[nemothekid]

What about Versace? Is a watch a useful product when its priced at $2,000? Is convincing others to pay $1,500 for a pair of jeans anything other than manipulation?

Your counterpoint doesn't really hold any water. King might be sucking value out of manipulating customers into buying into imaginary value, but they are the far from the first successful company to do so.

[TheZenPsycho]

that's not a fair comparison. those products are about conspicuous display of disposable wealth. Candy Crush impresses no one.

[nemothekid]

>Candy Crush impresses no one.

Now you are moving the goal posts. So Versace is "fair" because of intangible feeling X, but Candy Crush isn't because of intangible feeling Y? For all you know high Candy Crush scores could be a display of high status on some college campus somewhere. Neither companies sell anything other than the feeling you get when you buy their product.

[TheZenPsycho]

You can argue that versace is wrong on its own terms, but people aren't buying versace for the same reasons they buy candy crush power ups. Maybe you're right, maybe Candy Crush high scores does impress someone, but that's a superficial observation. the real question is why should it impress anyone? what did King do to make that impressive?

And is it really impressing other people that is truly the motivating factor in buying more power ups? Or is it.... the exploitation of bugs in the human operating system? The construction of game mechanics to manipulate people's emotions into doing things that don't make rational sense?

[baddox]

So now, only companies which sell things that you find satisfying or which impress other people are legitimate companies?

[TheZenPsycho]

I think you are being deliberately obtuse. We are talking about exploitation here. Finding bugs in the human operating system and exploiting them. It's technically a legitimate business, but is it moral, or ethical? no.

[baddox]

You have not described any procedure to decide whether something is "exploitation/compulsion" or simply someone being persuaded to buy something they enjoy.

[TheZenPsycho]

are you a computer with no native facility for judgement?

[baddox]

Are you implying that it's up to your judgement? What if someone else judges things differently?