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by Ygg2 356 days ago
I wouldn't be so fast to dismiss the causal links.

Online games have a strong gambling component - lootboxes, randomized awards, etc.

An advance enough, Skinner box is indistinguishable from slot machine.

1 comments

Except you actually sometimes get money back from the slot machine, with gaming lootboxes/gacha/microtransactions you're just getting imaginary digital goods that will disappear as soon as the company shuts down the game's servers.
You are being trained to earn intermittent rewards. Not to earn money. Getting money is merely a formality/justification.
First currency is only as good as the government that prints it, maaaan. (/me hits bong, buys more bitcoin.)