Week 4: Why is Play so Darn Effective?!

Cookie Clicker

​The game cookie clicker is quite a repetitive game. It requires the player to constantly click on a cookie to rack up points. The points can then be used to collect cookies faster and buy more upgrades. The game is very repetitive and after the lecture, I didn't find any motivation to play it as I had no one to compete against.

(https://www.reddit.com/r/CookieClicker/comments/83u0jl/i_got_the_milk_toys_today/, 2018)

Dopamine

When dopamine is released it creates a feeling of reward and pleasure. During the lecture, the reward was knowing that I surpassed everyone in the number of cookies that I had created.

Oxytocin

Oxytocin is released when someone feels a bond with something or someone. In this game, I didn't really feel like I bonded with anyone. It was actually made me despise anyone who manages to get more cookies per second produced than me.

Serotonin

Serotonin is triggered when you feel a sense of accomplishment. this happened when I got in-game achievements and had the highest cookies per second.

Endorphins

Endorphins motivate one to push harder in order to achieve a goal. In my case, I started clicking very fast to generate cookies as if I was fighting for my life. even tho my fingers started to feel numb I still pushed on in order to beat my classmates.