I've been calling for restrictions on MMORPG style games for years, both because of the exploitation involved and I've personally lived with people who collected piss jars around their desk. There's just something very strange about those games that enraptures certain people. The most hours I've put into a game was 200 (enter the gungeon) so I think I'm missing the online game gene.
I don't know what would fix this, but certainly some kind of restriction on the gambling elements. Gacha games shouldn't exist. Maybe an encouragement in games for some kind of closure? Games where there's an ending and you don't have to play anymore. You did everything, so move on.
There’s just something very strange about those games that enraptures certain people.
It's an intentionally designed skinner box. That's it, it's a studied phenomenon and the people who get these games made know this and it's why they do this.
I don't think regulation is the correct course of action here. It's like drugs, millions of people take them with "no" problems, but keeping piss jars around the desk you play WoW at or whatever probably speaks to a deeper wrong than the game being intentionally addicting. Having been that sort of person (well, not the piss jars) it was mostly because the real world fucking sucked and was unrewarding at every opportunity and the video game wasn't and I could actually achieve things there and get a bit of dopamine.
That is to say, I was probably depressed as shit and used video games to cope. Could've been alcohol, figure that'd have been worse.
I don't know enough about society (they live in one) in china to have a strong opinion on this but I'm with you generally.
I was talking about the idea to regulate Online-Skinner-Boxes as a whole as put forth by this comment. I think it's an idea with it's heart in the right place, but just impossible to do.
Games where there’s an ending and you don’t have to play anymore. You did everything, so move on.
Because I get where this is coming from, but then you have outlawed Tetris.
Yeah, I don't know what would work then if not regulation. At least at a bar the bartender will cut you off when you've clearly had too much. Certain MMOs would do things like put in diminishing returns the more you play in a single day, like Kingdom of Loathing, or they'd structure things to take a large amount of offline time, like EVE.
Like most things this will probably have to be handled comprehensibly, because online game addicts probably have other issues. Normalizing regular mental health screenings for the whole population could be something to push for.
Yeah, I don’t know what would work then if not regulation
Better mental heatlh care. A less shit society.
Like I know that's kind of far fetched for most people but then strict regulation of skinner-box-esque video games is about as practical a law to do as prohibition of alcohol or marijuana because it's so insanely easy to circumvent. WoW has private servers, unless you get into full nationwide computer scans or whatever how are you gonna shut down people playing on a private WoW server that's hosted in another country?
Certain MMOs would do things like put in diminishing returns the more you play in a single day, like Kingdom of Loathing, or they’d structure things to take a large amount of offline time, like EVE.
Especially with Eve this hasn't really stopped anybody from being turbo-addicted to it, you know. They make alts. Now you can ban alts but then we're back to square one as to how the hell do you enforce this so it actually works instead of being a fig leaf so the gamers don't get mad at you.
Despite that, I'm not even convinced dimnishing returns aren't an integral part of the skinner box. They hook you with big good dopamine at the start and once you become addicted to that, it pewters out so you spent 3 hours to get the sum total of dopamine that 1 would've gotten you at the start. WoW does this and has done this forever, both on a macro-scale as each level up or better gear gets progressively harder to achieve and also on a micro-scale where you get XP bonuses after having not played it for a while. It's making you chase the dragon.
You think you may have gone a bit too far on the bit of hating every gamer there?
Like yeah games companies are exploitative as fuck on every possible level, outward and inward but maybe the state sniffer on every computer in the country is a bit much?
I've been calling for restrictions on MMORPG style games for years, both because of the exploitation involved and I've personally lived with people who collected piss jars around their desk. There's just something very strange about those games that enraptures certain people. The most hours I've put into a game was 200 (enter the gungeon) so I think I'm missing the online game gene.
I don't know what would fix this, but certainly some kind of restriction on the gambling elements. Gacha games shouldn't exist. Maybe an encouragement in games for some kind of closure? Games where there's an ending and you don't have to play anymore. You did everything, so move on.
It's an intentionally designed skinner box. That's it, it's a studied phenomenon and the people who get these games made know this and it's why they do this.
I don't think regulation is the correct course of action here. It's like drugs, millions of people take them with "no" problems, but keeping piss jars around the desk you play WoW at or whatever probably speaks to a deeper wrong than the game being intentionally addicting. Having been that sort of person (well, not the piss jars) it was mostly because the real world fucking sucked and was unrewarding at every opportunity and the video game wasn't and I could actually achieve things there and get a bit of dopamine.
That is to say, I was probably depressed as shit and used video games to cope. Could've been alcohol, figure that'd have been worse.
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I don't know enough about society (they live in one) in china to have a strong opinion on this but I'm with you generally.
I was talking about the idea to regulate Online-Skinner-Boxes as a whole as put forth by this comment. I think it's an idea with it's heart in the right place, but just impossible to do.
Because I get where this is coming from, but then you have outlawed Tetris.
deleted by creator
Yeah, I don't know what would work then if not regulation. At least at a bar the bartender will cut you off when you've clearly had too much. Certain MMOs would do things like put in diminishing returns the more you play in a single day, like Kingdom of Loathing, or they'd structure things to take a large amount of offline time, like EVE.
Like most things this will probably have to be handled comprehensibly, because online game addicts probably have other issues. Normalizing regular mental health screenings for the whole population could be something to push for.
Better mental heatlh care. A less shit society.
Like I know that's kind of far fetched for most people but then strict regulation of skinner-box-esque video games is about as practical a law to do as prohibition of alcohol or marijuana because it's so insanely easy to circumvent. WoW has private servers, unless you get into full nationwide computer scans or whatever how are you gonna shut down people playing on a private WoW server that's hosted in another country?
Especially with Eve this hasn't really stopped anybody from being turbo-addicted to it, you know. They make alts. Now you can ban alts but then we're back to square one as to how the hell do you enforce this so it actually works instead of being a fig leaf so the gamers don't get mad at you.
Despite that, I'm not even convinced dimnishing returns aren't an integral part of the skinner box. They hook you with big good dopamine at the start and once you become addicted to that, it pewters out so you spent 3 hours to get the sum total of dopamine that 1 would've gotten you at the start. WoW does this and has done this forever, both on a macro-scale as each level up or better gear gets progressively harder to achieve and also on a micro-scale where you get XP bonuses after having not played it for a while. It's making you chase the dragon.
I mean... Full nationwide surveillance of games isn't exactly beyond the capacity of the Chinese government.
I might actually beyonf their power for now. We are probably alreadybdoing it though
Or many others, no, but that doesn't make it a good idea.
Sure, the anti-videogame dragnet is an idea fitting for our times, it's also hot fucking garbage.
I don't object to its use to enforce regulation on games. Games companies are exploitative as fuck.
You think you may have gone a bit too far on the bit of hating every gamer there?
Like yeah games companies are exploitative as fuck on every possible level, outward and inward but maybe the state sniffer on every computer in the country is a bit much?
You don't need to sniff computers, just packets. That makes creating a dark-shard high enough effort to disincentivize 90% of the practice.
And I don't hate gamers, I want children defended from digital drug-dealers.