Tower Defense games
I’ve never really been one to get into flash games. They tend to be gimmicky or too simple to give any lasting appeal. But there is one type of games I just can’t stop playing - tower defense games. Not sure why I was suddenly sucked into these tower defense games but I decided to keep playing until I could figure it out and now I think I have it!
Tower defense games revolve around two basic psychological trends - ego and the desire to succeed. The ego part is fulfilled by putting the player in the position of having to eliminate thousands of enemies to save the base using the towers. People love nothing more than playing the part of the hero, the King Arthur or Custer of the world of tower defense games. Tower defense games massage the players’ egos even more by constantly rewarding the player with points, leveling opportunities and more weapons. So while the concept is amazingly simple – it still has some depth in it.
This variance in the game play dynamic through varied content also means that the game never becomes boring and that is something I didn’t think I’d say about a flash game!
Turning to the other psychological tug of the game, tower defense games appear so simple. All you have to do is click in a certain area and kill the enemies. It’s not as though you have to run around a 3D map or have the reaction times of a ninja, anyone can play it and everyone can win – but not everyone can master the tower defense game. This means that when you don’t beat the tower defense games you are still convinced that you should be able to do and so you’ll play again. And in fact you’ll keep playing until you win!
This sense of ability to succeed is accentuated by the fact there are so many different ways to modify the way you play the game, such as picking different weapons at different times – and most importantly, no match is ever going to be the same. Think of this as chess, in every tower defense game match you place figures, and you’ll never place your figures identically twice. Added to that the fact that enemies can be handled differently, there is a huge number of different ways of playing tower defense games.
Finally, tower defense games keep you keen and addicted by setting short term goals, such as surviving a level or perhaps something more complex such as saving enough points to buy a certain weapon. Focusing players on these small targets makes it hard for the player to just leave! All the time he’s thinking, I’ll finish when I’ve completed the next level but then that one is completed, and he has to keep playing till the next one and so on and so forth.
In short, tower defense games are actually surprisingly complex games, designed to draw in players not just to play once but to play again and again through a whole host of different tugs on players’ minds. And as ashamed as I am to say it, I’m one of those addicted to tower defense games and despite the fact I’ve beaten a lot of them before, I’ll play them again and again in different ways to see if I can master the tower defense games!