What I love is scientific literacy, and inferring causation from correlational studies is anathema to that.
âView 1 Hidden Replyâ⌠nah, pass.
I find it interesting that anyone is surprised by this idea. People have been using human psychology to make their products more appealing for a long time, especially in the digital age.
Youâd be surprised at how much research snd data goes into something as simple as what color the buttons should be on a company website, the layout, etc. all because research and psych data says that humans react most favorably towards [whatever].
Iâm not a fan of overly formulaic approaches to art, but at a certain point we all have to accept that video games these days will always naturally ride the fence between âartâ and âconsumer productâ and will be supported exactly as such, especially when millions of dollars are invested into them.
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Thatâs part of what I like about random indie titles. They often have the freedom to get pretty artsy, which can lead to some really cool looking games (like Return to the Obra Dinn or Banner Saga).
Mind you, some others are all look and boring gameplay, and thatâs not great either⌠but at least theyâre cheap, so not much is lost.
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If this is true, I wish we could hear from someone whoâs employed doing this, and have them reveal exactly what the strategies are that video game companies might use. Maybe it would help prevent some of us from getting tricked. Do some gaming companies actually use predatory tactics designed to exploit people with certain issues? Is this a real thing?
These are all different people, though. Each of the jobs you mention are completely different specialties and training.
Sure, sure, the statistics, research methods, instrument design, and several thousand hours of direct clinical work are basically not important because you have an idea of what you think a psychologist does. Do you do heart surgery too because you watched scrubs once?
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I wonât insult you by describing Skinner boxes, but I wonder if your opinion would change if you watch a talk called " Letâs go whaling: Tricks for monetising mobile game players with free-to-play" on YT. It really explains how these psychological tricks are used in game design these daysâŚ
I mean, if you want proof of Blizzard using these tricks (more than what is obvious), there is also the Blizzard ârigged gamesâ patent⌠The gist of it goes something like this:
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Blizz manipulates matchmaking process by giving players unfavorable matchup with the intention of frustrating them into buying uberitemX.
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Player gets mad, buys uberitemX and will start to get more favorable matchups.
This process is described in the patent.
I really donât think all the psych hires are there just for UI/UX purposes.
Where did I say Blizzard doesnât use âthese tricksâ? My issue was with the patently false statement that âthese tricksâ are the only thing you hire cognitive scientists/UX experts for.
Also, âtricking players into spending moneyâ is very different from âmaking players addicted to gamblingâ unless you donât care about the meaning of the words âaddictionâ and âgambling.â
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The speaker in the video I linked goes fairly deeply into the psychology of addiction, talking about the fear of loss and operant conditioning, etc. If you would give it a fair watch, you may change your opinion.
(I know you couldnât have watched it yet because itâs about 20 minutes long and you responded like 3 minutes after my post.)
Itâs pretty clear that psychologists arenât being hired to help produce UI/UX color schema, lol.
I mean, replace a dialectic with disingenuous hair-splitting semantic arguments if you think itâs useful, but OP is pretty much correct in what heâs saying.
Psychological tricks (including inducement of addiction akin to a drug dealer giving first hits for free, and operant conditioning) are being used on players of Blizzard games, some of whom are quite young.
Itâs OK if you are indifferent to the use of such psychological tactics to get kids to spend money in games, but some other people might have a bit of a moral issue with it and thatâs OK too.
Itâs also OK to try to understand other points of view without being so threatened or stubborn as to instantly ignore them.
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I have no trouble trying to understand other points of view. However, I see no reason why I canât clarify an obvious misstatement of my position before having to sit through a youtube lecture.
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Madmax does that a lot dude.
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Donât listen to Difford, heâs just mad that I told him his claim that Deathrattle and Spellburst/Frenzy were the same thing made no sense.
I went ahead and unmuted you because obviously that wasnât working. Do your little troll dance.
Out of context and completely wrong. Keep crying.
What are you talking about? I didnât even reply to you, I replied to the thread overall.
Youâd say that, wouldnât you, chuckles.
Weird, Iâm not the one badmouthing you to other people. Seems like the only one crying is you.
Iâve been seeing it over the course of the time Iâve been on here in the past hours. You can drop the pretence. Why are you upset, at least you wonât be ignored. Iâm giving you attention, your narcissistic demeanour should be thanking me.
Of course I would because itâs right, chuckles.
Youâre right, crying with laughter at your poor attempts.
Plus your video link. I count 3 times (1 in another thread), âI havenât even replied to youâ Madmax. You should feel bad for lying so blatantly. I know I would, but then I wouldnât be dumb enough to contradict myself like you did.
In late 2020, Four Corners launched a crowdsourced investigation into video gaming and received more than 3,000 responses.
The inquiry acknowledged widespread concern that loot boxes could normalise gambling and cause harm.
Psychiatrist Kim Le treats children and teenagers struggling with their gaming habits.
âI see a lot of children who are presenting in distress, self-harmingâ he said.
âI have had paediatricians refer children to me who have been soiling themselves ⌠the child will come to my office, Iâll ask them, âWhat are you doing when you are soiling yourself?â Theyâll tell me they are playing a video game and they canât stop.â
Dr James Sauer has undertaken several studies into loot boxes.
âWhat we heard from the community and from academic experts, people that work in the video game industry, is that at the heart of the loot box exists the same mechanisms that exist at the heart of the poker machine and that those mechanisms are predatory, that they exist to trigger addiction and compulsive continual use.â
I think I figured out why they want someone with a psychology degree. Its not to make the product as addictive as possible. Its to fine tune maximum amount of crap they can get away with without pushing customers away to maximize profit in that way. They donât want to make their products too addictive that government forces shut them down. They would rather make it so that people still pay and play when they are sad and angry with the end product not with of without people chasing some loot box high. They get psychologists to push the right buttons to make us all masochists.
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He didnât, at all. He threw some buzzwords and quoted a Kahneman book (one for lay audiences, I should point out, not an academic one), plus one or two more books from authors I didnât recognize, and provided examples. But there wasnât all that much psychological research there. Certainly nothing about addiction, which is more than just âI like doing this thing.â
And thatâs (again) my issue. People throw these videos and news articles all over the place thinking it means anything. But anyone with the most rudimentary training in actual behavioral sciences can see that these articles are talking about a very narrow topic, which then gets extrapolated by people into something else.
Something often inaccurate, I should add.
But hey, thanks for the video. It was interesting to see examples of how spending can be incentivized. It was particularly interesting to see which techniques Hearthstone uses, and which ones they donât.
But it certainly didnât provide any deeper insight I wasnât already aware of, nor did it suggest that these behavioral techniques are the only thing psychological science is used for in game design.