That's a very postmodern take on the art of gaming. So, supposedly slot machines are on par with chess? "Just dopamine manipulation" and "glorified slot machin

That's a very postmodern take on the art of gaming. So, supposedly slot machines are on par with chess? "Just dopamine manipulation" and "glorified slot machine" are overly deconstructive and cynical beliefs, to the point where I doubt having this mindset could ever lead to creating a good game like Diablo 2. You could deconstruct all of human behaviour to dopamine spikes, but that kind of thinking usually leads to a race to the bottom; like what you're not necessarily defending but excusing. Most of the games we love were at the very least heavily influenced by game design developed by naive artists and programmers who wanted to "make something cool". Doom is the perfect example, in terms of both game design and tech. id Software wanted to blow everyone out of the water with that game, and so they focused on making it as fun and impressive as possible. There was no mentality of skinner boxes there, just inspired ambition and love of play. Yes, almost all games are made to make money. That doesn't preclude artistic ambition, and good games are primarily about making something fun.