"Games like 2048 offer players two of the biggest dopamine boosters," Willis says, which are: 1. The power of prediction ... scoreboard eight times out of 10, your brain will still demand ...

The aim of the game? Reach 2048. It’s nothing but basic math, the integral powers of two, going up indefinitely—2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, and so on. But before too long, once straightforward ...