this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2024
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I will say in defense of this (but only a tiny bit) that for some people collecting things and unlocking things can be fun, and these types of games have a nearly infinite amount of things to collect and unlock. So in some ways getting all the bonus this and currency that and hoarding it like a dragon can be fun for some people.
I think it's bad for kids to be exposed to it like that though. Definitely treatifying their developing brains to such a level can't be healthy
Oh yeah. I love completionist stuff in games. But the degree these games take it too and for games for kids
Don't conflate collectathons with skinner boxes. These aren't designed so you can just gather things to your heart's content, they are designed to keep you playing (including by limiting what you can do on a given day) and to pressure you into paying money by making the free returns from playing unrewarding and frustrating. Usually the reason for all the currencies is to obfuscate exchange rates, so at least a few of them can only be obtained with real money, and none of the currencies are meant to merely be collected like a high score.
The problem is you can pay to unlock them or to accelerate your progress, which cheapens any achievement of doing it via grind anyway. Everyone will just assume you bought everything
More of a problem in multiplayer games where there’s a “keeping up with the joneses” effect pressuring kids to keep up with 40 year old dudes who just buy everything. That leaves a kid with 3 options: drop their entire allowance to keep up, grind with no life, or accept falling behind.
All 3 of these options suck