dont even need to watch the video fr i fuck with the title, outer wilds fuckin slapped especially bc you can only play it once lmao, remove progression systems from games 
I played a lot of Hades because the play cycle was fun, and getting good was enjoyable. But once I finished the story, and I romanced who I wanted to romance, I've never picked it up again. And I like it that way.
i liked hades but i would have liked it better with less "+10 health/+10 damage" type metaprogression tbh, something like FTL where you're mostly unlocking sidegrades and new gameplay options instead of straight upgrades alongside the narrative
under communism the only progression system allowed will be the checklist from kirby air ride
terraria is fun though
terraria is even more fun with mods that remove grinding from the game so you're only locked by boss kills and not time. that and calamity for some extra CBT 
I wish Starbound was a horizontal progression terraria :(
I do like me some number go up but I prefer big changes like bigger projectiles or something proper like that over percentage bonuses. Or extra tools to do something actually fun like buildcrafting
I feel like Starbound never really knew what it wanted to be and at one point they just shrugged and put a 1.0 bow on it lmao
feel you on the upgrade/build stuff, gaming never truly recovered from diablo's +8% poison damage vs 8% lightning resist shit when we could be doing more interesting choices like gun that shoots two bullets vs gun that shoots bouncing bullets type of shit
They've got that (relatively) new gamemode that allows you to infinitely duplicate any item as long as you've found X numbers of it. I liked that mode a lot for my most recent play through.
oh yeah explore mode is rad
i wish more games gave you settings to control how much grind is in the game, No Man's Sky isn't really my cup of tea but it's practically the gold standard for that, letting you change each grind setting individually on a scale from survival to sandbox
"Addiction is a specific thing that requires biological dependency therefore you said the wrong word and everything you said is invalid!" 
I posted that there so pedants don't have to.
I absolutely hate that argument, it would mean gambling addiction is not real. In other words: one of the most harmful addictions to public health is not an addiction by that definition, because there's no "biological dependency".
That's exactly how the struggle session went.
It was despicable, shameful treat defending from fairweather leftists.
Wait we had a struggle session about gambling of all things?? How are you going to be anti-capitalist and pro-gambling industry?
Because some fairweather leftists are so preoccupied with "DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" that even talking about the problem got them very defensive, up to and including "people that get pulled into gambling and ruin their own lives and the lives of their families had it coming" very-leftist takes.
no biological dependency
....which is a weird claim to make since gambling addiction is 50~70% genetic. The genetic factors have been known for a long time. Here's a study from a decade ago in Nature where they compared addiction genes in rats with addiction genes in humans:
At the bottom of the page you can find other studies done on the links between genetics and gambling addiction. A lot of overlap with the genetics that make people more prone to alcohol and drug addiction.
Skinner box game mechanics suck and are just hollow "entertainment" but are manufactured very carefully to maximise fomo and engagement. They're very profitable though which is ofc why its used, battle passes, timed events, seasonal content, lIvE sErVicE shite.
It's designed specifically to prey on people who are vulnerable to these tactics, I even fell into it myself around the modern warfare reboot getting extremely worked up over battle passes. Hated every minute of it but just couldn't stop myself until someone hacked my Activision account and stole it breaking me out of the cycle.
Fukn crapitalism.
That shit's effective and that's the reason it keeps being done. Every smug 
looking down on people that get caught into it under pretense of feeling superior can fuck off forever.
Skinner box game mechanics suck and are just hollow "entertainment"
All Vidya Gamez are fundamentally Skinner Boxes. At the same time, when you're trapped in a cube all day, it's nice to get a food pellet. Stop shaming people for food pelleting themselves.
Hated every minute of it but just couldn't stop myself until someone hacked my Activision account and stole it breaking me out of the cycle.
My original experience with online games was in a big social circle that whittled away over time. It's less the game pass model itself (which always just descends into "How much pop culture can we shove into your generic Blood Gulch shooter/looter?") than the fact that I'm playing with an endless parade of anonymous that nobodies I ultimately find so upsetting.
I play chess with a co-worker every lunch break we're free, and it's far more fun and fulfilling than the time I spent grinding amid a sea of faceless nobodies.
At the same time, it feels cruel to tell people who don't have an active social circle to just not be online at all.
The only thing worse than the Skinner Box is solitary confinement.
All Vidya Gamez are fundamentally Skinner Boxes.
No they are not and I will fight you. If you mean multiplayer online games, well maybe, you might have a point, but I don't play those games and so I will make no claims about them.
However. If you call Outer Wilds or Pathologic/Pathologic 2 or Disco Elysium or A Short Hike or Journey skinner boxes, well, you're just wrong. Games are experiences, they're stories that can be more immersive than a movie or a book and if they're done well, holy shit are they good!
Games are (can be) amazing, and I'm sick of pretending they're not.
Games are experiences, they're stories that can be more immersive than a movie or a book and if they're done well, holy shit are they good!
They're still feedback loops of input and reward. That the reward is "compelling narrative" rather than "loud ding with big number go up" changes the quality of the treat dispensed but not the nature of the box.
Games are (can be) amazing
Skinner Boxes are tools to gauge the behaviors of their subjects.
The form can still be artistic and the reward for interaction can be sublime and the thing itself can still be what it is.
do you think a novel is a skinner box
No. There's no human input that determines the response.
Goosebumps choose your own adventure novels.
But to take you a tiny bit more seriously, ok? So what? Why does "I have some agency in this story" make a story bad? What actually are you getting at here?
Goosebumps choose your own adventure novels.
Primitive, but closer to the mark.
So what? Why does "I have some agency in this story" make a story bad?
I don't think it does. The box is just a mechanism. In the same way that a book or a painting can be good or bad, a gameplay loop can, too.
What actually are you getting at here?
You can have a Beautiful Skinner Box in the same way you can have a Van Gogh or a Tolstoy novel.
So you're using some weird definition of "skinner box" where you simply mean "human inputs lead to various outputs". Why use this definition? By this definition a fucking mathematical function is a skinner box.
I simply do not understand, in general, what you're trying to say.
you simply mean "human inputs lead to various outputs"
More specifically, its to refer to an experimental device to gauge psychological responses through IO. Well made games attempt to collect and convey more complex information through the mechanic of IO.
By this definition a fucking mathematical function is a skinner box.
The original Skinner Box existed to devise mathematical functions through experimentation. The goal was to quantify behavior in a controlled setting.
Video games repurpose the tool for entertainment. But they are ultimately intended to be revelatory. Games exist to measure and eventually train behavior. A "good" game provides useful insights and beneficial behavior patterns. A "bad" one exists to extract vulnerabilities and exploit them to nefarious ends.
Somehow you missed the point completely about predatory business practices preying on vulnerable people to draw out massive profits.... The entire thing this comment and post is about
predatory business practices preying on vulnerable people
Krogers employs predatory business practices on people. What are you going to tell them? "Don't eat!"
People play these games to escape the horrid reality of daily life.
I haven't told anyone to do anything you're arguing with something you made up in your head
i like how the video contrasts the addictive MMO style shitfest with the "addictive" actually fun Vampire Survivors. it's nice to see people separate out dopamine fests from, y'know, addictive and unenjoyable dopamine fasts (not a typo) that are MMOs. Because like, who doesn't love a good dopamine fest
edit: the word for something that's so good that you can't put it down is "compelling", i don't know why it just isn't used to describe games?? (except stories in them)
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Tabletop, DnD, board games, and minecraft. Also Animal Crossing.
3rd International Volunteer Brigade (Hexbear gaming discord)
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