The maker of the video game Genshin Impact has agreed to pay $20 million and to block children under 16 from making in-game purchases without parental consent to settle Federal Trade Commission all
For starters, children are legally barred from entering casinos, unlike many, many video games which include mtx, dark patterns such as layered currency obfuscation, pricing schemes that encourage you to buy that next tier amount of video game currency that always leave you with a bit left over, constantly asking the user if they want to buy something, designing the UI such that you always see what you’d be getting extra if you were levelling up the premium battle pass instead of the default one, etc etc… which are either directly targeted at, or allow children to play them.
Why are children banned from casinos?
Because their brains aren’t developed enough to properly understand risk vs reward.
Secondly, the social dynamics at play in both a casino and games with even only mtx cosmetics… both of these settings massively peer pressure the customer/consumer/mark into engaging with the gambling/mtx spending mechanics.
Its not just that whales are a thing that somehow exist prior to and outside of mtx games or casinos, its that the entire system is designed to pressure everyone who interacts with it in any capacity into breaking down and spending more and more.
These systems are designed to produce more, whales, more dolphins, to push everyone toward a higher class of spending irresponsibility regardless of the propensity upon entering.
Empirically, this works. Insanely well.
Saying ‘its all the whales fault’ is a cop out.
Its the fault of game execs and studios that hire psychologists to figure out how to design the most exploitative games possible, and lawyers to figure out how to legally justify this.
Its the fault of regulators being asleep at the wheel and allowing nearly the entire industry to get away with this shady bullshit for so long, usually with only slaps on the wrist.
You’re blaming the drug addicts in a society that’s normalized addiction.
I’m blaming the drug manufacturers, the pushers and the cops that look the other way because they or their boss gets a kick back.
That’s an insanely bad analogy.
For starters, children are legally barred from entering casinos, unlike many, many video games which include mtx, dark patterns such as layered currency obfuscation, pricing schemes that encourage you to buy that next tier amount of video game currency that always leave you with a bit left over, constantly asking the user if they want to buy something, designing the UI such that you always see what you’d be getting extra if you were levelling up the premium battle pass instead of the default one, etc etc… which are either directly targeted at, or allow children to play them.
Why are children banned from casinos?
Because their brains aren’t developed enough to properly understand risk vs reward.
Secondly, the social dynamics at play in both a casino and games with even only mtx cosmetics… both of these settings massively peer pressure the customer/consumer/mark into engaging with the gambling/mtx spending mechanics.
Its not just that whales are a thing that somehow exist prior to and outside of mtx games or casinos, its that the entire system is designed to pressure everyone who interacts with it in any capacity into breaking down and spending more and more.
These systems are designed to produce more, whales, more dolphins, to push everyone toward a higher class of spending irresponsibility regardless of the propensity upon entering.
Empirically, this works. Insanely well.
Saying ‘its all the whales fault’ is a cop out.
Its the fault of game execs and studios that hire psychologists to figure out how to design the most exploitative games possible, and lawyers to figure out how to legally justify this.
Its the fault of regulators being asleep at the wheel and allowing nearly the entire industry to get away with this shady bullshit for so long, usually with only slaps on the wrist.
You’re blaming the drug addicts in a society that’s normalized addiction.
I’m blaming the drug manufacturers, the pushers and the cops that look the other way because they or their boss gets a kick back.