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Steam's Multi-Billion Dollar Gambling Problem (www.youtube.com)

submitted 8 months ago by vikinghoarder@infosec.pub to c/technology@lemmy.world

5 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Impressive investigation on the addictive side of Steam games

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[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

I love Valve, but let's not mince words: They invented and created the problem of Loot Boxes, which were the first true iteration of modern gambling mechanics in Valve games. They hired none other than Yanis Varoufakis to help them research and roll out their "digital markets" in 2012.

To be fair, however, gambling and psychology have been abused in games for decades. I've said for over 20 years that Diablo II/World of Warcraft and offshoots like them are glorified Skinner Boxes.

It's time for some god damned rational gambling laws in regards to "gaming" and fast. And I don't mean the idiots who overnight re-rated Balatro as an adult game because they assumed based-on-poker-rules-means-Gambling. Idiots.

[–] vinyl@lemmy.world 12 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Not to downplay the fact that valve has popularized and continued on with this trend, but to be technical, FIFA was the first major game to introduce loot boxes in around 2008.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Nice catch, I'm not a sports game guy, so I'm not familiar with the FIFA history. It looks like it happened about a year before Team Fortress 2 first added loot boxes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loot_box#History

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[–] datavoid@lemmy.ml 1 points 8 months ago

Gaben fanboy downvotes are coming in quick...

This is a legitimate issue.