Peter Molyneux (Dungeon Keeper and Populous) and Sid Meier (Civilization, Railroad Tycoon, Pirates) and each one of these games defined a new genre or set a new bar for video games to strive for over the next decades (“decades” is not a term often used when talking about games.)

Optimizing Games for Short Term Profit

While I wrote my last article of this kind on NBA 2K becoming basically a casino and digital merchandise store with absolutely no basketball game-play-centric innovation (read about this week’s historically botched launch of this $60 title), seeing titles like Dungeon Keeper and Sim City destroyed by filling them to the brim with micro transactions feels even more personal to me. And here is why: instead of offering anything new in terms of gameplay, EA, 2K, and friends are now optimizing these games to gradually movtivate players to continuously spend more money on the same game they have already paid 60 bucks for. “Gradual” is the key word as these games now gradually slow down player progress while gauging the player’s frustration level so that they can offer a $1, $2, $3, or $x level out of the slump.

But Aren’t We All Adults: We Can Just Stop at Any Time, Right?

You may say that we are all adults and can decide for ourselves if this is a road we are willing to go down, but here is the problem: When I pay $60 for a video game I can expect that I can fully play this game without spending more money. Or at least, if this was not the case, please tell me on the box that in order to play the game I need to calculate another $20/per week. But instead, EA, 2K, and friends continuously move the target AFTER players have already paid for the core game, for example, introducing new items that you may not absolutely need, but without them you may not have any chance to compete online or finish the single player game within a reasonable time period.

EA, 2K, and Friends Are like Kids in Candy Stores

As publishers can now adjust most parts of already sold games, they can easily see where players “are having too much fun” by analyzing their behavior. Then they can slow down that fun to get players’ frustration levels up. Ultimately, they swoop in an offer basically a separate “ticket to ride” to unlock the same level of fun they were just taking away from players. In other words, they are optimizing video games like retailers (online and offline) are optimizing their stores for optimal customer flow and perfect timing of special sales.

Read the full article over on my blog (no paywall).