I was thinking how it would be cool to develop mobile games that uses the same hooks the pay-to-play ones use. But instead of it being revenue, that money is invested for the player and they get it back later when they’re more lucid and less gambly.

So people who have addictions can scratch that itch like they normally would but it wouldn’t wreck their finances. Most investing needs a lot of personal information which is too much to ask for I think. Storing their money like a bank is too much responsibility as well, when they buy credits or upgrades I’d want those funds going directly to the investment package. It could be too complicated of a problem to solve but I would have no qualms copying the popular loot box games and taking their customers away if the reward side could be easily set up.

  • intensely_human
    3·
    2 months ago

    It sounds like taking the gambling out of gambling, by making loss impossible.

    I guess as long as you’re open about it, like “instead of gambling you can do this other thing”.

    But if returning the money is a surprise thing, that’s bad. It means they didn’t consent to the actual game they were playing.

    I’ve been an addict and I used the harm of my own addiction as part of my own wake-up process. Anyone reducing harm would have just been giving my inner addict justification for continuing.

    I was in a dance with my subconscious, trying to avoid pain but also trying to wake up, and I repeatedly steered myself down, in aikido with my addict self, to steer toward moments of clarity.

    But maybe I read the post wrong. If you’re totally up front about “The money will be returned to you later”, it’s cool. Like non-alcoholic beer is cool so long as it’s labeled as such.