• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

WPJohnny

WordPress Performance Guides and Reviews

  • Start a WordPress site
  • Hosting
  • Themes
  • Plugins
  • Blogging
  • Marketing

Why Websites Should Be Designed like VIDEO GAMES

WordPress themes Feb 24, 2020 by Johnny 5 Comments

I have felt strongly about this for the longest time.

And it isn’t a new concept either. The moment I started really learning about web design 10 years ago, I was already hit with seemingly radical guides like this one. Look around some more and you’ll find newer ones like this.

I’m just gonna say it…I think game design is a hundred times more evolved than web design. And should game designers ever want to take over the web design industry, they could do it in a heartbeat.

Here’s where they’ve got us beat…

WEBSITES are made to be pretty, GAMES are made to be addictive

Yeaup…think about all the websites you’ve ever made. And see if you can remember their most important objectives:

  • look pretty
  • be organized
  • easy-to-use
  • informative
  • MAKE MONEY

For a game design, that’s low-level shit. Every freaken game is PRETTY, ORGANIZED, and EASY-TO-USE.

  • There’s thousands of games out there right now that have all kinds of complicated user actions and complex screenflow…and yet being played by 10-year olds!

You know what game design focuses on?

  • BEING ADDICTIVE!

Visuals and audio that draw you in, immerse you into another world. You feel what the characters feel. You aren’t playing the character, you BECOME the character. That’s powerful stuff.

What’s even more powerful? The game isn’t just UI. It’s a drug that hypnotizes you into doing what it wants. What does the game want? (What does the character need?) More coins? More sword-slashing? More jumps? More ammo? What???

They’re games out there that aren’t even that pretty and yet they draw you in again and again and again. You just want to play one more time. Even if it does nothing for you. Doesn’t solve any problems. Doesn’t save the world. Doesn’t cure cancer. Doesn’t give you any money, or make your life better in any substantial way. It simply appeals to your reptilian brain and hijacks your ability to do anything else.

That, my friend, is the power of gamification.

Most websites need more gamification

Being pretty is not enough. Being informative or help, or organized, or easy-to-use…all those things are not enough. In fact, they’re overrated.

WHY (overrated)?

  • Because those things are only UI. They only help users understand your site. They don’t reward your users.

Your website needs to REWARD users.

  • Like a slot machine.
  • Like Facebook with it’s notifications, likes, emails saying “somebody liked replied on your post/comment”.
  • Like Amazon which acts like you won at life every time you make a purchase on their site. (Getting an email saying your package is shipped feels like “winning”, doesn’t it?)
  • Like Google rewarding your search in endless ways. (Articles, videos, bullets, images, or more keywords for more goodies!)

Does your website make users feel like they’re WINNING?

  • Is the home page filled with joy and toys?
  • Does browsing and searching products make them feel like they’re winning?
  • Does submitting a contact form make them feel like they won? Does the follow-up email make them feel like they won?

What are they feeling when they click something? Does clicking the heart icon to wishlist a product just fade out the heart? Or does the heart change colors or fly up into the menu? Is there a sound? Is there anything that can make the user feel something?

It’s crazy because nobody consciously knows what feels like winning to them. It’s all in the reptilian brain. We just do more things that feel good and do less things that feel bad or don’t make us feel anything. We’re just dopamine addicts, right?

I can tell you this much. Users need to see reactions to every action. The website has to respond or acknowledge their actions somehow. Forget about clicks…sometimes even hovering the mouse over should have some reaction (like color changes on links/buttons). Or how about those annoying Shopify sites with the “so and so just bought X widget right now in Minnesota!”.

What’s truly clever is when you create possibilities for new actions that didn’t previously exist. Like imagine the person who thought of the idea of “comments” on a blog. And the person after who thought of thumbs up or thumbs down on comments. And the person who thought of making clothing images flip to the back side on mouse-over. The world is still full of unlimited possibilities. Limitless ways to create new actions and new reactions.

And even more so than just a reaction, is a feeling. To draw them more into your world. This isn’t a digital box with text and images. It’s another world! You need to transport them into another dimension. That’s the only way to make them feel something.

