Having learned the existence of entrapping psychology applied to things like video games, I analyze most that I play nowadays with a scrutinizing lens that looks for things like the skinner box phenomenon.

And I am absolutely disgusted with how prevalent and ubiquitous the elements and themes of such are. The biggest games aren't even designed to be challenging anymore. They are mostly engineered to eat time, and to let you have fun while you sink hours and hours and hours into doing every little trackable thing you can in-game because it will spit out a virtual cookie every time you finish CHALLENGE X where X is just doing one thing multiple times over and over.

People love to bash Call of Duty because it takes advantage of this so well. They created an engine in Modern Warfare where there are so many variables that can earn you a kill that the noob and the veteran are almost on an even playing field. It's very rare that my points reflect my skill in these games, but I still strive to show I'm a good player without pause. Hell, having a match K/D of 50/18 today was what had me reflecting on this subject in the first place.

What I find interesting is the rise of Achievements. In the right hands they can be used to encourage players to try new things for those virtual cookies. The extra incentive effectively plants ideas in many a gamer's head.