Destiny is not gambling (Destiny)

by squidnh3, Thursday, January 12, 2017, 00:41 (2654 days ago) @ cheapLEY

Tell that to a gambling addict. It may sound hyperbolic, but Destiny pretty clearly is designed in such a way that it preys on its players in basically the same manner. Even its microtransactions are literally gambling.

I feel pretty strongly that Destiny is not in the same league as gambling. Gambling works on the premise you are paying a small amount for a small chance at a massive payoff. Since humans are hard-wired to be bad at probability, they often are unable to do the math and easily fall into the fallacy that the next chance will be the big one, for sure, and everything will be okay. That's how people lose their life savings.

In Destiny, you are paying (in time or money) for a chance at something that has no value beyond a moment of temporary fun. This is obvious. Humans are much better at evaluating real value rather than expected value, so the hook isn't nearly as strong. To me, Destiny's system seems designed to encourage fun experiences with other players and the community, nothing at all like the preying you describe.

Not to say that video games cannot be addictive, but I do not believe they are addictive in the same manner as gambling for the above reasons. A good friend of mine failed out of college because of his Halo 3 addiction, and frankly I don't think he would ever blame the game itself for that. The addictive nature of video games is the escapism and direction they provide to someone who his struggling with other things, and that is hardly unique to Destiny.