Game developers employing psychologists to design systems to suck out money out of kids are a real problem, regardless of the context. Similar to advertisement targeted at children, but squared.
This is blaming the tool for the actions of the person using them.
This is not a video game problem, this is a societal motivation problem. The motivation of corporations is to make money, so they employ whatever means they can to achieve that.
In this case it's targeting kids playing video games.
The tool is not the problem, the wielder is. Saying otherwise is extremely disingenuous.
I agree w the sentiment but not the exact statement; games themselves arent the problem, but theyre starting to become a part of it due to disgusting practices by folks like tencent n em.
Ironically one cool studio that doesnt indulge in such practices is fromsoftware. Just drops peak and keeps moving, even tho i believe theyre owned, at least partially or to some extent, by tencent as well? (scary)
My little brother bought sone dorky bs in brawl stars for 10$ even tho were on hard times. I hope when he grows up he realizes how fkn stupid this was lol... (if he becomes a shooter game skin collector instead of a skyrim mod fanatic gigachad like me ima whoop his ass)
Yup, this is why I don't let my kids play any games w/ MTX. They already get super obsessed every new thing they see, there's no way I'm dealing with that in their games as well.