This thread is basically my list of citations for when we do a fresh “ethics in games/addiction” panel or lecture.
Illinois parent, are you the GeekNights listener?
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Do NOT play the mobile Diablo.
The pay one price and get everything classic version of Angry Birds still existing was hurting the revenues of the free to play one, so they got rid of the non-free one. pikachu.jpg
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I forgot about our “what if there is the videogame equivalent of poison” question.
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https://blog.curtii.com/blog/posts/wordscapes-the-casino-in-your-pocket/
Do NOT play Mt. Fortune. If you want to push your luck, just play Deep Sea Adventure or Can’t Stop with your friends.
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https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-issues-draft-rules-online-game-management-2023-12-22/
The precise details of the policy aren’t clear. The article only says:
The new rules, which will effectively set spending limits for online games
and
Online games will now be banned from giving players rewards if they log in every day, if they spend on the game for the first time or if they spend several times on the game consecutively.
A hard spending limit is such a simple and genius policy. Most of these games have a model where a very large number of players play for free, and a few players are whales that spend way too much. A hard spending cap could potentially cut off the overwhelming majority of the revenue.
For example, imagine if a game has 100 players. 5 of them spend $1000 a month, 20 spend $10 a month, and the rest spend zero. That’s $2200 a month revenues. Setting a spending cap of $10 drops that down to $220.
When a hard spending cap is in place, the games models will have to completely change. Instead of taking advantage of gambling addicts and milking them dry, they’ll have to instead develop features and offer things that will appeal to more players to spend that $10.
I am not optimistic, but I am hopeful, that the best way to do that is to make a compelling game and to charge a subscription fee that is equal to the limit. Not to try to do gambling nonsense.
As for the other rules, I especially like the rule against daily login rewards. Even I am extremely weak to that mechanic even when it doesn’t cost me any money. It allows games to rudely insert themselves into a person’s daily routine, slightly disrupting their lives even if it doesn’t disrupt their wallets. Every day a person either remembers to play the game, or they forget and have a tiny pang of regret and FOMO. That’s just not cool.