I was going to say something brief about how this works video games but it turned into an essay, hopefully since you just read a book on the subject this is interesting >.>
The 'flow' thing reminds me of the design of a lot of "free to play" mobile games, which get you quickly and easily into the zone...and then grind to a sudden halt right when you're JUST about to achieve something satisfying. To progress further, either you do something annoying which breaks the flow (wait a day, do a bunch of less fun repetitive actions, etc) or pay money to keep the game going immediately. And my understanding is that if you do, it later grinds to a halt again until you pay EVEN MORE money, etc. There's often a randomised component to it as well, which hits that Gambling Button for some people and means there's no upper limit on how much you can spend. Some of these games are really beautifully designed, I would happily buy a regular version without the microtransactions, but that's not where the profit is. Especially since you can aim these games at children... :/ :/ The fact that there's no possibility of winning any real money back is often cited as a reason these mechanics are harmless but they're intensely addictive, so you saying slot machine gamblers aren't actually there for the money either makes a lot of sense.
Luckily I have resisted the urge to spend money on any of these games myself and there are plenty of less predatory games out there which hit a similar button for me. But I can definitely see how people get sucked in, and unfortunately it's not a neat line. Video games CAN be a cost efficient way to get into the zone, but the industry is RIFE with predatory design.
I've been playing a lot of FFXIV, which is subscription based and quite enjoyable without paying anything above the base subscription, but there are definitely points where I've gone "This is going great, but it would be more satisfying if I had a bit more inventory space, is there a way to...ah, if I pay a bit more on my subscription :/" etc. Luckily it's not randomised so I suppose there's an upper limit on how much people can spend per month but once you include all the possible purchases it adds up.
A lot of mainstream games have a 'minor' microtransaction component which most players happily ignore, a few shell out a bit of extra money for, and a small number of people become massively addicted to. And this is by design: a lot of players avoid anything obviously designed to suck money out of them, but see these 'minor' microtransactions as innocuous, and while most people really don't get sucked in it only takes a few players paying large amounts to make them profitable. And what these sorts of video games often have that slot machines don't is peer pressure: cool cosmetic items to impress other players that you can only get for cash, often randomised so again there's no upper limit on how much you might end up spending. I've heard a lot of horror stories of people buying a randomised cosmetic item 'for harmless fun', and it spiralling into addiction, or children being bullied for not having The Cool Fortnite Dance.
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Date: 2022-06-22 09:05 pm (UTC)The 'flow' thing reminds me of the design of a lot of "free to play" mobile games, which get you quickly and easily into the zone...and then grind to a sudden halt right when you're JUST about to achieve something satisfying. To progress further, either you do something annoying which breaks the flow (wait a day, do a bunch of less fun repetitive actions, etc) or pay money to keep the game going immediately. And my understanding is that if you do, it later grinds to a halt again until you pay EVEN MORE money, etc. There's often a randomised component to it as well, which hits that Gambling Button for some people and means there's no upper limit on how much you can spend. Some of these games are really beautifully designed, I would happily buy a regular version without the microtransactions, but that's not where the profit is. Especially since you can aim these games at children... :/ :/ The fact that there's no possibility of winning any real money back is often cited as a reason these mechanics are harmless but they're intensely addictive, so you saying slot machine gamblers aren't actually there for the money either makes a lot of sense.
Luckily I have resisted the urge to spend money on any of these games myself and there are plenty of less predatory games out there which hit a similar button for me. But I can definitely see how people get sucked in, and unfortunately it's not a neat line. Video games CAN be a cost efficient way to get into the zone, but the industry is RIFE with predatory design.
I've been playing a lot of FFXIV, which is subscription based and quite enjoyable without paying anything above the base subscription, but there are definitely points where I've gone "This is going great, but it would be more satisfying if I had a bit more inventory space, is there a way to...ah, if I pay a bit more on my subscription :/" etc. Luckily it's not randomised so I suppose there's an upper limit on how much people can spend per month but once you include all the possible purchases it adds up.
A lot of mainstream games have a 'minor' microtransaction component which most players happily ignore, a few shell out a bit of extra money for, and a small number of people become massively addicted to. And this is by design: a lot of players avoid anything obviously designed to suck money out of them, but see these 'minor' microtransactions as innocuous, and while most people really don't get sucked in it only takes a few players paying large amounts to make them profitable. And what these sorts of video games often have that slot machines don't is peer pressure: cool cosmetic items to impress other players that you can only get for cash, often randomised so again there's no upper limit on how much you might end up spending. I've heard a lot of horror stories of people buying a randomised cosmetic item 'for harmless fun', and it spiralling into addiction, or children being bullied for not having The Cool Fortnite Dance.
Jimquisition has talked about all this a lot, The Addictive Cost Of Predatory Videogame Monetization is a general discussion.