Note: This is going to be a long post. As you know Destiny is a game of grinding([url=http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0HoP0fO3ui4]insert Lil Wayne voice[/url]) that requires you to keep coming back every week to complete the same tasks over and over again. For those of you that have played an MMO before you know what this is like, although with Destiny, this is on a much smaller scale. The reason you keep coming back? To hopefully get that one exotic or one piece of raid gear or one weapon that you really want(I want Gjallarhorn). You keep doing these tasks over and over to hopefully get rewarded with what you want. Enter B. F. Skinner(affectionately called Big Forehead Skinner by my Psych teacher back in HS), a behavioral psychologist who is credited with being the father of [url=http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/introopcond.htm]Operant Conditioning[/url](which built off of Thorndike's [url=http://psychology.about.com/od/lindex/g/lawofeffect.htm]Law of Effect)[/url]. Operant Conditioning works on a simply idea, [url=http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/introopcond.htm]"actions that are followed by reinforcement will be strengthened and more likely to occur again in the future."[/url] Example: If you tell a funny story and everyone laughs, you will be more likely to tell that story again. However if you tell that story to a different group, but this time no one laughs, you will be less likely to tell that story again. Skinner created a "laboratory apparatus" used in the study of animal behavior called the [url=http://psychology.about.com/od/sindex/g/def_skinnerbox.htmx]Skinner Box[/url]. The Skinner Box required the animal to press a lever to receive food or sometimes other stimuli like lights, sounds, and images. Skinner would have a schedule for the animal to keep pressing that lever and eventually the animal could be conditioned to press that lever on a regular schedule. So where am I going with this? Basically Destiny is like a Skinner Box. We've been conditioned to keep coming back every week. That's why it's so addictive.