Seriously, as of late we all know that designers of slotting machines have been called to help design mobile apps. Principles of addictive design are taken into account there.

As of late, I am wondering it that thrend might arrive or have arrive to some PC games? Applied to strategy games, it might go mainly in the interfaces, applying very short but still artificial delays when receving a reward, etcetera.

Civilization was famous for the "just one more turn" feeling, but maybe they are adding/might add more to that, artificially?

By "artificially", I mean design characteristics that are focused to "hook" the player BUT without ever giving a feeling of accomplishment or fulfillment. Instead, nudging the player to go on and on dronely, in the way of some mobile games.

Surely there are lines between designing a game to be appealing and adding design features that add little to gameplay but intend to manipulate the player into going on and on (at least, for a while).

Just wondering if you ever noticed anything like this as of late (with new games).

God bless America! Now we all can spend our earnings for doctors who treat game addictions. And I think it is less harmless than drugs (incl. tobacco, alcohol, stuff). But gaming with a portion of legalized substance (in some states) is just awesome! They should think how to cure this combo mix first.

Yes...they're called lootboxes....many are randomized/cost irl money to buy & are a scourge upon those with little-no self control.

HEY! Tobacco execs will still tell you that nicotine isn't addictive. :P

To be fair, in order to get treatment/aid for such problems in the US it must be legally classified as/officially deemed as an addiction first.

Also, it's better than doing nothing about the issues at hand....now perhaps some addicts can get subsidized counseling/other help if they truly have a problem and want to ween themselves off gaming in whole/in part.

Books are addictive, they are bad because they remove people from the real world into fantasy. Instead of learning to socialise they read endless number of books and become crazy and isolated. Especially books that contain fantasy elements that play on peoples desires. Then there are all the addictive plot lines that are written so you just want more and more. Say no to books.

Sorry to hear that. had a not too close relative of the generation of my parents with the same curse upon him, and infortunately died too young from cirrhosis. Always in mind when dealing with alcohol.

Then, had some friends who drunk simply too much and had the luck (since it was just luck) of not getting physically addicted, because of their genes, after having been downing 6-8 hard drinks per night, 2-3 days a week for years. One of them got a cron and another irritable bowel (that for the more evident damage) and doctors linked it somehow with drinking+chain smoking, so not that unscathed, but still lucky.

However, the psychological addiction, they had it. One of them started drinking at home every night right before going partying since he did not "feel himself" without drinking. I have seen him angry with himself once he had not. He said he did not like who he was without drinking. Alcohol made him his "true self". Man, if that is not sick, I dunno what it is. Again, very lucky to get just a psychological, easier to control addiction, than the potentially demolishing physical one.

The thing about drinking is that, at first, it seems to work: people become more extravert and relatable, the others seem nicer, problems fade away, anxiety becomes controllable and peace of mind is just one glass away... For a while.


If gaming is a vice, and it might be sometimes, then surely it is one of the most benign ones ever (if and only if compulsive spending is not a part of it).

So that is when you became Employee of the Month. High time you confessed it :-)

MMO games and others like Counter Strike did this.

A popular psychologist talks about gambling addictiveness. He also did research on alcoholism and found some people react to it like opiates.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YMTAZBe6cA

Man, that is essentially the theme of Don Quixote :-) Written tongue-in-the-cheek by a heavy reader and, of course, writer.

Actually he was just against very low quality writing. He saved the good ones (Amadis de Gaula, to name one). Maybe in our day and age we could tell appart, say, Crepuscle and its brethen (cheap fantasy romance) from Lord of the Rings?

Right now, concerning games, the problem might lie more in additive mobile apps. Concerning PC gaming, compulsive spending, including lootboxes, as Gamerager pointed out.

Also, some sort of minimal equilibrium in life is just healthy. Like walking 20 minutes per day as a bare minimun, rain or snow, no matter how busy you are.

That first bit is from TinyE.....I put his replies in generic quote tags out of respect to his request(albeit a bit unreasonable imo) to not reply to him directly ever again.

Thanks for the link. I like how he put it: there is a big difference between taking a chance and gambling.

He also alludes to the fact that we are all wired to take chances in order to survive. BUT then, gambling is way different. It is set up mathematically; it is impossible to win in the long run. People are very bad ad calculating mathematical probabilities, and they believe they are taking chances, playing, when they are doing something way different, gambling and therefore falling into a (mathematical) trap that someone trained in probabilities set up for them.

Paraphrased a little, but that is the idea.

Nicely put by J. P.

This.....when I said I liked labelling gaming as addictive(or inferred it) I meant gaming that, when one is hooked to it, leads to some sort of harm(Be it phsyical, mental, or financial).

My mistake, then.

Again, sorry for your loss. May you remember all the good about her.

Peace.

Thanks for the well wishes/condolences. :)

and the biological effects like variable ratio rewards and other schemes to take advantage of peoples brain chemistry.