Saved by sari
Ethical Free-to-Play Game Design (And Why it Matters)
sari and added
Free to Play video game companies, by the structure of their market, are faced with the choice to either A) create addictive products that rob a select group of users large amounts of funds, or B) exit the business entirely. This is because their model doesn’t work at all without “whales”—high spenders that are manipulated through product design.
Evan Armstrong • How Free to Play Video Games are Forced to Make Addicts
sari added
Player retention in gaming is everything. Despite this, publishers optimize for company profit at the cost of player value and well-being. They are able to do this due to their end-to-end ownership and control over the development, distribution, and management of games.
kx • Play to earn economies as base layer protocols for games
sari added
This isn’t just limited to free-to-play video games. All companies land somewhere on the spectrum of harm. As each of us grow our companies, we must ask ourselves how we are causing hurt and if that tradeoff is justifiable.
Evan Armstrong • How Free to Play Video Games are Forced to Make Addicts
sari added
F2P companies are doing the rough equivalent of Bud Light setting up a bar at an AA meeting. While alcohol has done a lot more harm than video games (and I in no way want to trivialize the trials surrounding alcoholism) the comparison is apt. F2P business models rely on getting people well and truly hooked.
Evan Armstrong • How Free to Play Video Games are Forced to Make Addicts
sari added
When we surrender the control of our motivation and the judgment of our performance to corporate-owned gamification, however shiny and well-marketed, we need to be damn sure it’s designed for our benefit.
Adrian Hon • How Did We Get So Obsessed with Streaks?
Keely Adler added
Companies that exploit our gameplaying compulsion will have an edge over those who don’t, so every company that wishes to compete must gamify in ever more addictive ways, even though in the long term this harms everyone.
First: choose long-term goals over short-term ones. Short, frequent feedback loops offer regular reinforcement, which helps motiva
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"Prosocial Game Design
Three main pitfalls
Psychology: there are a lot of requirements to build friendships, like right sized groups of people, correct density, and engagement in mutually dependent reciprocal activities.
Logistics: rigid human limits on how many relationships they can maintain and how long it takes them to form new ones (see: group li... See more
Three main pitfalls
Psychology: there are a lot of requirements to build friendships, like right sized groups of people, correct density, and engagement in mutually dependent reciprocal activities.
Logistics: rigid human limits on how many relationships they can maintain and how long it takes them to form new ones (see: group li... See more