Are video games addictive? - Lawsuit against Fortnight launched

[ExtraSlow]

I don't think too hard about all the various frivolous lawsuits out there that over litigious lawyers create, but this one got me thinking. Video games have been pretty well crafted to make players play longer, more often, and to spend money inside of them. There's huge profit motive to make them addicitve if they can.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2019/10/04/m...inst-fortnite/

My kids don't play this type of game, and I don't either, so I don't know much about it. What do you think, is this just an abdication of responsibility by the parents, typical teen behavior, or a legitimate addiction deliberately created by corporations to sell products?

[Buster]

A friend of mine is quite senior at a major video game studio.

They have entire FLOORS of their offices that are dedicated to analytics, whose stated purpose is to determine (and obviously manipulate) player habits.

Video game design is no longer about creativity, but rather about manufacturing products that efficiently manipulate your serotonin levels.

[Tik-Tok]

Exactly. South Park had an excellent scene describing just that.

[firebane]

Nothing is addictive by nature. People have addictive personalities and something in their life triggers that and they can't stop.

If things were addictive then everyone would be addictive to something and that isn't true.

So is Fortnite addictive? Nope

Also love how the article goes into that parents felt it was addictive like cocaine... So these parents are coke heads?

[Buster]

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Nothing is addictive by nature. People have addictive personalities and something in their life triggers that and they can't stop.

If things were addictive then everyone would be addictive to something and that isn't true.

So is Fortnite addictive? Nope

Also love how the article goes into that parents felt it was addictive like cocaine... So these parents are coke heads?

wut

[revelations]

Its not just video games - in our capitalistic system (as opposed to, the Nordic countries) the goal is to maximize consumption of product X.

This could be cola or beer or snacks. One study showed that MSG was good at keeping people wanting more chips.

Video game addition is very little different to this notion.

[rx7boi]

Fast food corporations also spend lots of money into marketing and food R&D in order to design their food to be addictive.

Mobile game design and microtransactions serve to exploit dopamine reward pathways so that you continue to crave it consistently which was precipitatory towards the legal case against EA for loot boxes.

Basically, mobile games nowadays give you a ton of free shit in the beginning and continually tone it down as you progress so that by the time you're well invested but don't get goodies anymore, you're incentivized to pay $10 for 50 more tokens instead of waiting for them to replenish over time.

[Buster]

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Its not just video games - in our capitalistic system (as opposed to, the Nordic countries) the goal is to maximize consumption of product X.

This could be cola or beer or snacks. One study showed that MSG was good at keeping people wanting more chips.

Video game addition is very little different to this notion.

Nordic/Scandi countries comprise 5 of the top 15 countries in per capita consumption.

[ZenOps]

Pokémon GO 97,000 pokemon caught. Of course games are addictive. So is sugar.

[revelations]

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Nordic/Scandi countries comprise 5 of the top 15 countries in per capita consumption.

I can tell you the consumption of Vodka in Finland needs no statistic .... LOL

But seriously, these countries lack the mindless, wanton consumer whorism that Americans are full on into. SUVs are considered a joke there.

[msommers]

If they win, look out social media platforms.

[ExtraSlow]

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If they win, look out social media platforms.

Maybe litigation can do what legislation has failed at?

[killramos]

Fortnite?

Couldn’t you sue a game that isn’t garbage?

[ExtraSlow]

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Fortnite?

Couldn’t you sue a game that isn’t garbage?

You have to sue people with money. That stupid game made over 300 million in a single month (may 2018).

[killramos]

People are stupid. I blame Obama.

[ThePenIsMightier]

I played Call Of Duty for a preposterous amount of time and I absolutely loved it. Everything I ever wanted in an online video game was there. I had been wanting exactly that since Goldeneye-64 and that's an itch that had many years to fester before it got properly scratched.
What's odd is that eventually, it felt a bit like a job... "These n00bs aren't going to pwn themselves" and I'd get back at it. I didn't flunk out of school, but it affected my life even though I was still extracting a lot of joy out of it. Serious teamwork and online comradery from other, like-minded online friends plus it cut WAY the fuck down on boozing because one needs to be sharp to be a sharp shooter.

Bring children into your world and set it down forever without batting an eye and never look back.
So that's hard to define... ALL the signs of addiction were there and yet when you see how easy it is to set down... You gotta kind of say it's just a small piece of life that's so incredibly easy to drop forever means it's really not addictive. It's like of Netflix dropped your "favourite" show and you had no alternative source. You just move on and afterward realize how minimal that thing was.

As for addiction motivation... I was driven by Kill/Death ratio but nothing else worked in me. Maybe "results not typical" but that was me. The quick-scoping and their failure to address how ludicrous it was that snipers carrying 40+ pound rifles dressed in cumbersome camo suits were the fastest players in the game really ruined a lot for me and I fully boycotted anything BLOPS in that franchise plus I resented and refused to pay the extras for early access to new maps and other scams that cost 20% of the game price for an extra 5% of content.

Overall I think it's addictive but I'm a believer in that "Rat Park" theory that the void in your life is easily filled by something other than addiction. You just have to CHOOSE to fill it with something else. This places all the accountability on the user because a big series of choices led to that choice of addiction.

[Tik-Tok]

^ Echoes my life as well. Though it's mobile games, and their payment structure that is more the problem. Also shit like loot boxes in normal gaming. Literally gambling with real money, for fake prizes and the dopamine fix.

[Buster]

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^ Echoes my life as well. Though it's mobile games, and their payment structure that is more the problem. Also shit like loot boxes in normal gaming. Literally gambling with real money, for fake prizes and the dopamine fix.

This is true.

But it's not really new. Stampede/Callaway park carnival games are basically the same concept, although not as efficient at the brain chemistry manipulation as video games.

The ENTIRE gambling industry is the same, although with real money as prizes - not sure if that makes it worse or better.

[Skrilla]

I have definitely played some games way more than I probably should have when I was younger. Never played Fortnite myself but can this actually fly in court? Seems crazy to me but I did know someone who became addicted to World of Warcraft, to the point after he lost his job and family he ended his life. Crazy to think a video game could be like that, but I guess it’s like anything else, an addiction is an addiction.

[Disoblige]

Anything that has different odds of getting some sort of "reward" can trigger addictive behavior. This can be as simple as trading cards, blind box toys, playing Roll Up the Rim, to casino gambling as a few examples.