[otabdeveloper4]

Have you seen kids these days? Video games are an addictive substance like cigarettes or alcohol.

(Yes, I know you played Mario Brothers as a child and turned out fine. So did I. But the stuff we had back in the day is extremely tame and weak compared to the hard stuff they peddle today.)

[ModernMech]

I dunno, they called EverQuest “EverCrack” for a reason. That was over two decades ago.

[tsimionescu]

That's still in the area of D&D - social rewards encouraging large amounts of time. Modern psychological tricks used to encourage addiction and over-spending, especially in kids and neuro-atypical people are newer, and were a "great" contribution from the likes of Zynga or King.