> Arcade games were designed to extract quarters from consumers I think the point of the article is about making games less fun and more grinding, preying on g

> Arcade games were designed to extract quarters from consumers I think the point of the article is about making games less fun and more grinding, preying on gambling addiction, the gatherer-hunter instinct (gotta catch'em all), and the sunken costs fallacy (if I stop playing I lose all my efforts). Take Pokémon Go, which is free to play, and the transactions are optional and not completely pay-to-win. The main game mechanic is mind-numbing repetition, the same actions done tens of thousands of times for meager rewards, and the occasional good reward, chasing the moving goal post. That game is not fun by any stretch of the word, it's a grind designed to keep players trapped for years. Paying quarters for having fun for 15 minutes was better than not paying for mindlessly grinding. Games are supposed to be fun, not exploitative.