This is a brief post with a big title. And since I want to do this quick, I’m going to use a data sample of one (me)! Frustration leads to general dissatisfaction, and thus it creates exit points. The point I want to make today is that there’s a direct correlation between the level of frustration, the lure of the exit point and the social ties game. Here’s a quick chart to illustrate my point:
Note that the overall frustration level can be created two ways: a constant source of frustration, and a series of events that creates a frustration spike. If I’m playing a game completely alone, it really doesn’t take much for me to quit. Having players around that you vaguely know or just having a populated game world helps, and then it gets even better when friends are present. Joining an empty game world alone is the worst case scenario. Note that “Friends (cannot group” can be a deceptive category. Although it’d take more frustration to leave this situation, the fact that friends are playing and there are barriers that prevent grouping can create frustration… thereby canceling out the friend benefit.