Addictive nature of social games

By Joe Osborne Posted Oct 7th 2010 4:05PM

Millions of Americans play social games daily because, according to Dr. Hilarie Cash, “these games are designed to be extremely addictive.” Cash, founder of Fall City, Wash.-based Internet addiction program reSTART, spoke with The Daily Beast about the dangers of social gaming addiction and how studios like Zynga intentionally design social games with addictive elements like points, levels and gifts.

“That’s absolutely consciously built into the games,” Cash said, “I’ve talked to video-games developers who acknowledge this.”