Date: Wed, 12 Nov 1997 11:58:29 -0600
From: [email protected] (Uncle Dave) Newsgroups: rec.games.roguelike.angband Subject: Re: Why is Angband so addictive?

Several Journeyman Psychologists have tried to answer this question, so I may as well take a stab at it.

Few activities that compel compulsive behavior have only one or two attractive features. It is the combination of several that draws large numbers of people and holds them for months or years. Angband is compelling because it combines so many proven game features:

1. Complex Play -- Angband cannot be learned in a day, week, or month. There are many rules, exceptions, features, options, novelties. Chess is a more popular game than tic-tac-toe because its possibilities are not as quickly exhausted. In Angband, there are many different possible winning strategies and several different choices of tactics.
2. Attractive Display -- Although it may not seem like much at first, the letters and symbols look good on that black background. Once the player gets comfortable with the code--the symbolism--the display is highly effective at conveying the information the player really needs: what thing is where. A related graphical game, Taskmaker, has picture tiles about 32 pixels square that are very cute, but convey no more real information to the player than a single ASCII character. Instead, the tiles tell you, say, that the shopkeeper is bald and wears an apron. The Angband player's eye is not exhausted processing this superfluous information. The display is sharp and clear on the most underpowered machine--no rocket sled required.
3. Irregular Reward -- As another poster mentioned, a system that rewards the player irregularly is highly reinforcing. There are a few very rare, valuable payoffs, so much so that players think about and even discuss them for days. The more frequent smaller rewards maintain interest. This is why the lottery is so compelling. Since the reward is rare, it stays fresh--but virtually every keypress may lead to the big payoff.
4. High, but Manageable Risk -- Angband players decide how deep to dive at any level. Thus, each one finds his own level of comfortable and interesting risk. Over the course of the game, that will change as the player gets freaked or bored. This is unlike some games, where risk is essentially unmanageable. Also, the top end of the scale is very high; it is possible to play is such a way as to seriously risk the loss of a character in which one has invested hundreds of playing hours.
5. Characters, Intrinsics, and Inventories -- Although to the player these are very different, to the analyst they all have similar functions. The player does not merely move through the dungeon; he builds a character, shapes it, acquires elements that belong to it, improves it. Thus, his investment of time has a tangible product. The player comes to own his unique character. A Wolfenstein player may have more or less ammo, but that's about it.
6. Multiple Games -- A further effect of (5)--and chance--is that no two games progress alike. At the outset, one's choice of race and class opens entire realms of possibilities and closes others. During play, one's chance and choice acquisition of certain objects and capabilities affects the range of reasonable playing strategies that are available. This is not a mere restatement of (1)--play as a Priest is fundamentally different than as a Warrior. Or, say, if a low-level character happens to find a high-level object, this may demand entirely different strategies and tactics than if he had not.
7. Continuity and Consistancy -- This opposes and balances the novelty. While a Priest and a Rogue may differently perceive and value a Scroll of Blessing, for both players the scroll has the same action, game after game. Or, if one has never seen a Mace of Slay Troll, one can still infer its power if one has ever wielded a Bastard Sword of Slay Orc. Fire-breathers are resistant to fire attacks and so on. This helps to make the player feel he has gotten a square deal, even if he has just been killed by something totally unexpected: he can see that he might have anticipated it! Also, with time, the experienced player builds an extensive knowledge base--which is of tremendous value in the world of Angband and nowhere else. Thus, the player has an incentive to continue, even after severe setback.
8. Thinking and Reaction -- The move-turn of Angband is one of the keys to the game. In continuous play it often seems like a real-time game: hit-move-get hit-blast-oops-run. But at any time the game will stop dead; all one need do is take one's hands from the keyboard. There is all the time in the world to examine one's situation, take stock, read the manual, perhaps save the game and post to r.g.r.a. This is an ideal balance between a pure strategy game like chess and a twitch game. Experienced players with plenty of defined macros can play very fast, but anyone can slow down or stop to think. (Unless, of course, the message is: The <foo> breathes <foobreath>. You die.)
9. Controls -- The keyboard control takes some getting used to, but it works better for long periods of play than the usual messy combination of onscreen buttons, menus, and the interminable point-and-shoot joystick. The Angband controls are especially flexible, with internal macro support and keymaps; it boasts two different sets of commands. No matter what keyboard one has, one's personal preferences can be accommodated. In time, one's Angband system comes to fit like a glove.
10. Learning Curve -- The novice player can realistically play without learning more than a very few commands. In time, he will be presented with new concepts, generally one at a time. Because the speed of advancement is controlled by the player, each new concept is comfortably assimilated before the next is encountered. This is like the 'programmed learning' books that feed new material to the student in bite-size chunks while reinforcing and reviewing old material. Also, there is excellent built-in and online documentation, not to mention the wags and sages at r.g.r.a. So, the learning curve is smooth and adjustable to any size brain.
11. Cross-platform support -- If one is forced to abandon one's machine for an hour or a year, one will not have to abandon Angband. I believe Angband will run on any computer extant, barring microwave ovens and the odd museum piece. It runs on laptops and antique time-share networks; I don't think there is a version for the Newton, but there is no real obstacle to it. So, whether the addict is exiled to an Alaskan research station or a week at the beach with the family, he can take along his 43rd Level High-Elf Ranger.
12. Imagination -- Publishers of highly detailed picture games market to kids whose ability to think and imagine have been formed--I should say destroyed--by endless hours of colorful, loud, utterly predictable television pablum. It is hard to hold such an audience, though. Since the publishers' only selling point is sensation, they must constantly seek to increase the level of stimulation to penetrate the saturated environment of their overstimulated, numb consumers. And once you've shown a full-size, full-motion head being ripped off and thrown though the screen, what's left? Angband players seem to be a bit older; we enjoy the quiet play and the opportunity to create the world of the dungeon in our minds.
13. Closed World -- Angband has its own language, even its own syntax. I was relating a recent achivement to a friend who said, "You know, if someone didn't know what you were talking about, he'd think you were crazy." We were in public at the time and indeed, an adjacent person had been giving the hairy eyeball to my lurid description of mopping up a jelly pit by praying Dispel Evil and hurling Orb of Draining, while smashing stragglers and the occasional threatening Black Ooze with my Morning Star of Extra Attacks.

Looking back on this, I remember being rather pleased by the commotion I was causing; I raised my voice and rattled on about the happiness of finding a Westernesse Ball-and-Chain so that I might dispense with my Ring of Free Action and replace it with the nice big fat Ring of Damage I'd been saving at my home in town for what seemed like years. Then the cap of Tharanduil gave me telepathy (I could hear the necks snap) so I sold the Ring of See Invisible--though there are invisible creatures that can't be detected that way, I can pray to Sense Invisible and I'll just take that chance...

• * *

Commercial game designers should not even think of marketing a game without studying Angband. The questions is not, Why is Angband so addictive? It is, Why is Angband freeware? And why does Death <foo> Blast 'Em take 4.3Mb to install, run only on the latest platinum surfboard, and cost $79.95??

Uncle Dave
[email protected]
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