And how you engineer all this is a whole other science in itself. (I’ve been working on that craft for several years now. And I’m still not very good at it. But I marvel at its infinite power.)

Share this post:

Share on FacebookShare on X (Twitter)Share on LinkedInShare on WhatsAppShare on EmailShare on SMS

Read all my posts on WordPress themes

About Johnny

Right on the edge of WordPress development! 10+ years of WordPress design, development, hosting, speed optimization, product advisor, marketing, monetization. I do all that.

More WordPress Guides

Time Management Rule – Do the Important Shit First!

Jelastic multi-cloud hosting platform review

LiteSpeed Cache vs Varnish Cache

WPML Speed Optimization Tips

SIMPLE FIX – Windows 10 Creators Fall Update 1709 Failed to Install Error Code 0xC1900101 0xc1900107 0xc1900208 0x30018

Why Shared Hosting Sucks

Reader Interactions

5 Comments

  1. Mike

    June 7, 2020 at 3:53 pm

    Do you know of any good examples of websites that are like a video game? I’d also be super interested in if you have any favorite websites in general. I’m working on a “superhero” website for my books and I think this concept would be absolutely incredible for it! Thank you for the great idea.

    Reply
    • Johnny

      June 7, 2020 at 4:25 pm

      I think there’s a distinction between actually being a video game (immersion) versus gamification (rewarding UX). The latter is the one you want. Ben the Bodyguard is a classic video game site that was taught in UI design about 10 years ago. For the latest and greatest, you can check out sites made for children or go to Awwwards.com and have a look around.

      Reply
      • Mike

        June 7, 2020 at 5:05 pm

        Thank you so much Johnny! That awards site is fantastic! What a perfect resource for inspiration. That Ben the Bodyguard site is perfect!! I think it’d be so cool to have that “door” be an entrance to the superhero lair.

        As a side note, thank you for all of the fantastic articles you’ve created, I’ve learned so much. I’m actually just about to get ready to mess around with Atomic Blocks thanks to your recommendation. One thing I was curious about, is the genesis sample site your favorite? That’s what I was figuring you were referring to.

        I really appreciate you taking the time to get back to me. Thank again for the amazing resources you’ve posted.

        Reply
        • Johnny

          June 7, 2020 at 5:37 pm

          Hey Mike, I’m really glad you found helpful stuff here. I clicked on your site and just wanted to say thanks for doing what you do for the community. I like the Genesis Framework but I don’t use the sample site…anything I do with Genesis is almost always a custom-coded theme. If you’re going the DIY route, I recommend GeneratePress for you.

          Reply
  2. Mike

    June 7, 2020 at 5:57 pm

    I will have to check out Generate Press, thank you for the recommendation. I actually purchased the studiopress theme bundle a long time ago when I was doing a site for a day care so all of your articles on Genesis have been very interesting to me.

    I’ve been very conflicted on how to go about setting up the Superhero Hill website, because really it is more for parents but I think it should be “fun”, that’s why coming across your article really got my brain churning. Also I’m probably over thinking it. I might even just go with something similar to James Clear’s site and add my own personal touches, he uses the Genesis Theme Mai Law Pro.

    You’ve taken a lot of time answering my questions tonight, I can’t thank you enough. I hope you have a wonderful weekend and as I like to say “a great every day”.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Footer

More links

  • Gadget reviews
  • Try my free WPJ plugins
  • Join the WPJ FB Group
  • WPJ YouTube & newsletter
  • Become a WPJ Affiliate

Popular Reviews

  • Best WordPress Hosting
  • Best WordPress Themes
  • Best WordPress Plugins
  • Best WordPress Cache Plugins

Services

  • Speed optimization
  • Speed optimization courses
  • WordPress hosting
  • Hire me or other experts
  • Client login

About Johnny

10+ years of WordPress design, development, hosting, speed optimization, marketing.
Contact me.

newsletter block

Copyright 2025 | WordPress guides by Johnny Nguyen

Click to Copy