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the holidays who remembers the original
PlayStation YouTube gives me a pretty
comprehensive spread of analytics on who
watches these videos so I know for a
fact that most of you are men ages 18 to
45 which means a lot of you probably
remember the original PlayStation or at
least the original Xbox for me it was
PlayStation then PlayStation 2 then Xbox
360 then PS4 then Xbox one I still
haven't actually gotten a current
generation console myself because I
don't know I just don't see a reason yet
but that's the history of my console
ownership as far back as it goes one of
the games I played the most was Andretti
Racing on the original PlayStation right
in the background right now funnily
enough my favorite game was published by
Electronic Arts if you can believe that
and for today I'd like to examine how
the world of video games at large over
the past 25 or so years has completely
changed for clarity not all video games
currently fall prey to this however a
large larger than ever cross-section of
them do which is turn the space from a
hobby driven world of pure entertainment
to a psychological Maze of extremely
predatory tactics it's not the first
time I've talked about this nor am I the
first person who has even done so but as
the trend continues relatively unchecked
it seems like as good a time as any to
once again examine where mainstream
gaming has come from where it currently
is and where it appears to be going
without further Ado let's get started
the early 2000s in my opinion were the
Golden Years of Gaming call it Nostalgia
call it Rose tinted glasses I don't care
because it's true video games were
objectively Superior before the age of
dynamic difficulty psychological
manipulation and predatory monetization
now to be clear once again this is not
true of the entire industry however the
number of companies who actively engage
in these practices over the past 15 to
20 years has only ever grown and when
mainstream Publishers are responsible
for a rapidly increasing market share of
popular game releases well that's pretty
self-explanatory certain titles like
Elden ring or God of War as a couple of
examples still conform to what seems
like a dying business model make a game
make it good release it make some money
and those games are incredibly
successful as a result because people
crave what used to be straightforward
Fair well understood and commonly
accepted however lately an ever-growing
cross-section of video games have become
something else entirely alright before
going further let's talk about today's
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Candy Crush for some it's not even a
video game that qualifies as anything
other than a joke but when tens of
millions of people play the game daily
around the world it certainly qualifies
as something and serves as a pretty good
example of how industry psychology has
changed now side note here Candy Crush
was originally published by King Digital
which was acquired by Activision
Blizzard in 2015. that's important
because Activision Blizzard is a main
stage culprit in the world of
manipulating their player base but for
right now we will stay focused on Candy
Crush alone I probably don't need to
even say this but Candy Crush is a basic
Match 3 puzzle game that has you
destroying little blocks of candy in
order to complete levels it's innocent
fun and colorful but what if I told you
that Candy Crush has more in common with
a slot machine than it does with any
other existing entertainment product in
the world that assertion probably
doesn't make a whole lot of sense on its
face so let me explain here slot
machines are predicated on the idea of
winning money which Candy Crush is not
but both of these games are built around
the illusion of control for slot
machines sometimes you get to press a
button and stop the wheels or choose how
many lines to play or how much to bet
per line with a wide range of other
trivial selections that make it seem
like you are somehow in control of the
outcome at least moderately in reality
you have no control over the outcome
whatsoever and simply engage with a
randomized computer terminal that will
on average spit out less money than
users put in illusion of control is a
well-documented phenomenon in
pathological gamblers it's not very well
hidden in standard slot machines but for
Candy Crush it is extremely well hidden
most players will assume that their
decisions matter you the player choose
which bricks to move and can easily
construct a series of sequential matches
that give you say a power up or a bonus
but when levels are constructed to
require maybe 30 different blocks be
destroyed some of them multiple times
like jellies or candy canes or these
things that you have to hit multiple
times before they disappear your
individual decisions need to be made
within an overarching reality that
reality the candies you receive all of
them when they come in from above the
screen are randomized while Candy Crush
does an incredible job of tricking its
players into believing that their
actions matter the reality is that you
are subjected to a computer program
determining which colors come next and
very often no decision that you make
period can result in a win of course
