Jul 14, 2017 - There just weren't many good games on the Mac for years. Nevertheless, a few companies have continuously worked to fill the niche. Two in particular. To make that happen, Apple announced Metal 2 at WWDC 2017.

MANY parents with young children fret about the addictiveness of computer games these days. There is ample evidence to suggest that people are spending more time playing games.

They are also spending more on them. T he video game industry is among the fastest growing sectors of America's economy. Children between the age of eight and 18 play video games for nearly 15 hours a week in the country. Have identified that 8% of gamers are 'pathological players'.

( Although suggested that only about 3% of gamers experience this problem.) Whatever the precise figure, it is clear that a small proportion of players are addicted. Such pathological gaming is associated with depression, anxiety, social phobia and, in children, impaired school performance. Yet what makes a game addictive might not be obvious immediately.

H uman psychology tells us that players should enjoy a game that satisfies the need for control, bestows a sense of one's progress, and fosters relationships with friends and others encountered. Yet gamers differ in their individual needs. Each person has their own 'player personality' and this variation has spawned a vast industry designed to meet different motivations. Some may want to release aggression ( Call of Duty ), escape reality ( World of Warcraft ) or oversee building projects ( Minecraft ). Others are more motivated by in-game rewards, or have a high 'loss aversion' and so find a challenging game unfair or frustrating (while others find it thrilling). A game like Flappy Birds, l to those who are attracted by repetitive actions, difficulty and have a low loss aversion. Corel draw for mac free trial. Those who have a high loss aversion, however, will find it infuriating. Players are motivated by the extent to which different games fulfill their basic psychological needs; but some factors, more than others, are found in addiction.

One risk factor is found in players who are trying to 'escape' through fantasy immersion or role play. Indeed, their game use may be a symptom of some other underlying problem, say social phobia or depression. Playing can then generate a vicious cycle that is hard to treat if the game is a way of self-medicating. For example, a child who is unpopular in school, or being bullied, may be important and powerful in a video game. Real life may struggle to compete. Another risk factor is found in players with strong social motivation. Some games involve social obligations, where players have to work together.

This can mean a player feels obliged to play along as the rest of the group wants to play. Farmville strives to ensure participation at regular intervals by making gamers dependent on each other for daily allotments of fantasy resources, says Joseph Hilgard, at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and colleagues in a recent paper in Frontiers in Psychology. Putting together role play and social use in one game should yield a highly compelling game. World of Warcraft, a massive multiplayer online role-playing game, fits this description and is, anecdotally, pretty addictive. Video-game designers have also mastered another trick to encourage more play: requiring an unpredictable number of actions in order to earn a reward. Giving one at regular intervals means that a player, having received a reward, will be less motivated to play on knowing that another is a long time coming. In Diablo, Dr Hilgard explains, a player may find a powerful weapon either after the very next monster that is slain, or not until a thousand monsters later.