The Candy Crush Sweet Tooth: How ‘Near-misses’ in Candy Crush Increase Frustration, and the Urge to Continue Gameplay

Abstract

Like many gambling games, the exceedingly popular and lucrative smartphone game “Candy Crush” features near-miss outcomes. In slot machines, a near-miss involves getting two of the needed three high-paying symbols on the pay-line (i.e., just missing the big win). In Candy Crush, the game signals when you just miss getting to the next level by one or two moves. Because near-misses in gambling games have consistently been shown to invigorate play despite being frustrating outcomes, the goal of the present study was to examine whether such near-misses trigger increases in player arousal, frustration and urge to continue play in Candy Crush. Sixty avid Candy Crush players were recruited to play the game for 30 min while having their Heart Rate, Skin Conductance Level, subjective arousal, frustration and urge to play recorded for three types of outcomes: wins (where they level up), losses (where they don’t come close to levelling up), and near-misses (where they just miss levelling up). Near-misses were more arousing than losses as indexed by increased heart rate and greater subjective arousal. Near-misses were also subjectively rated as the most frustrating of all outcomes. Most importantly, of any type of outcome, near-misses triggered the most substantial urge to continue play. These findings suggest that near-misses in Candy Crush play a role in player commitment to the game, and may contribute to players playing longer than intended.

Online gaming and gaming disorder: more than just a trivial pursuit

“…D. Griffiths & Nuyens, 2017). A study on the popular mobile game Candy Crush showed near-misses to be the most frustrating outcome (as compared to wins and losses) and the outcome that triggered the largest urge to continue to play the game (Larche et al 2017). Online games can also use a variety of other reinforcement techniques, such as positive reinforcement, intermittent reinforcement, and punishment, in order to increase time spent playing the game (D. King et al, 2010).…”

Gambling on Smartphones: A Study of a Potentially Addictive Behaviour in a Naturalistic Setting

“…The literature has examined the role of post reinforcement pauses (PRPs), showing that gamblers take longer to initiate another gamble after a win relative to a loss [17][18][19][20][21]. This is a general associative phenomenon, sensitive to the rate of reinforcement on many different schedules of reinforcement [22], and the magnitude of reinforcement [18], with greater positive reinforcement associated with longer delays.…”

The relationship between gaming disorder and addiction requires a behavioral analysis

“…The focus on mechanics and design elements rather than genres to an extent mirrors a similar distinction in the gambling literature between a type of product and its structural features ( Griffiths & Auer, 2013 ), although a larger number of intra-genre differences might be expected. In some cases, there is room for translation from one to the other, as research has experimentally examined the role of near-misses, a feature typically associated with slot machines, in casual puzzle games ( Larche, Musielak, & Dixon, 2017 ). In this case, the translation from gambling to gaming was appropriate, but there is also utility in studying the cognitive and behavioral features included within some gaming mechanics independently of their association with gambling.…”

“…We instead refer to a subset of games that have a common clustering of mechanisms and business models that have become prevalent on mobile devices. What appears to be common among these is a reliance on principles derived from behavioral psychology, including the use of random ratio schedules of reinforcement alongside gambling themes, different types of reinforcement (e.g., achievements/badges) and the use of stamina-style systems to affect how frequently reinforcement is delivered ( James, O’Malley, & Tunney, 2017 ; Larche et al., 2017 ). These make heavy use of micro-transactions, often based on the premise that a small proportion of users, colloquially referred to as “whales” ( Alha, Koskinen, Paavilainen, Hamari, & Kinnunen, 2014 ; Kimppa, Heimo, & Harviainen, 2016 ), engage in substantial spending ( Garfield, 2016 ).…”