Anticipation…
…suggests that the anticipation leading up to an experience makes it more satisfactory than the anticipation to an item purchase. Additionally, the study suggests that the longer that anticipation period is, the more people enjoy the experience when it finally happens.
http://lifehacker.com/you-might-enjoy-an-experience-more-the-longer-you-have-1628185690
Thinking about the possible roles in multiplayer games. Player’s will need to organize, recruit and remind players of their goals etc. This matches the real world role of a whip.
A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party’s “enforcers,” who typically offer inducements and threaten party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy.
A whip’s role is also to ensure that the elected representatives of their party are in attendance when important votes are taken. The usage comes from the hunting term “whipping in,” i.e. preventing hounds from wandering away from the pack. In the United States there are legislatures at the local (city councils, town councils, county boards, etc.), state, and federal levels. The federal legislature (Congress), state legislatures, and many county and city legisltive bodies are divided along party lines and have whips
Why does it work?
Chu said that Blizzard distinguishes between complexity and depth. It wants players to enjoy games, like World of Warcraft in its 10th year, for decades. It enables that through depth, but not complexity.
Complexity is about all the different things you need to understand before you can make decisions in the game. Depth gives you a wide range of options to take once you understand the game.
The best tricks that Hearthstone's game designers used to make Blizzard's latest megahit
snippets of cloud 