10 Secret Ways Video Games Play YOU

All those desperation moments are perfectly controlled.

By Jack Pooley /

Naughty Dog

Even the most basic video game is infinitely more complex than it might at first seem, because even the simplest sequence in the most well-trod genre requires a skilled, committed team of designers and coders to convincingly put it all together.

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At their best, video games can make us forget about all the 1s and 0s that go into developing them, focusing instead on the thrill, the spectacle, and the sheer fun of it all.

It goes without saying that game developers have a slew of sneaky tricks up their sleeves in order to enhance the experience, many of which gamers wouldn't ever bother to consider.

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The result are games that as much react to you as you do to it, changing things on-the-fly to curate the most entertaining and intense experience that's just difficult enough, yet crucially not infuriating.

These 10 games all incorporated subtly brilliant programming sleights of hand to manipulate player behaviour and also give them a secret helping hand when they needed it most.

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Basically, the main lesson to take away from this is that video games are a lot less random than you probably think.

Most of those "lucky" escapes aren't so lucky, as for the most part they've been meticulously designed by extremely talented people to, well, play you like a damn fiddle...

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