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Videogame Developers Are Making It Harder To Stop Playing (wsj.com)
Videogames have gotten harder to turn off, mental-health experts and parents say, raising concerns about the impact of seemingly endless gaming sessions on players' lives. From a report: Game developers for years have tweaked the dials not only on how games look and sound but how they operate under the hood, and such changes have made videogames more pervasive and enthralling, industry observers say. The World Health Organization in June added "gaming disorder" to an updated version of its International Classification of Diseases, warning about a condition in which people give up interests and activities to overly indulge in gaming despite negative consequences. It is expected to be formally classified in January 2022.
Many games today are free, available on multiple devices, and double as social networks. Where once games were played and put away for a while, now game companies are routinely delivering new content aimed at keeping players constantly engaged. Some new content is available only for a limited time, a maneuver that tugs at people's fears of missing out, psychologists say. "Videogames are engineered specifically to keep people playing," said Douglas A. Gentile, a research scientist focused on the impact of media on children and adults. "They're designed to hit the pleasure centers of the brain in some of the same ways that gambling can."
Many games today are free, available on multiple devices, and double as social networks. Where once games were played and put away for a while, now game companies are routinely delivering new content aimed at keeping players constantly engaged. Some new content is available only for a limited time, a maneuver that tugs at people's fears of missing out, psychologists say. "Videogames are engineered specifically to keep people playing," said Douglas A. Gentile, a research scientist focused on the impact of media on children and adults. "They're designed to hit the pleasure centers of the brain in some of the same ways that gambling can."
When my kids were born, I stopped playing and never went back. I would play for hours and feel empty afterwards. That was before pay to play I could see where it was all heading. Instead I started to work on development side projects (when not spending time with my family), and now I have a resume a mile long.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Games are actually the superset of all education, art, entertainment and sports.
The purpose of playing is actually, to have a safe, and a bit simplified on its essence, testing rig, for training for something in real life. So it is the ideal education.
And just like art, it is supposed to communicate deep insights
Aaand what the "games industry" produces, has absolutely nothing to do with that.
Just like with any other industry that grew, like a cancer, on top of forms of art or sports, it tries to form things into a "product", trying to "maximize profit"... thereby ruining the entire damn point of art or sports beyond all recognition.
That is the difference between an art industry, and the artist "industry" (which isn't really interested in being an industry). They are direct enemies.
IMHO the former is just a bunch of coke-headed leeches, trying to suck as much money out of artists and their fans as physically possible, wile doing as little value-adding work as physically possible! And IMHO, prison is the correct reaction, that should follow something like that in a sane world.
But no surprise that they'd try to turn into drug dealers too. They probably haven't seen a day without cocaine in the last 100 years. And maybe LSD.
It is society that is making it hard for game players to stop playing. As a long time player let me explain why.
I hate games that use RNG as a difficulty crutch (some rouge likes), gambler logic (loot boxes), and Feed and Starve (candy crush/pay for lives/continues) to hook me. Why ? because it makes me angry when playing their games because I know what gambling is and how it works on the mind, but more importantly, because I am looking for MORE from my game than simple risk/reward gimmicks.
It would be interesting in a study to see if people with more developed intellectual capacity fall for these game types than people who have not cared to develop their intellectual capacities. I admit that I believe that some people are hooked on these games because they either do not care or are shallow enough to allow their time to be used in this way.
That said, I think the distinction in such a study needs to be on people that actually have some form of addiction. It does not need to be major, but enough of one where it is clear that their gaming habits are at least noticeably affecting their work/friend/love/life balances.
People who play these games just to pass the time as they move from moment to moment in life should not be considered, regardless of the types of games they play. They are clearly immune or are able to see these gimmicks for what they are.
As a gamer myself, I hate most MMO's as a never ending grindfest, mobs stand around like cattle, bosses never really die, the environments are not really changeable by the players actions, though so mmo's try to emulate this with updates. I mean nothing says it more than... go kill 10 slimes and return here. Or running the same stage over and over and over ad nauseum where one mistake can lead to disaster and angry people because game balance in MMO's always mean as a single unit you are never strong or capable. Sure teamwork is nice but if those monsters are really that strong how can the popoulations the players represent live in those worlds? O right, I forgot, bosses are immortal, over sized and never have to leave their lairs and just happen to have mobs of defender acolytes for what reason again?
I liked terraria for the exploration, world modification, and creative boss fights, though I do not think the boss fights are really balanced.
I liked factorio for its complex crafting and logic gameplay, but mobs on even the hardest configurations are pie cake to deal with and at best annoyance.
I very much appreciate games that provide at least semi plausible reasons for things going on, not just being used as plot devices or macguffins.
it is my opinion that because society is more about giving people knowledge without actually attempting to teach them "why" that knowledge if valuable, they waste it or misunderstand it leading them to become easily suckered by so many things... least of which is a game with mechanics so simple that only a simple mind can enjoy them! Or in short, shallow risk reward mechanics! People who require "deeper" and "more meaningful" experiences are busy doing something else because these games are just too shallow to hold their attention.
So can you really blame game developers for figuring out how the simple minded tick? Nope! Just give them their money, they earned it! Or rather, they earned tricking it out of their pockets!
> men are choosing to enjoy video games rather than go out in the world, get married, have children, ...
Jordan Peterson calls (*) this behavior MGTOW Men Go Their Own Way.
It is not just him saying that.
There are certain men who refuse to work with women because anytime a woman claims she was harassed the man is automatically presumed guilty until proven innocent.
In Tim Pool's video he discusses a famous Fortnite YouTuber, known as Ninja, Tyler Blevins. Specifically, Tyler Blevins' decision where Tyler says would not stream with women because people would then harass his family and accuse him of having an affair.
Quoting the interview from Variety:
If you redd the the comments in Tim Pool's video you will find tons of horror stories where a man was falsely accused and had to defend his integrity -- at great cost.
Can you blame them that some men just go "Fuck it. I don't need this drama."
(*) For the record Jordan admits he was dismissive of calling MGOTW as "pathetic weasels." It takes a man with integrityto admit he was wrong. Good that he owned up to that epithet.
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Stupid Juvenile Whiners tactics Rule #3
3. Ad hominem fallacy -- start screaming insults at everyone who disagrees (Whine). i.e. "Haters going to hate"