[ SECRET POST #5965 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5965 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 42 secrets from Secret Submission Post #853.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think this is quite the same. Skinner boxes are effective on people in a different way. Like, "retail therapy" generally doesn't involve gambling/loot boxes of variable gains, and people who splurge on stuff to feel better at least are guaranteed whatever item they buy, and aren't lured in by casino-like "just one more pull" mechanics.

Like the gambling aspect is literally scientifically proven to be more addictive than plain old shopping.

It's like saying someone who is addicted to opioids and someone addicted to weed is the same and it's all about their personal self control. It's really not. Some things are legitimately more addictive than others.

[(Anonymous)]

It's the exact same philosophy behind it, though. "I feel shitty, so I'll get this cute skirt and then I'll feel better." And sure, you get the skirt, but it doesn't actually make you feel better, so then you think "well if I buy some shoes to go with it, THAT will definitely make me feel better," only that doesn't make you feel better either, and you just keep going deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole and buying more and more stuff in the hopes that the next thing will be the one to magically fix whatever is making you feel bad. I've seen it happen to people multiple times, which is why I don't think it's something related to gacha specifically but rather an issue of trying to use spending money on something you want as a form of therapy.

Spending money when you're stressed and feeling lousy is a recipe for disaster, period, because it's way too easy to fall into the trap of "I'll just buy one more thing because SURELY that will make me feel better."

[(Anonymous)]

+10000

[(Anonymous)]

Eh, I just remember the people who managed to get into insane credit card depth because they were addicted to buying all the crap from homeshopping channels back in the day so I'd say it's kinda similar after all.

[(Anonymous)]

I feel like that kind of thing was actually way more predatory because they would deliberately obscure the true cost of the items by doing things like saying 'this can be yours for only 5 payments of $19.95!' without ever mentioning that 5 payments of $19.95 is effectively $100. So you'd get people thinking they weren't spending that much because they were only paying $19.95 at a time without ever stopping to look at just how much it cost in total once you put all of those payments together.

At least with stuff like gacha, you're paying the full amount for each charge up front so it's not like you get blindsided by how much you spent in total.

[(Anonymous)]

Not until you go back and add up how much you've spent in total on this "free" game.

Realizing that I spent more on a fucking cookie game I just casually dick around in than the cost of multiple AAA games was um. Not my favorite realization.

(Ironically it wasn't even the gacha mechanics that got me, it was the farmville mechanics.)

[(Anonymous)]

I meant in the sense that if you buy, say, a $50 pack, you know right up front that you're spending $50. It's not being marketed to you in a way to make it sound deceiving when it comes to how much you're actually paying.