> Back when games were bought on a disk or cartridge and didn't feature any sort of micro-transactions there was no point in making a game addictive. is this r

> Back when games were bought on a disk or cartridge and didn't feature any sort of micro-transactions there was no point in making a game addictive. is this really true? when I was a kid (long enough ago that there were no skins or loot boxes), the most effective way to make me want a game was to see my friends playing it and having fun. there were probably tons of short single-player games that I was never aware of because people would just finish them quickly and not play while friends were over. but I still have vivid memories of watching people play smash and desperately wanting my own N64. maybe the industry wasn't so ruthlessly capitalistic back then, but there had to be some execs that realized how much free marketing you get out of addictive console games.