Psychology, right?

Lately ive been addicted to little called Monster Manor on the 3ds. Its very simple but theres enough depth to keep me playing.(Oh btw in order to play i need to earn Play Coins which requires to me to wank my 3ds up and down hours on end -__-)

I always find my myself questioning "Why is this fun?" I have tons of other, "better" games to play but i keep coming back to this one. Is it because of its cute and colorful charm? Is it because of the real-time rpg battles? the rewarding upgrading system?? WHY!? then again whats the reason people get addicted to angry birds? LOL

So basically im just wondering whats the bare minimum a game needs to successfully trap people? Do we even know ourselves why we fall victim to such pleasures?

Do we even know ourselves why we fall victim to such pleasures?

My first few posts on this site tried to get to the root of this question. Here is one:

http://www.gamedev.net/topic/652775-whats-in-a-game/

A lot of good responses there too.

best answer ive been able to come up with is what i call the "challenge - reward feedback loop".

a challenge is presented to the player. the player overcomes the challenge, and receives a reward.

the player then receives a greater challenge for a greater reward.

and so on.

rewards can make it easier for the player to overcome future challenges (better gear, skills, etc), or not (top score only).