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The casino in your pocket

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Re: The casino in your pocket

#91

Post by meheleventyone »

Semaphor wrote: post #87
efitz wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>something like aesthetic loot crates are a sideshow No, they are very much a part of the experience. The anticipation of the reward and the tension build while the opening animation plays is an addiction mechanism. This is why we wrap presents and why “blind bags” are so successful (and also why toddlers will watch “surprise egg” videos for hours).

> the tension build while the opening animation plays is an addiction mechanism Is this why BG3 has this extremely annoying and unskippable dice-rolling animation (technically, the rolling of the dice is the only thing you can actually skip)? Because other people somehow enjoy this? It’s so bad, that the dice thing popping up induces a feeling of dread and annoyance in me.

That’s there half because it’s a tabletop system and half otherwise there is a break in causality. Just having a random chance of success or failure isn’t very obvious and you don’t see near misses and so on. For most people showing the action is more satisfying.

The underlying system comes from D&D so is full of quite crunchy randomness where results are usually rolled in front of everyone so you get a much more social experience and failure isn’t quite so bad (usually).

Re: The casino in your pocket

#92

Post by meheleventyone »

anonymous_sorry wrote: post #63
efitz wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a casino, you know what you’re there for and what you’re up against. Gaming commissions have curbed many of the worst abuses with inspections, posted odds, etc. With mobile gaming you have a free for all that is intentionally exploiting the same neuroanatomy of addiction, but it’s wrapped up in pretty pixels and you can do it anywhere, privately. The industry is too big for gaming commission type controls to work.…

In a meatspace casino, if someone shows you 4 face down cards, asks you to pick one, and then turns them all up to reveal 3 prizes and 1 "you lose" card, you can be fairly sure you had a 25% chance of losing. If the croupier used sleight of hand or secret e-ink cards to turn your card into the "you lose" card after you'd picked it, that would be fraud. The dark patterns and dopamine manipulation are bad enough, but i…

In that specific case sure, but Casino slot machines do a loooooooot to present distorted odds.

Re: The casino in your pocket

#93

Post by Semaphor »

meheleventyone wrote: post #91
Semaphor wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the tension build while the opening animation plays is an addiction mechanism Is this why BG3 has this extremely annoying and unskippable dice-rolling animation (technically, the rolling of the dice is the only thing you can actually skip)? Because other people somehow enjoy this? It’s so bad, that the dice thing popping up induces a feeling of dread and annoyance in me.

That’s there half because it’s a tabletop system and half otherwise there is a break in causality. Just having a random chance of success or failure isn’t very obvious and you don’t see near misses and so on. For most people showing the action is more satisfying. The underlying system comes from D&D so is full of quite crunchy randomness where results are usually rolled in front of everyone so you get a much more soc…

My main complaint about BG3 is actually how far they changed it from D&D. My favorite games are owlcat’s two Pathfinder games which is a tabletop system far crunchier than the streamlined D&D 5e.

But you are missing what I said. The information is great, the unskippable animations are not.

Re: The casino in your pocket

#94

Post by meheleventyone »

fbdab103 wrote: post #59
kioleanu wrote: post #41

Many years ago I worked for a company that offers a very popular in-browser game. The company branched and expanded and had more than 10 games with various levels of profitability, but this game, which was bringing in about 30 millions EURO per month, was the only thing keeping the company alive. Then they decided they want to try to sell the company to a fund and wanted to increase the revenue this golden goose was…

>...which was bringing in about 30 millions EURO per month, was the only thing keeping the company alive. I am curious what were the expenses. Few things are as simple as they appear, but from the mobile games I have seen, they look like they could be put together by tiny development teams: simplistic (+recyclable) art and rules. Once the foundational app is created, feels like the further development could happen on…

The problem is competition to get to the top and competition to stay there. Mobile games companies are machines in optimising user retention, user acquisition and market analysis.

