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"Addiction By Design" by Natasha Dow Schull is a really great book about the slot machine industry. The author draws a distinction between two types of gamblin

"Addiction By Design" by Natasha Dow Schull is a really great book about the slot machine industry. The author draws a distinction between two types of gambling addiction. One kind of addicted gambler is what you would typically think of -- they are motivated by some kind of perverse desire for a thrill, they may try to bet big to make back their losses. They tend to play table games or bet on sports. This is a stereotypically masculine group. She describes the gamblers who play slot machines (stereotypically feminine) as having a very different psychology. They're not really trying to win big and don't imagine what they will -- they're in it to keep playing, to stay in what she calls the "zone". So for this group of gamblers, it kind of makes sense that it's possible to reproduce the same mental state without the possibility of actually winning money. Winning more tokens really is rewarding, because it increases the amount of time they can continue playing. An interesting thing is that lot of techniques recognizable to the tech industry were done first as early as the 90s by slot machine companies and casinos. Very sophisticated A/B and UX testing of both the slot machines and the casino environment with a focus on optimizing time on device. Also, an incredibly sad story I remember from that book: Schull describes a gambler who got to the point where she could not compel herself to get up from the slot machine, yet was exhausted and wanted to go home. She began to mentally treat each loss as a win and each win as a loss, because she knew she wouldn't be able to leave until she had lost all her money.

drchopchop 6y ago
The psychology is very important. All the big players in this space employ people with experience designing actual Vegas slot machines, and the goal is to try to replicate it as much as possible. Everything from the line patterns, to the way words and icons pop, to the arpeggiated audio cues, is taken straight from tried-and-true Vegas templates. For someone who has spent time in real casinos, these games will feel very familiar, and trigger the same emotions. The trick with online, free-to-play versions is to forcibly stop the player when they've run out of coins, and say "come back tomorrow to collect your small refill, or pay us $2.99 right now to keep the fun going". And then throw every pricy psychology trick in the book at them to try to get them to break the seal of that initial purchase (because then the rest come much easier).

drchopchop 6y ago

The psychology is very important. All the big players in this space employ people with experience designing actual Vegas slot machines, and the goal is to try to replicate it as much as possible. Everything from the line patterns, to the way words and icons pop, to the arpeggiated audio cues, is taken straight from tried-and-true Vegas templates. For someone who has spent time in real casinos, these games will feel very familiar, and trigger the same emotions. The trick with online, free-to-play versions is to forcibly stop the player when they've run out of coins, and say "come back tomorrow to collect your small refill, or pay us $2.99 right now to keep the fun going". And then throw every pricy psychology trick in the book at them to try to get them to break the seal of that initial purchase (because then the rest come much easier).