If you don’t know whether you’re going to “win”, it’s tough to resist trying.

(especially when time/effort barriers are low).

Marc Andreessen hits on this in a post about personal productivity:

“The problem with email is that getting an email triggers that same endorphin hit I mentioned above — the one that a mouse gets when he bonks on the button in the cage and gets a food pellet.

Responding to an email triggers that same hit.

The pleasure chemical hits your neocortex and you go ‘ahhh’ inside and feel like you’ve done something.”

http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/06/the_pmarca_guid.html

I’m sorry that I can’t find the other more detailed analysis of this phenomenon.

But it’s definitely useful to think about, especially in terms of your recent posts on viral marketing strategies (which have been great!)

I haven’t looked at the world of games, but I have been looking at Personality Styles versus Web 2.0 applications and the results look promising:

http://smoothspan.wordpress.com/2007/09/03/what-personality-type-is-your-web-20-fave-part-2-of-web-20-personality-types/

It would be fascinating to see a similar framework created around game styles.

Insightful analysis as always. I look forward to your posts.

Pavlov dog theory of engagement i.e. how far apart can you spread the hot girls and still have the user salivating