Candy crush has become a popular and addictive game in the last five years. The game’s developers gain around 600.000 dollars daily. Around 93 billion people play it every day, and half billion have downloaded the app.
There are many real-life stories about how candy crush interfered with many students’ lives. Such as forgetting the date of exams or very minimum tasks required because of playing for hours.
Some experts claim that the game has a similar physiological effect of the drugs and that students reacted and behaved to the match as addicts do with drugs.
So why really a lot of students are obsessed with the game?
A Sense of Familiarity
Candy crush built its irresistible addiction upon basic and primitive physiological factors in the human brain. One of them is the brain’s continuous desire to seek intimacy. For example, the main idea of the game is to follow patterns and to match three candies of the same colour.
The shapes and attractive colours of the candies connect the brain too early childhood memories, which are typically linked to candies and sweets. It arouses the pleasant old memories you always experienced after eating sweets. Which makes the playing experience more appealing and fun?
The Repetitive Win/Lose Cycle
This point is enough to make the game addictive. And the student goes mad about it because the human brain is accustomed to seeking challenges and trying to solve hardships. Once you get familiar with the game and reach your desired level, the game will dig you into a higher intensity of the challenge.
One never gets the time to catch a breath. Candy crush developers know well that reaching higher levels easily will make the game annoying and less addictive, which means less profit. So they designed the game to motivate and push your desire to face challenges and solving them to experience more pleasure afterwards.
Connection to Social Media
The candy crush app is connected to social media, and this attracts more students because it goes viral once you watch your friend downloading the game and enjoying playing it.
You are allowed to see their scores on their profile, you will become jealous, and the natural desire of competition inside you will fire up! , you will start playing and comparing your results to your friend’s results, this will drive you crazy, and it will not be easy for you to stop the game!
Rollercoaster Scenarios
Candy crush is full of sudden and surprising scenarios; you can be rewarded any moment without previous planning, and sometimes without a significant effort, the same does happen in the case of losing points and failure!
Thus, luck plays a fundamental role in determining what and when you will be rewarded, this makes your brain more anxious and obsessed because you always want a new reward but not a natural award at the same time, and when it happens you will feel how lucky and unique you are, and it’s always a feeling you want to reach.
Self-Confidence
You reach the level of your dream, and you will get a boost in your self- confidence, you will know that you are smart and skilful enough and you will be known of this among your friends, which makes you feel better about yourself.
Pleasure Hormone Dopamine
The basics of the game aren’t hard. Mastering it and progressing into higher levels is not an easy thing. Every time you get it, the pleasure hormone dopamine will be released in your brain.
This hormone is released as well in other similar pleasant circumstances as in eating chocolate or taking drugs. You will be motivated to pay more for more pleasure!
Human beings are wired to be attached emotionally to things that benefit them logically. And sometimes, Candy crush plays an influential role in enhancing and upgrading people’s skills. And this will indirectly help them in their own daily lives. Here are some examples of those most needed own skills:
Enhancing Your Working Memory
While you are transmitting between several stages in the game, you are taught to store information in the working area, because you might need them later to crush more candies.
Sharp Focusing
This game trains you to concentrate continuously; you may miss a crush or a pattern at any moment, so you will be adapted to be alert most of the time
Long-Term Planning
You learn to scarify some goals to follow higher goals in the long run. For example, you may find yourself in the situation of choosing between crushing three candies now or five candies later in the game. Although the endless fun and benefits students may gain from Candy crush game. They can easily get trapped in their addiction.
Here are some quick tips you can pursue to enjoy this game with a minimum risk of addiction:
- Set a decent hour in the day to play the game, this means that if you are playing in a specific hour. Don’t play it again, even if you have spare time. Because opening the hours of playing is the first step towards addiction, and it will surely harm your health, money and your relationships.
- Make sure to have a busy schedule and maintain it. Get active with work, school, and in your family life. Excessive free time will make you closer to addiction.
- Playing the game is free, but the game gives you some assistance options to upgrade your skills if you pay cash if you want to pay to acquire the bonus help, set a definite price you can pay from the beginning and don’t try to think of paying more, or you can ignore this paid assistance and depend on your planning skills to avoid losing your money in a game, and this is, of course, another form of addiction.
In conclusion, the game makes you forget your problems, makes you happy and it is super fun playing it.
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