Dopamine, Addiction, and WoW.

It's late at night tonight, and I have stumbled upon a pair of articles that pertain to what I am after. The first article is about the effects of dopamine, drugs such as cocaine, and their relationship. This one has proven useful in understanding the chemical effects of cocaine on the brain, and how it relates to addiction. The second article pertains to random loot drops in MMORPGs (namely WoW) and how they act like a slot machine.

First things first, dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is released and induces feelings of pleasure in the brain. Things such as eating food or having sex release dopamine. There is something interesting about this chemical, and that is that it has diminishing returns. This means that the more steadily dopamine is released, the more you need to achieve the same level of pleasant feeling. This is the key to cocaine addiction, as the drug straps itself onto dopamine, and prevents it from re-entering the neurotransmitters. A log jam occurs, and dopamine levels stay extremely high during the use of the cocaine.

Therefore, because of these diminishing returns on dopamine, if you are releasing it at random intervals, and not fixed ones, the high will never be dulled. This is how gambling hooks people. The entirely random nature of gambling allows the dopamine to be released at a non standard time. Gambling is like crack.

Now, this can most easily apply to loot drops in a game such as World of Warcraft. When you look at the Motivation and Attraction factors from my last blog, there are enough reasons to become hooked to a game like WoW. Once you tie in the dopamine releasing effect of random loot drops, you start to see a clearer picture.

As I read the second article pertaining to the video game itself, a certain analogy stuck out to me. I'll cut and past the good parts here:

"It’s these cells that light up when something nice happens in your life (say a delicious Hot Pocket or a fuzzy puppy belly) and triggers a gush of the neurotransmitter dopamine. Given a couple of chances, they’ll learn to light up when you hear the microwave timer beep that precedes your delicious Hot Pocket. The real key is that while dopamine neurons fire once your brain has figured out how to predict an event, they really go nuts when an unexpected, unpredicted gush of dopamine shows up, giving you an even bigger rush. It’s like DUDE! UNEXPECTED HOT POCKET!"

I laughed out loud a little at that explanation. A couple of things I noticed here. First and foremost was the part about the microwave timer. That is just like Pavlov's Dog. The brain begins to associate the ding of the microwave with the awesomeness of Hot Pockets, releasing dopamine.  The same can be applied to WoW loot drops. The flash of purple you catch when you loot a body instantly signals to your brain that you found an "epic" drop.

The second thing that stuck out to me was the section about the unpredictability of loot drops releasing more dopamine. This ties into what the other article was saying perfectly. This random loot mechanic is what really hooks gamers such as myself.