Re: The casino in your pocket

#95

Post by meheleventyone »

Semaphor wrote: post #93
meheleventyone wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s there half because it’s a tabletop system and half otherwise there is a break in causality. Just having a random chance of success or failure isn’t very obvious and you don’t see near misses and so on. For most people showing the action is more satisfying. The underlying system comes from D&D so is full of quite crunchy randomness where results are usually rolled in front of everyone so you get a much more soc…

My main complaint about BG3 is actually how far they changed it from D&D. My favorite games are owlcat’s two Pathfinder games which is a tabletop system far crunchier than the streamlined D&D 5e. But you are missing what I said. The information is great, the unskippable animations are not.

Yeah I misunderstood where the dread and annoyance came from, apologies!

Re: The casino in your pocket

#96

Post by bakugo »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #70
otikik wrote: post #60

Any game that offers a virtual currency purchaseable with real currency (be it coins, diamonds or energy rays) should be avoided. Especially if you have children.

Don’t most games have those now?

99% of mobile games do. If you want to keep your children away from these things, you don't really have much of a choice beyond not letting them have a phone at all.

Re: The casino in your pocket

#97

Post by pjc50 »

keithalewis wrote: post #46
beebmam wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If people are dumb enough to consentually waste time and money on casinos, they deserve to lose their time and money. Some might say the government should intervene; I personally don't care.

Do you mean people should be held personally accountable for their actions? Next thing you know we might be living in a country full of responsible citizens. /s

People probably should be held personally responsible for defrauding punters, yes.

Re: The casino in your pocket

#98

Post by ehnto »

efitz wrote: post #43
ehnto wrote: post #32

It has been fascinating and demoralizing to watch monetization roll out. To younger generations like my brother, they don't know any different, it's just part if gaming for them. But at least something like aesthetic loot crates are a sideshow to the actual game. Some games are good at keeping the separate and you can understand that it's just how they choose to fund the game. When the whole game is just a loot crate…

>something like aesthetic loot crates are a sideshow No, they are very much a part of the experience. The anticipation of the reward and the tension build while the opening animation plays is an addiction mechanism. This is why we wrap presents and why “blind bags” are so successful (and also why toddlers will watch “surprise egg” videos for hours).

I very much understand loot crates, I meant a side show to the rest of the game rather than tightly integrated into the gameplay. CS:GO for example, some people take the loot crates very seriously sure, but that's on them. Even the crate economy, as big of a market as it is, does not impact the gameplay. The actual game of counter-strike doesn't change based the crates sideshow.

Re: The casino in your pocket

#99

Post by the_gipsy »

WA wrote: post #58
AtlasBarfed wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

gamification? No, this is illegal use of casino algorithms and payoff psychology / slot machine psychology, outside of regulation, restriction from exposure to children, without disclaimers for gambling problems and hotlines. The middle-tier issues I have: the same issues that used to exist with gambling and introducing it officially: moral concerns over degeneracy, the family impacts of gambling addictions, the regr…

> Why Europe has not woken up to this, which is the only real hope in the short run for substantial fines, is beyond me. Thing is, regulations do exist but as long as Apple and Google are not forced to comply at least partially in these regulations, nothing will ever change. Take the GDPR as an example: - Europe says: "Your app must comply with the GDPR if you want to be in the European market." - Apple says to app d…

You cannot just take payments from citizens of the USA or Europe into some unregulated country, forever. Sure, some fly under the radar, but most gambling-like games (including puzzle games) belong to some conglomerate.

See online casinos. They exist since the 90s, before apps. In the USA apparently you can only run a casino in Las Vegas or some places with a soecific license. Yet the online casinos still exist, but operate from jurisdictions that are off limits from the FBI or whatever (something like Cayman Islands or whatever). However the owners are identified and will be detained when entering US soil.

The internet is not some loophole to break the law. If you are taking a relevant amount of money, even in small payments, they can get back to you or at least block you.

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