i like how the video contrasts the addictive MMO style shitfest with the “addictive” actually fun Vampire Survivors. it’s nice to see people separate out dopamine fests from, y’know, addictive and unenjoyable dopamine fasts (not a typo) that are MMOs. Because like, who doesn’t love a good dopamine fest
edit: the word for something that’s so good that you can’t put it down is “compelling”, i don’t know why it just isn’t used to describe games?? (except stories in them)
dont even need to watch the video fr i fuck with the title, outer wilds fuckin slapped especially bc you can only play it once lmao, remove progression systems from games
I played a lot of Hades because the play cycle was fun, and getting good was enjoyable. But once I finished the story, and I romanced who I wanted to romance, I’ve never picked it up again. And I like it that way.
i liked hades but i would have liked it better with less “+10 health/+10 damage” type metaprogression tbh, something like FTL where you’re mostly unlocking sidegrades and new gameplay options instead of straight upgrades alongside the narrative
under communism the only progression system allowed will be the checklist from kirby air ride
terraria is fun though
terraria is even more fun with mods that remove grinding from the game so you’re only locked by boss kills and not time. that and calamity for some extra CBT
I wish Starbound was a horizontal progression terraria :(
I do like me some number go up but I prefer big changes like bigger projectiles or something proper like that over percentage bonuses. Or extra tools to do something actually fun like buildcrafting
Skinner box game mechanics suck and are just hollow “entertainment” but are manufactured very carefully to maximise fomo and engagement. They’re very profitable though which is ofc why its used, battle passes, timed events, seasonal content, lIvE sErVicE shite.
It’s designed specifically to prey on people who are vulnerable to these tactics, I even fell into it myself around the modern warfare reboot getting extremely worked up over battle passes. Hated every minute of it but just couldn’t stop myself until someone hacked my Activision account and stole it breaking me out of the cycle.
Fukn crapitalism.
Skinner box game mechanics suck and are just hollow “entertainment”
All Vidya Gamez are fundamentally Skinner Boxes. At the same time, when you’re trapped in a cube all day, it’s nice to get a food pellet. Stop shaming people for food pelleting themselves.
Hated every minute of it but just couldn’t stop myself until someone hacked my Activision account and stole it breaking me out of the cycle.
My original experience with online games was in a big social circle that whittled away over time. It’s less the game pass model itself (which always just descends into “How much pop culture can we shove into your generic Blood Gulch shooter/looter?”) than the fact that I’m playing with an endless parade of anonymous that nobodies I ultimately find so upsetting.
I play chess with a co-worker every lunch break we’re free, and it’s far more fun and fulfilling than the time I spent grinding amid a sea of faceless nobodies.
At the same time, it feels cruel to tell people who don’t have an active social circle to just not be online at all.
The only thing worse than the Skinner Box is solitary confinement.
Somehow you missed the point completely about predatory business practices preying on vulnerable people to draw out massive profits… The entire thing this comment and post is about
All Vidya Gamez are fundamentally Skinner Boxes.
No they are not and I will fight you. If you mean multiplayer online games, well maybe, you might have a point, but I don’t play those games and so I will make no claims about them.
However. If you call Outer Wilds or Pathologic/Pathologic 2 or Disco Elysium or A Short Hike or Journey skinner boxes, well, you’re just wrong. Games are experiences, they’re stories that can be more immersive than a movie or a book and if they’re done well, holy shit are they good!
Games are (can be) amazing, and I’m sick of pretending they’re not.
That shit’s effective and that’s the reason it keeps being done. Every smug
looking down on people that get caught into it under pretense of feeling superior can fuck off forever.
“Addiction is a specific thing that requires biological dependency therefore you said the wrong word and everything you said is invalid!” 
I posted that there so pedants don’t have to.
I absolutely hate that argument, it would mean gambling addiction is not real. In other words: one of the most harmful addictions to public health is not an addiction by that definition, because there’s no “biological dependency”.
That’s exactly how the struggle session went.
It was despicable, shameful treat defending from fairweather leftists.
Wait we had a struggle session about gambling of all things?? How are you going to be anti-capitalist and pro-gambling industry?
Because some fairweather leftists are so preoccupied with “DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” that even talking about the problem got them very defensive, up to and including “people that get pulled into gambling and ruin their own lives and the lives of their families had it coming” very-leftist takes.
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With that in mind as a marketing word, I really hate the smuglordery from treat defenders that say “if you get addicted to it (or if they pedantically say addition isn’t technically biologically happening because pedantic reasons) that’s on you. I’m fine. I got mine” and apply that to everything from deliberately habit-forming gameplay loops to FOMO and predatory monetization practices such as time-conditional “battle/season passes” and the like, or as had happened on Hexbear at least once: to fucking corporate sports gambling apps.
It’s assholish and low-key ableism on top of that, seeing psychologically vulnerable people as deserving of suffering in some treat-Calvinistic way.
It’s not low key ableist, it’s plainly ableist. Literally blaming a sick person for their disease.
I called it “low-key” because I’m sure the fair-weather self-described leftists that said it during the corporate sports gambling struggle session (not going to name names) didn’t want to think it was ableist to say “if you can’t afford to gamble don’t gamble. Simple. I don’t want a nanny state telling me what to dooooooooo.”
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I wholeheartedly agree.
I fucking hate when such treat defenders go as far as saying “well that means someone can be addicted to chocolate, which would be silly amirite?”
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Agreed, was thinking this as well
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
