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Hatchimals are this too, though in fairness, "surprise mechanics" have been a thing basically since forever— at least in my day you graduated from kinder eggs t
by mikepurvis 7y ago
Hatchimals are this too, though in fairness, "surprise mechanics" have been a thing basically since forever— at least in my day you graduated from kinder eggs to magic the gathering booster packs.
- sitkack 7y agoBecause triggering a dopamine response in a child in the procurement path of a toy has become normalized in the toy industry, doesn't mean we shouldn't recognize it and try to contain it. I realized with embarrassing dread when my child opened an LOL, that opening any package in front of them has trained them in ways that shouldn't be trained into a child, let alone anyone. The weekly stream of skinner boxes has us de-evolving. I'll also limit the amount of online shopping I do in front of children, it has the same issues.
- mikepurvis 7y agoYeah, not trying to downplay the concern— kids have always been excited by wrapped up presents at Christmas and birthday times. But it does become a concern when the only thing that can hold their attention is the new thing, especially if you find yourself in that death spiral of doing Marie Kondo style purges of all your "clutter" only to find yourself re-buying the same stuff over again for the acquisition hit. I wonder about myself with this when comes time for things like humble bundle, or when you look at people trading massive backlogs back and forth on r/steamgameswap. Like, I definitely do get totally sucked into particular games (recently on a turn-based kick with Into the Breach and Invisible Inc), and I'm not going to force myself to play something that hasn't grabbed my interest, but like everyone else, I have lots of games in backlog, many of which will never be played or even downloaded. Is this healthy? Is it a good example to be setting for my kids?