The Immoral Design of Diablo Immortal

4.4M views · 4 years ago · essay · evergreen

Josh Strife Hayes critiques the monetization design of Diablo Immortal, the mobile and PC game from Blizzard. He argues its progression and spending systems exploit players.

HN cites it as the definitive account of predatory game design, loot boxes and behavioral-psychology tactics aimed at spenders.

“by far the most adept & deceitful at using predatory tactics pulled from behavioral psych to wring addicts out of their money.”

4 comments from Hacker News

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@richbell2022 · in “Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations”
> Wait until FTC find about Diablo Immortal. While I'm sure it's been discussed to death already, if anyone isn't familiar with the predatory design of Diablo Immortal I'd recommend this video. ▶ this video
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r
@rythmshifter2022 · in “The immoral design of Diablo Immortal”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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H
@Hammershaft2023 · in “Apple iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max”
AAA gacha games & Diablo Immortal clearly have quality production values, but they are also by far the most adept & deceitful at using predatory tactics pulled from behavioral psych to wring addicts out of their money. ▶ this video
j
@jerf2022 · in “As weed gets more potent, teens are getting sick”
It is brought up with other things. Perhaps you are extra sensitive about the weed topic for your own personal reasons. "Video games" is a particularly bad counter example, there's a lot of chatter around video game addictiveness and what it can do to vulnerable minds. There's always been some low-key discussion of it but the increasing prevalence of "loot boxes" and their corresponding mechanics have not just increased the volume of the hand-wringing but actually risen up to the level of being banned in certain countries. It's early days on that and I expect to see more regulation of video games over time. As a parent, I can and do directly control my children's access to video games. (My children for various reasons I'm not sharing on the internet are extra sensitive to the issues.) For example: "The Immoral Design of Diablo Immortal" - ▶ this video
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