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Hi, I’m from the games industry. Governments, please stop us

positech.co.uk

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Re: Hi, I’m from the games industry. Governments, please stop us

#191

Post by Mithaldu »

triangleman wrote: post #121
kozukumi wrote: post #26

Hmm this is a tough one. Firstly I should make it clear that my wife works in the games industry. She works on PC, Console and Mobile titles. She has mentioned several times how there is a lot of pressure put on developers and publishers to "catch the whales". They employ psychologists and gambling specialists to make games, mostly mobile but it is also creeping into PC and Console, super addictive. Personally I am o…

The original article is bad. It can be summed up in a key phrase the author used 3 times: Governments need to "save us from ourselves". I'm sorry but that's not the role of government. "Protect us from each other" as well as "provide us necessary public services" is closer to the actual design of government. I wish that instead of running around screaming "think of the children", the author actually respected his aud…

> I'm sorry but that's not the role of government.

That is a very american point of view. The author of the article is british.

Re: Hi, I’m from the games industry. Governments, please stop us

#192

Post by zouhair »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #157
zouhair wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you buy a boat or a Rolex, you own a boat or a Rolex. Now you can buy all Star Citizen's ship you will own nothing, if tomorrow they decide to close their servers you are pretty much screwed.

When you buy a ticket to a movie, a concert, or a theme park, after you're done, you have "nothing" by the argument you're making. Want to ban movies, concerts, and theme parks? People get value from things that aren't tangible. Many of the most valuable things aren't tangible.

That's not the same. Some people spend thousands of hours and thousands of dollars to level up in some games, they have no recourse if the company shut it down.

For a movie you clearly know what you get into.

Re: Hi, I’m from the games industry. Governments, please stop us

#193

Post by zouhair »

bduerst wrote: post #158
zouhair wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why the death of advertising could be a bad thing? Its usefulness is way overrated when it comes to the common good.

Ads are inefficient, but are still useful as a information distribution method across inefficient markets. The perfect ad will lead to a mutually-beneficial transaction between a buyer and a seller. There is also a cognitive bias with ads, where people on attribute negative ad experiences to advertising, never the good ones (except in super bowls or other outliers).

You can also extract water from feces, that doesn't make them a good thing.

Re: Hi, I’m from the games industry. Governments, please stop us

#194

Post by mikeash »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #156
mikeash wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you crash your uninsured Harley it's no different.

That's your own fault. The difference I see is that H-D stuff's value isn't entirely dependent on the company itself; they don't control it past the point of sale. They can't change their mind and unmake your bike, or your biker jacket, or your local H-D club.

That goes back to my statement above about the problem being an inability to resell.

Re: Hi, I’m from the games industry. Governments, please stop us

#196

Post by oldmanjay »

zouhair wrote: post #192
JoshTriplett wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you buy a ticket to a movie, a concert, or a theme park, after you're done, you have "nothing" by the argument you're making. Want to ban movies, concerts, and theme parks? People get value from things that aren't tangible. Many of the most valuable things aren't tangible.

That's not the same. Some people spend thousands of hours and thousands of dollars to level up in some games, they have no recourse if the company shut it down. For a movie you clearly know what you get into.

your conclusion isn't supported by your premise, which seems to be that it matters how much a person spends. Where is the line?

Re: Hi, I’m from the games industry. Governments, please stop us

#197

Post by brc »

zouhair wrote: post #102
nostromo wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take a look at someone who spent $30k on ships in Star Citizen. http://www.pcgamer.com/meet-a-fan-who-has-spent-30000-on-sta... He seems like a reasonable person to me. He's not in financial ruin. He doesn't seem to regret his purchase. He's just putting money into his hobby, the same way a different 40 year old would buy an "unproductive" boat or an "unproductive" Rolex.

When you buy a boat or a Rolex, you own a boat or a Rolex. Now you can buy all Star Citizen's ship you will own nothing, if tomorrow they decide to close their servers you are pretty much screwed.

With a boat, you might spend thousands on consumables. All that you have left is the memories of driving the boat around.

Some guys spend $100k to go motor racing for a season in single-make cars. At the end of it, they don't own anything but any trophies they might have picked up.

If people want to spend money on digital goods, putting up walls to stop or make it harder is unlikely to be successful unless you outright ban it with heavy punishment for use.

That hasn't worked so well for other items in a similar category, and digital goods are completely victimless.

Re: Hi, I’m from the games industry. Governments, please stop us

#198

Post by WalterBright »

ethbro wrote: post #170
Pyxl101 wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's ironic about his username? His name's Walter Bright.

Ironic in the context of a discussion of vices and addiction, though now understandable (apologies for my lack of knowledge of 70s games & compiler names!) echo "WalterBright" | sed 's/Bright/White/'

> my lack of knowledge of 70s games

Prepare for enlightenment: http://www.classicempire.com

Re: Hi, I’m from the games industry. Governments, please stop us

#199

Post by twoodfin »

jblow wrote: post #176
wildmusings wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we have a whole industry which explicit purpose is figuring out the best way to abuse bugs in human psychology to part them with their money, I think some reaction is warranted. The video game industry did not invent slimy salesmen. Learning to say "no" to salesmen has been a basic life skill for all of human history. Millions of people manage to do it every day. It's one of the things that parents drill into their…

You can apply all your same arguments to gambling, but society disagrees -- gambling is regulated.

So regulated that states, through the lottery, are collectively the largest pushers and profiteers.

Somehow I suspect that kind of "regulation" is not what OP had in mind.

Re: Hi, I’m from the games industry. Governments, please stop us

#200

Post by WalterBright »

ethbro wrote: post #122
WalterBright wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we're getting pretty damn good at it I'm not so sure. I play a video game, and invariably get bored to tears within 30 seconds or so. It might have something to do with when I was a student, I had a job that involved play testing video games. It's also true that my old game Empire was well known to be addictive. I'd play it myself, but would rarely get too far into a game before I'd go back to tweaking the AI, whic…

Ironic username, given the conversation topic. ;) While yours may be a true experience: statistics. I'm not sure a personal experience poll on an entrepreneurial technology news site is the best place for a representative sample of people with low willpower. And social psych findings have born out that are a lot of easily manipulated levers to reliably influence people's behavior in an intentional way. To me, it's no…

>people with Fort Knox reserves of willpower

In my case, it has nothing whatsoever to do with willpower. It's that video games bore me.

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