4 ms·

> Or do you think people really needed to literally spend thousands of dollars on in-game items? No. But they wanted to, because the games create an endorphin

• tsimionescu 4y ago
  They are not - much of the time, they use similar technique, they are just enhanced by the game environment. It's not all pure endorphin though. For example, the game shows you that you can add up to three gems to get better rewards from some activity. When you go and buy those three gems and add them, the UI changes, showing you can actually add up to 10! Or, all of the prices in the store are very carefully calculated so you have to buy more of the in-game currency than you actually need - an item you are likely to want may cost 20 gems, but you can only buy bundles of 17 or 39 gems, for example. Sure, the endorphin rush is what makes you want the items to begin with, and there are aspects unique to the game design that encourage that. But there are a lot of other aspects of the game that are designed to confuse and convince players to spend more than they'd like.
  • eropple 4y ago
    You're totally right in your analysis. I'm not disagreeing with you at all about what these genuinely abominable games do, just the attribution of it. "Marketing" is a term of art; it means something.
• WalterBright 4y ago
  > Downright evil game design did "Endorphin rush" is just a fancy word for "fun". You claim it is evil for people to play a game because it's fun?
  • eropple 4y ago
    With respect, you are hiding the ball. Those two terms are not synonymous. Some users can experience an endorphin flood from achievement, not merely excitement through play, which is probably more analogous to "fun". What these designers have learned to do, however, is establish through the game's ephemera (art, sound, animation, number-go-up etc.) a direct connection between endorphins as achievement and spending money. You spend money, you get the hit. It's a straight line. And that, yes, I will call "downright evil", because it is exploitative abuse of the human firmware for mere profit. Developers of slot machines are excoriated for the same thing; there's no reason that virtual ones are any better.
    • WalterBright 4y ago
      You don't find achievement to be fun? I do. The attempt to draw a distinction as rather tortured, and doomed to failure.
  • mrguyorama 4y ago
    Do you think gambling addicts are having fun? Because when I stepped into the casino at 2pm, nobody looked like they were having fun, and the slots certainly weren't fun, despite all the flashy lights and sounds and manipulation around payouts.
    • WalterBright 4y ago
      If they weren't having fun, they'd go home.
      • eropple 4y ago
        This is a genuinely inhumane sentiment that elides both habituating and addictive factors in--well--everything. I am disappointed.
        • WalterBright 4y ago
          I know sugar is bad for me, but I ingest it anyway. Why? Because I like the taste. The same for coffee and alcohol. The same goes for every other self-destructive behavior I indulge in. I like the smell of cigarettes. I never smoked because I knew I'd like it a lot, and would not want to quit. Smokers I know like smoking. How about you?
      • EddieDante 4y ago
        This is like raping a guy and saying that if he didn't want it he wouldn't have gotten an erection.