5 ms·

So what? Microsoft increases Office prices, Google fills the page with even more ads, Zynga ads legal gambling.

TomGullen 14y ago
Google increasing the volume of ads does not exploit peoples addictions (of which a huge chunk of their revenues would derive from) Zynga releasing a skinned online casino doesn't check any of HN's boxes of values in my opinion.
- OGinparadise 14y ago
  Let's see: By increasing prices Microsoft exploits already hooked business, increasing their costs; Google by adding ads cuts traffic to non-paying sites (ads are on top) and causes consumers to pay more. All these have consequences and display no innovation, just opportunism. Sure gambling is a tricky moral issue but it's legal. Entire communities and even states depend on it. Why shouldn't Zynga get a cut?
  - TomGullen 14y ago
    It's a completely different type of exploitation to online gambling. Online gambling exploits individuals, some of whom struggle with reason and control at great expense to themselves and the people around them. The profit gained from these individuals is sometimes not proportionate to the amount of pain it inflicted. Office raising their prices mainly exploits businesses. These businesses are not buying Office based strongly off impulse and irrationality, and I'm sure a lot of these companies would not weep regrettably into their pillows after purchasing it. Their buying process is rational, and based on need. Online gambling can be entirely irrational, out of control and is never based on addressing a need. I think from a utilitarian point of view it would be quite easy to argue that online gambling causes net misery. I don't blame Zynga for taking this route, I'm not surprised. But it doesn't mean I can express my distaste for something I think is ethically questionable.
- nkohari 14y ago
  You're upset because Zynga is exploiting addictive behaviors? That's their entire business model, and always has been.
  - TomGullen 14y ago
    That sort of model doesn't sit well with me, sure. The problem is when you introduce real money gambling you've amped the entire thing up and it becomes a lot easier for individuals to damage themselves more, and faster.

Google increasing the volume of ads does not exploit peoples addictions (of which a huge chunk of their revenues would derive from) Zynga releasing a skinned online casino doesn't check any of HN's boxes of values in my opinion.

OGinparadise 14y ago
Let's see: By increasing prices Microsoft exploits already hooked business, increasing their costs; Google by adding ads cuts traffic to non-paying sites (ads are on top) and causes consumers to pay more. All these have consequences and display no innovation, just opportunism. Sure gambling is a tricky moral issue but it's legal. Entire communities and even states depend on it. Why shouldn't Zynga get a cut?
- TomGullen 14y ago
  It's a completely different type of exploitation to online gambling. Online gambling exploits individuals, some of whom struggle with reason and control at great expense to themselves and the people around them. The profit gained from these individuals is sometimes not proportionate to the amount of pain it inflicted. Office raising their prices mainly exploits businesses. These businesses are not buying Office based strongly off impulse and irrationality, and I'm sure a lot of these companies would not weep regrettably into their pillows after purchasing it. Their buying process is rational, and based on need. Online gambling can be entirely irrational, out of control and is never based on addressing a need. I think from a utilitarian point of view it would be quite easy to argue that online gambling causes net misery. I don't blame Zynga for taking this route, I'm not surprised. But it doesn't mean I can express my distaste for something I think is ethically questionable.
nkohari 14y ago
You're upset because Zynga is exploiting addictive behaviors? That's their entire business model, and always has been.
- TomGullen 14y ago
  That sort of model doesn't sit well with me, sure. The problem is when you introduce real money gambling you've amped the entire thing up and it becomes a lot easier for individuals to damage themselves more, and faster.