Seasons (Destiny)

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Sunday, October 22, 2017, 19:25 (2592 days ago) @ Kahzgul

And intentionally designing your game to prey on addiction is a gross abuse that should not be tolerated.

Understanding why players find games fun and using that knowledge to make your next game more fun is not the same as preying on players. I think the paper itself gave a much better definition of what was going on:

What is being offered here is not a blueprint for perfect games, it is a primer to some of the basic ways people react to different patterns of rewards. Every computer game is implicitly asking its players to react in certain ways. Psychology can offer a framework and a vocabulary for understanding what we are already telling our players.

For 30+ years game designers have been trying to figure out how to make a good, fun game that sells well so they can make more good fun games. That science is being used to help with that is not necessarily a bad thing. And there are games that actually prey on players with things like pay to win and not letting players earn things free.

Yes we need to be wary. Yes, some games are abusive. But you at least need to acknowledge that the vast, overwhelming majority of the decisions that go into a game like Destiny aren’t because the developers want to intentionally prey on addiction, but because they want to make games that players find fun.

I like, no love, that you linked to that article. But, I find your strictly negative tone and viewpoint intensely frustrating. :(