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I have a hard time understanding slot machines. They are so extremely boring. Are they a late stage addiction phenomena? Like, lowest effort gamling dose, or s

I have a hard time understanding slot machines. They are so extremely boring. Are they a late stage addiction phenomena? Like, lowest effort gamling dose, or something?

mrguyorama 4y ago
They're entire purpose, all the effort in engineering and designing them, is to push the dopamine response of people who have brains that are prone to gambling addiction. These companies hire psychologists to help them find ways to push that button harder. Every beep, every flash, every diagram on them, the way payouts are structured, the way the buttons feel, the NAME, is meant to take advantage of people who get dopamine responses from exactly that. They are digital heroin, except they've been engineered instead of a quirk of evolution. And it is perfectly legal. We KNOW that certain people get addicted to these machines, to the point of being basically physically unable to control their interactions with gambling machines, and it is perfectly legal to start a company and hire psychologists and build machines with the sole purpose and goal of milking these problem gamblers for every cent they have access to, including debt they could conceivably take on.
WorldMaker 4y ago
They are intentional experiences with lights, sounds, colors, haptic feedbacks ("chair shaking" is a modern feature often big on the "features list"). It's a lot of the things that make a good pinball machine without the skill needed to play pinball for divergent evolutionary reasons (early slot machines were pinball machines and pachinko machines are still huge in Asia). The sensory overload lights up a lot of interesting parts of the brain all at once. It's like food science trying to meticulously create all those "super addictive foods" that hit salty/savory/sweet/umami/fatty taste buds all at once in wild combinations. Overwhelm the senses and tell people they are having an exciting time doing practically nothing.

I have a hard time understanding slot machines. They are so extremely boring. Are they a late stage addiction phenomena? Like, lowest effort gamling dose, or something?

mrguyorama 4y ago

They're entire purpose, all the effort in engineering and designing them, is to push the dopamine response of people who have brains that are prone to gambling addiction. These companies hire psychologists to help them find ways to push that button harder. Every beep, every flash, every diagram on them, the way payouts are structured, the way the buttons feel, the NAME, is meant to take advantage of people who get dopamine responses from exactly that. They are digital heroin, except they've been engineered instead of a quirk of evolution. And it is perfectly legal. We KNOW that certain people get addicted to these machines, to the point of being basically physically unable to control their interactions with gambling machines, and it is perfectly legal to start a company and hire psychologists and build machines with the sole purpose and goal of milking these problem gamblers for every cent they have access to, including debt they could conceivably take on.

WorldMaker 4y ago

They are intentional experiences with lights, sounds, colors, haptic feedbacks ("chair shaking" is a modern feature often big on the "features list"). It's a lot of the things that make a good pinball machine without the skill needed to play pinball for divergent evolutionary reasons (early slot machines were pinball machines and pachinko machines are still huge in Asia). The sensory overload lights up a lot of interesting parts of the brain all at once. It's like food science trying to meticulously create all those "super addictive foods" that hit salty/savory/sweet/umami/fatty taste buds all at once in wild combinations. Overwhelm the senses and tell people they are having an exciting time doing practically nothing.