there is a degree of flexibility here
where perhaps you had one move that
would have destroyed more blocks and
resulted in a win but you simply missed
it however the sad reality is that very
often nothing you did could have done or
will do results in a win because the
blocks being dispersed to you from the
top down over the course of the level
simply do not allow for a series of
moves that would fulfill the level's win
condition that right there is the
illusion of control that slot machines
use with Incredible efficacy I might add
to manipulate and retain players but it
gets worse in tandem to this illusion is
is a phenomenon called near misses where
a slot machine will display let's say
four out of five jackpot markers while
the fifth row is a zero this is called a
near Miss because just one more winning
marker would supposedly have paid out
big however the only measurable effect
of this given that it does not increase
the likelihood of winning on future
spins that's just not a statistical
reality is that gamblers are much more
likely to continue playing after near
misses the dopamine hit from winning on
a slot machine pull is a massive part of
its addictive nature sure money is a
root cause behind why that dopamine hit
can be so powerful for some but a
player's reaction to near misses will
continually reinforce that initial
Behavior through psychological and
chemical payouts in the brain and Candy
Crush according to research from the
Journal of gambling studies has the
exact same properties and effects near
misses in Candy Crush which occur quite
frequently or when you have maybe two
more jellies to destroy and no more
moves you almost won but you didn't and
you've tried this level let's say four
times already what is the impact a cycle
of reinforced addiction built on the
dopamine Rush of near-misses after you
engage with the system built on the
illusion of control AKA a slot machine
without the money you can pay more money
to access the dopamine hit more
frequently through power-ups and
additional lives but Candy Crush is a
slot machine that doesn't even pay its
players while using all of the same
addictive tactics to hook them when
compared to standard slots whether or
not you consider Candy Crush with
something like 93 million daily active
players to be indicative of The Wider
gaming industry is up to you but the
fact remains it is built to be as
predatory as possible using the very
same tactics as a Vegas casino how about
another example Match 3 puzzle games are
not necessarily indicative of video
games for most people that watch this
channel so let's move on to a pair of
major Publishers Activision Blizzard the
owners of Candy Crush as well and
Electronic Arts Activision Blizzard is a
perfect example for a host of reasons
but one of those reasons is is a patent
they hold for a system that quote drives
micro transactions in multiplayer video
games the system may include a
microtransaction arranged matches to
influence game-related purchases for
example the system May match a more
expert slash Marquee player with a
junior player to encourage the junior
player to make game related purchases of
items possessed slash used by the
Marquee player a junior player may wish
to emulate the Marquee player by
obtaining weapons or other items used by
the Marquee player end quote that was a
lot I know so in simple terms that means
that they will put a novice or a newbie
versus an expert so that the novice will
buy in-game purchases in order to be
able to compete because the expert is
obviously better or has spent more money
that is about as direct as you could
possibly be and indicates that they are
perfectly fine with totally destroying
the concept of a Level Playing Field in
order to sell more in-game items still
another reason would be Diablo Immortal
the Diablo franchise is a long cherished
video game property developed by
blizzard under the banner of Activision
publishing and yet instead of
prioritizing what people really want the
decision was made to reformat the game
for mobile devices Josh strafe Hayes has
an Incredible video on Diablo Immortal
I'll link it down below in the
description but the gist of it is that
players would need to spend tens of
thousands of dollars to obtain even just
some of the legendary gear that kind of
monetization Simply didn't exist 10 or
15 years ago the idea that a game would
have this kind of paywall to access
appealing content was just frankly
unheard of in 2010 or even 2005 but
Diablo Immortal is not alone and
certainly not the first culprit
Electronic Arts another example famously
used by everyone demonstrating how far
modern gaming has fallen also holds a
patent this one aimed at Dynamic
difficulty quote embodiments of systems
presented herein May perform automatic
granular difficulty adjustment in some
embodiments the difficulty adjustment is
undetectable by a user further
embodiments of systems disclosed herein
can review historical user activity data
with respect to one or more video games
to generate rate a game retention
prediction model the prediction and
indication of an expected duration of
gameplay end quote the language in these
patents is always way overly technical
but simplified this patent outlines a
system where EA can adjust how player
