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# New "energy" system is a perverse tax on gamers.
- URL: https://www.killscreen.com/ubiquitous-energy-system-perverse-tax-gamers/
- Published: 2012-07-03T18:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2015-11-17T14:59:17.000Z
- Description: Game publishers are exercising new, cruel methods to get you to keep playing their games. Not only a nefarious metaphor for money, “energy” perverts the exchange economy that was once an unspoken agreement between games and their designers. The balance is tilting upward. Over at Hookshot Inc., Simon
- Author: Kent Szlauderbach
- Tags: News, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-26 09:39

Game publishers are exercising new, cruel methods to get you to keep playing their games. Not only a nefarious metaphor for money, “energy” perverts the exchange economy that was once an unspoken agreement between games and their designers. The balance is tilting upward. Over at [Hookshot Inc.](http://www.hookshotinc.com/energy-black-spot-on-the-heart-of-contemporary-game-design/?ref=killscreen.com), Simon Parkin calls it a “black spot on the heart of contemporary game design.”

> ‘Energy’, a design concept popularised by that one-time pariah of the traditional game industry, Zynga, is now employed by developers the world over in their games, the most recent and high-profile examples being last week’s CSR Racing on iOS (currently the number 1 title in both the UK and the US) and Sim City Social, a Facebook-based remake of the PC classic.  
>  
> For the uninitiated, ‘Energy’ is a unit of currency used to limit the number and rate of actions a player may perform in a game. For example, a single race in CSR Racing will cost you 1 unit of ‘Energy’…  
>  
> There is a difference between the energy of ‘Credits’ in the arcade industry and ‘Energy’ in current games, one perhaps best expressed in Pac-Man.  
>  
> In the original arcade game, you would pay your 50 cents and play the game until Pac-Man lost his lives at the wispy hands of its ghoul attackers. The business exchange between game player and game creator was clearly defined and stated: the player’s actions were limited not by some artificial, esoteric currency but rather by her own skill…You paid your ‘Energy’ up front.  
>  
> …  
>  
> It is, unquestionably, the worst design innovation in our medium to date, apparently creating effective money-making products, but at the cost of artistry, and a regrettable shift in design focus.