Yeah they should be cracking down on companies like blizzard who hire literal psychologists to make their games more addictive. That and also predatory monetization like gacha shit.
There's a whole corner of the advertising world dedicated to straight-up fooling consumers. They study things like how a taller, thinner package is perceived to have a greater volume than a shorter, wider package that in fact holds the same amount of product. They then use that knowledge to give you less stuff for your money without you knowing.
One of the easiest places to attack free market fundamentalism is on the baseline assumption that real-world markets operate with something approximating perfect information. Not only is it far from the case that all participants have perfect information, but you have huge companies dedicating effort to fool ordinary consumers who don't have the time or energy to sift through all this shit.
hire literal psychologists to make their games more addictive.
I don't know if that's actually true of B-A or not, but in most cases, where I've seen psychologists hired in games it's either been in design, because they specialize in decision-making in high-complexity systems (so, 'what choices can I give a player at this juncture that they will recognize as choices in the amount of time they have, and what would mislead them about their options?'), because they specialize in group-behavior ('how do I make these online psychopaths behave themselves?' - this never works), or to run research labs (big studios do this, little ones don't) or to do BI work. I've never actually met a psychologist who did work on making games explicitly addictive.
it made the rounds in the news a few years back. it absolutely happens. They're involved in everything including making sure the animation that plays when you open a loot box is maximally pleasing to get you to keep playing / purchasing.
Wouldn't shock me if Activision had those folks. I can say, however, that at most companies, it's actually just an artist or UX person who is doing research on things like "how do I make this ceremony maximally impactful", not an actual psychologist, and the only people who actually see the overall system for what it is are at a production level. "I want opening a loot box to feel good" doesn't seem like the kind of exploitation it actually is from the ground level, because the individual implementer just sees it as a variation on, "This should look good!" Banality of evil, etc, etc.
There are games that have mechanisms like that which directly punish bad behavior with bad outcomes, but the problem is that the problem of online abuse is worst in team games and punishing one member of a team punishes the whole team. What's worse, it becomes a tool with which to troll your teammates, either by sicing it on them or provoking it on yourself.
Unless you're suggesting that game developers start engaging in warlockry, in which case, I am onboard. We haven't tried summoning a devil to solve this problem.
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Yeah they should be cracking down on companies like blizzard who hire literal psychologists to make their games more addictive. That and also predatory monetization like gacha shit.
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Wait till I tell you about the psychologists that work in literally every other consumer industry.
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There's a whole corner of the advertising world dedicated to straight-up fooling consumers. They study things like how a taller, thinner package is perceived to have a greater volume than a shorter, wider package that in fact holds the same amount of product. They then use that knowledge to give you less stuff for your money without you knowing.
One of the easiest places to attack free market fundamentalism is on the baseline assumption that real-world markets operate with something approximating perfect information. Not only is it far from the case that all participants have perfect information, but you have huge companies dedicating effort to fool ordinary consumers who don't have the time or energy to sift through all this shit.
"consumers behave rationally"
"Markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent"
:this-is-fine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHEOGrkhDp0&t=3s - Bill Hicks Marketers
It's called industrial-organizational psychology. Essentially applied psychology for anything that isnt mental health or academic research.
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I don't know if that's actually true of B-A or not, but in most cases, where I've seen psychologists hired in games it's either been in design, because they specialize in decision-making in high-complexity systems (so, 'what choices can I give a player at this juncture that they will recognize as choices in the amount of time they have, and what would mislead them about their options?'), because they specialize in group-behavior ('how do I make these online psychopaths behave themselves?' - this never works), or to run research labs (big studios do this, little ones don't) or to do BI work. I've never actually met a psychologist who did work on making games explicitly addictive.
it made the rounds in the news a few years back. it absolutely happens. They're involved in everything including making sure the animation that plays when you open a loot box is maximally pleasing to get you to keep playing / purchasing.
Wouldn't shock me if Activision had those folks. I can say, however, that at most companies, it's actually just an artist or UX person who is doing research on things like "how do I make this ceremony maximally impactful", not an actual psychologist, and the only people who actually see the overall system for what it is are at a production level. "I want opening a loot box to feel good" doesn't seem like the kind of exploitation it actually is from the ground level, because the individual implementer just sees it as a variation on, "This should look good!" Banality of evil, etc, etc.
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There are games that have mechanisms like that which directly punish bad behavior with bad outcomes, but the problem is that the problem of online abuse is worst in team games and punishing one member of a team punishes the whole team. What's worse, it becomes a tool with which to troll your teammates, either by sicing it on them or provoking it on yourself.
Unless you're suggesting that game developers start engaging in warlockry, in which case, I am onboard. We haven't tried summoning a devil to solve this problem.
Online games always have been. The grind and constant updates in MMORPGs come to mind (gotta get those skills up so your clan can raid the new boss!)
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They weren't as monetarily exploitive as modern games, but the time sink aspect was way, way worse.
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