It’s said that a game’s success starts and ends with the Three C’s.

Many years ago, when I was learning to code, I was a fan of NHK’s ‘imagine-nation‘. Call it nourishment to my inner otaku. Call it super sweet media that jacked straight into my brain like a child snorting lines of pixie stick dust. Call it whatever suitable, but that show was great. Since it was daily NHK, the viewer was only a week behind in current anime, manga and video game trends that took Tokyo by storm and spread like rabies everywhere else. imagine-nation was a great show; not so much now since NHK is doing it’s best to westernize it for a larger audience, but hey, that’s my opinion. I’m one drop in the bucket.

What made imagine-nation so insanely good was the game development content. Not just reviews or previews, but in depth talks with Japanese game developers, ranging from card to video games, and their philosophies about fun and how it translates to the general public. It was one episode that spoke to a game developer who was successful in the resurgent popularity of beigoma by redressing it as Beyblade. I remember seeing Beyblade everywhere when we traveled through the Kansai region and didn’t get how it was popular. It had it’s own manga series, toys that you could collect fast food restaurants, multiple anime series, the list goes on. I mean, it’s a top battle, right? What’s next, making marbles hip again?  Maybe; if you know the right formula.

So What Are the Three C’s?

One of the lead developers interviewed said anything can be popular if they contain an effective delivery of the ‘Three C’s’. ‘Look at Pokemon!’ another laughed as they exchanged knowing glances. It seemed like Nintendo’s milking of Pokemon was a running gag, even back then. The Three C’s, the first developer said, are Collection, Customization and Competition. If you want a hit, do the Three C’s well and your players will thank you for it.

 

So I thought about it. I seriously thought about every game I could remember playing and enjoying, from marbles to Persona 4. Every game I loved and continue to love contain the Three C’s. Monopoly? I get a phat bankroll every time I pass Go. I get to choose that cool ass shoe and I get to drain my Mother’s cash flow every time she steps on Boardwalk or Park Place. Wow. The Three C’s. Huh. The ultimate dousing rod between a good and bad game.

Then in flies Flappy Bird. The world implodes when it’s taken down. I’ve had a few heated arguments about no one knows what players want anymore. It’s pointless, some say. All you have to do is make some garbage, have a youtube star talk about it and bam, you have gold. What else can you do? The Three C’s do not apply to Flappy Bird, the mobile Mario/Cheep Cheep knock off.

But I disagree; though Beyblade’s rule of the 3C isn’t entirely followed, one encompassing factor is casually forgotten though it’s under everyone’s nose: ease of accessibility. Beigoma/Beyblade is a top. You wind it up, pull and let the fates handle the battle. A child can do that. You don’t have to customize anything personally; you just buy a top that suits your taste and still play fine. Human beings have an almost bipolar lizard brain when it comes to laziness and  obtaining goals. We want the actually action to be easy, ex. pressing a button, but want to be challenged, and rewarded, so we won’t feel like it’s a waste of our time. Very, very bipolar, but Rovio, Zynga and Glu already know that.

 

The Power Of The Skinner Box

Flappy Bird is a low level example of what happens when someone ignores the 3C’s and accidentally makes a super effective Skinner Box.

A brief background about the Skinner Box, or the operant conditioning chamber:

An operant conditioning chamber permits experimenters to study behavior conditioning (training) by teaching a subject animal to perform certain actions (like pressing a lever) in response to specific stimuli, such as a light or sound signal. When the subject correctly performs the behavior, the chamber mechanism delivers food or another reward. In some cases, the mechanism delivers a punishment for incorrect or missing responses.

B.F. Skinner is the father of Radical Behaviorism and founded a school around human behavior and reinforcement, meaning that you can figure out what a human being wants long term if given the appropriate stimuli. If you have a kid that’s making bad grades, you can either spank him to get the behavior you desire through fear of pain or you can offer incentives and get the behavior you desire from reward. Apply stimuli, reinforce the behavior, rinse, repeat.

So if a game developer doesn’t have enough resources to offer the stimuli of collection, customization and competition, they can create a distilled Skinner box of competition (can you beat a score), accessibility(just tap and dodge) and reward (medals and bragging rights). Top it off with a price tag of ‘Free’ and your bonfire just went nuclear.  All popular mobile games do this; Angry Birds built a franchise around it. Candy Crush Saga has even put in payment stop gaps so they can hold a player’s Skinner Box thirst for ransom; and people pay it…consistently. You can read about Skinner and his work here.

 

So when Charles Pratt describes Flappy Bird’s mechanics, he’s nearly right…but fails to explain the backing psychology and the problem most larger companies have: a successful skinner box (where it bypasses conscious logic and taps into subconscious need), is much more tough to make than a 3C style game. Mr. Dong found the secret sauce, unfortunately he didn’t have staff to hold back the tide.I think Flappy Birds is a fantastic wake up call to game developers within the industry; stop making cinematic, one trick pony games on mobile devices. The masses want skinner boxes, not art, so give them that.

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