Stephanie Sterling
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2020–2022
34:13 · 1.3M views · Jul 1, 2019
A Jimquisition episode examining the human cost of predatory videogame monetization, focusing on loot boxes and microtransactions. It features testimonials from people harmed by gambling-style game mechanics.
Pointed to in threads on loot boxes, gacha games and exploitative monetization as a damning overview.
3 comments from Hacker News
It's sickening, really. Jim Sterling's video on lootboxes [1] really hammered it home for me, especially the section where he quotes from a talk by one such developer [2]. The talk is literally titled "Let's go whaling", a reference to getting people to "whale" the game by paying tons of money. Fate Grand Order, a gacha game, even lampshades it: > What’s interesting about Fate/Grand Order is that the game’s marketing features a vicious caricature of dedicated players. She’s a slobbering, lecherous, gambling-addicted little monster. > Fans love her. [From [3]] 1: this video 2: [LINK] 3: [LINK]
This video by Jim Sterling is a good overview of how knowingly sinister microtransactions truly are, with a couple narrated testimonies of people who fell for them despite not being able to afford them. this video
While some whales are definitely high-earning professionals who can afford it, not all of them are. I'd be curious to see research on what the split is. It's hard not to notice, however, that gacha games heavily rely on the same kind of skinner-box gambling systems as actual gambling uses with little of the regulation around payouts, transparency, and age restrictions. People who have problems with gambling, report having problems with gacha as well. See also this video of some testimonials: this video