characters perform in-game without
player knowledge to augment speed aiming
jumping anything really and maximize
player retention by once again
destroying the concept of a Level
Playing Field they swear up and down
that this is not being used in
competitive games but the mere existence
of a system like that which will also
take into consideration how much money
you have spent as it manipulates the
game's functionality behind the scenes
multiple sections pertain to that
directly the mere existence of this kind
of system is deeply troubling still
there's more to discuss with EA and more
even specifically inside FIFA it turns
out that Ultimate Team icons for those
familiar with FIFA that's basically like
highly sought after players some of them
anyway are so rare impactful and sought
after with limited availability that an
EA employee was facilitating a black
market cash economy well according to
speculative reports EA says that they
investigated and then I have never
really heard anything else about it but
from everything that we can see it
highly seems to be that an EA employee
was facilitating a black market cash
economy to sell in-game items in this
case players to users that kind of
economy simply does not and cannot exist
inside of traditional video game
products because traditional video game
products with just a price tag and then
you get the game are not designed to be
an addictive never-ending Money Pit the
psychology of video games on AAA level
has changed massively over the past two
decades it's not every publisher
companies like Nintendo still come to
mind as an example where the old ways
have not yet fully died but enough major
franchises have gone down this route to
create an air of uncertainty about which
one will fall next as the mechanical
Foundation of gaming changes morphing
and twisting into something more akin to
slot machines or traditional gambling
than hobby entertainment there there is
a noticeable lapse in relative
enforcement last example which I didn't
even think to include till almost
halfway through the script but yeah it's
a pretty good one according to
regulation 14.040 of the Nevada Gaming
Control Board quote all gaming devices
must theoretically pay out a
mathematically demonstrable percentage
of all amounts wagered which must not be
less than 75 for each wager available
for play on the device B determine game
outcomes solely by the application of
chance the skill of the player or a
combination of the skill of the player
and chance display in an accurate and
non-misleading manner the rules of play
the amount required to wager on the game
or series of games in a gaming session
the amount to be paid on winning Wagers
any rake off percentage or any fee
charge to play the game or series of
games in a gaming session any monetary
wagering limits for games representative
of live gambling games the total amount
wagered by the player the game outcome
and such additional information
sufficient for the player to reasonably
understand the game outcome end quote
that was a law I know that kind of
rambled on and on but bear with me
because as demonstrated by researcher
Jeremy Ray CS go Counter-Strike Global
Offensive a massively popular video game
on Steam in its loot crates which is a
form of gambling definitively tied to
real world cash through the steam
Marketplace itself and third-party
exchange platforms as well has an RTP
returned to player that is effectively
half of the mandatory minimums in
practically every single part of the
world basically video games at the very
least a hefty chunk of video games have
adopted predatory psychological
manipulation tactics and gambling
infrastructure without any of the
comparable regulation that exists
elsewhere and in fact if you compare
them directly to like the Las Vegas
Strip they're worse it's not a New
Concept but having recently had a bit of
a reason to explore the reality behind
Candy Crush it felt like a topic worth
discussing and once again reiterating in
essence be extremely aware of what your
children are doing online and also what
they're doing in video games and for
certain examples of those games
understand that addictive personality
types are especially vulnerable here
because many games are now designed in a
very deliberate way so as to directly
prey on those psychological
vulnerabilities for a brief period of
time in the aftermath of Electronic Arts
mutilating their Star Wars license with
Battlefront 2. we did have regulation in
the works around the globe at least in a
lot of different countries and different
legislatures but that wave has since
died down dramatically and it's unclear
what it would take to rekindle the fire
for me it's a topic I've cared about
since basically the channel was founded
but so far there is very little that has
been done or even can be done to reverse
or stop the trend it's kind of a losing
battle at this stage it just keeps
happening and we get to watch it but
yeah as a result I rant and I Rave but
that's about it if you want to support
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and patreon but I'll cut it there and
stop rambling as always thank you all
for watching and have a nice night
[Music]
thank you
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