PLEASURE, PAIN AND THE REWARDS..

S.Johnson in his book "Everything bad is good for you" stated that playing games are not fun.
If its not, why then so many people all over the world is loving it and spending endless nights in front of the computer locked in the Magical Circle of the games.

The pleasure that comes from playing games is strongly connected with pain and anxiety.As we read in S. Pool book (2000, p.169)"Pleasure increases up to a point according to difficulty. So it seems very likely that one crucial component of videogaming pleasure is in fact a certain level of anxiety. This sounds counterintuitive but is supported by simple experiments that report increased heart rote and adrenaline levels among videogame users"
Gaming pleasure is not only the "most elemental videogame pleasure is the heathen joy of destruction"(S. Poole 2000, p.2) but also the aesthetics."The original Greek meaning of aesthetics refers to things that are perceived by the senses. Modern video games- dynamic and interactive fusions of colorful graphic representation, sound effects, music, speed and movement- are unquestionably a fabulously sensual form." This form of pleasure can be seen in Samorost 2. Where the graphic is amazing and together with the sound it gives you an impression of a movie packed with magical creatures and noises.Or the graphics of the Godfather is as good as the movie.People, sounds, it is so real that you feel attracted to the game.

Another important aspect of pleasure in digital games is a reward.
Rewards in games are something that makes us happy and satisfied . The rewards in a digital game are: new levels (Samorost 2,Beakins Great Mango Quest),new better guns (Doom 2), promotions, new friends ,more money in Sims, or just a blink noise in Fishy. According to Hallford and Hallford(2002) we have four kinds of reward: rewards of glory, sustenance, access and facility. So every game has different reward and we always know before playing the game what sort of reward we can expect to get. Like in Samorost we have got reward of access because each level is in a different location, you never know when you will be next and that encourages you to play, because you cant wait to see where you will be next.
Looking at Beakins Great Mango Quest, although it has not got such beautiful background as Samorost 2 and you don't really change locations it is still hard to stop playing, as the rewards are simple to get and it does not take as much time as in Samorost 2. The rewards are new levels, which here are just higher positions on a a tree. And it makes you excited when you see the bird going higher and higher so this is obvious pleasure of this game.Although what is really irritating is the repetition of the levels ,when you can not go any higher and you find yourself doing one thing over and over again it makes you really stressed and this is obvious the real pain of the game.