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Looking forward to the day mobile game developers stop their whale-harpooning degeneracy. It's extremely difficult to do discovery of good games on the play sto

Looking forward to the day mobile game developers stop their whale-harpooning degeneracy. It's extremely difficult to do discovery of good games on the play store when the top lists are full of games with lootboxes. It is almost always a signal of in-game incentives to push you to pay to advance.

sneak 6y ago
Harpooning a whale is a strange metaphor for selling a product to a willing and consenting customer.
- SubiculumCode 6y ago
  Crack addicts are willing and consenting consumers. Doesn't mean they aren't acting under a physiological and psychological duress from their addiction. The evidence has clearly shown that gambling is analogous for many people.
- whatshisface 6y ago
  A willing and consenting customer is not always of sound mind or capable of consent. Spending tens of thousands on mobile games may be fair evidence of lacking the capacity for consent.
  - sneak 6y ago
    I'm not sure that a gambling addiction comprises an inability to consent. It's a common belief that someone needs to "save addicts from themselves", but I can't see any moral basis for anyone else to claim the authority to do so.
    - whatshisface 6y ago
      I think the argument goes like this: If you think anyone can be incapable of consent at any time, you probably think that because sometimes people's brains are not able to figure out what they really want. If you think that sometimes people's brains can't figure out what they want, then you probably think that irrational behavior is a good sign of that. If you think that irrational behavior is a good sign of incapacity to consent, then you probably think that spending tens of thousands on mobile games is evidence of the incapacity to consent to do that. You're welcome to get off that line at any point, but you'd have to pick one of the steps, and they all seem reasonable. I'm not 100% sure how the following quote applies, but it seems like it's relevant somehow: "Sure there's a catch," Doc Daneeka replied. "Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn't really crazy."
      - sneak 6y ago
        Nearly all human behavior is irrational.
- genericone 6y ago
  If it looks like a whale, swims like a whale, and spends like a whale, then it probably is a whale. These companies have created an entire industry on identifying, tracking, and incentivizing whales, at the cost of wrecking casual gaming "for the rest of us". Maybe I'm just selfish, but I want these companies to go fishing, target MY consumer behaviors, set ME in your sights. My wants, and perhaps the wants of a vastly larger player-base, are being ignored in favor of whales.

sneak 6y ago

Harpooning a whale is a strange metaphor for selling a product to a willing and consenting customer.

SubiculumCode 6y ago
Crack addicts are willing and consenting consumers. Doesn't mean they aren't acting under a physiological and psychological duress from their addiction. The evidence has clearly shown that gambling is analogous for many people.
whatshisface 6y ago
A willing and consenting customer is not always of sound mind or capable of consent. Spending tens of thousands on mobile games may be fair evidence of lacking the capacity for consent.
- sneak 6y ago
  I'm not sure that a gambling addiction comprises an inability to consent. It's a common belief that someone needs to "save addicts from themselves", but I can't see any moral basis for anyone else to claim the authority to do so.
  - whatshisface 6y ago
    I think the argument goes like this: If you think anyone can be incapable of consent at any time, you probably think that because sometimes people's brains are not able to figure out what they really want. If you think that sometimes people's brains can't figure out what they want, then you probably think that irrational behavior is a good sign of that. If you think that irrational behavior is a good sign of incapacity to consent, then you probably think that spending tens of thousands on mobile games is evidence of the incapacity to consent to do that. You're welcome to get off that line at any point, but you'd have to pick one of the steps, and they all seem reasonable. I'm not 100% sure how the following quote applies, but it seems like it's relevant somehow: "Sure there's a catch," Doc Daneeka replied. "Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn't really crazy."
    - sneak 6y ago
      Nearly all human behavior is irrational.
genericone 6y ago
If it looks like a whale, swims like a whale, and spends like a whale, then it probably is a whale. These companies have created an entire industry on identifying, tracking, and incentivizing whales, at the cost of wrecking casual gaming "for the rest of us". Maybe I'm just selfish, but I want these companies to go fishing, target MY consumer behaviors, set ME in your sights. My wants, and perhaps the wants of a vastly larger player-base, are being ignored in favor of whales.