I'm sure many people have noticed this already: Gambling with investor money (very fashionable), loot boxes and other gambling mechanics in games, dark patterns in UIs like endless scrolling, likes in social media, prediction markets, what will the next output of some LLM do, the list goes on and on. There sure are a lot of ways to get your dopamine fix.

For me it's most obvious in games. Call it RNG, random draws, dice rolls or whatever. Maybe with a nice animation with something moving or flying around and hitting the right spot. Or not. If you make or play games you might think that this is just the way some games work. More and more I don't. I see slot machines instead.

Rolling for characters in Genshin Impact kind of threw that dynamic right into my face. At some point I could feel myself being conditioned. Never played it since then. I've only played it for a few weeks, and this was years ago by now. So no harm done. But it really soured an otherwise interesting world and story for me.

I bet (no pun intended) you've seen the same or similar mechanics in other games more and more over recent years.

There are various perspectives on that that slosh around in my head:

Technical perspective ¶

Randomness (aka RNG) is just a tool to keep games interesting. Less repetitive. Sometimes it's a good way to approximate a more complex world, suggesting a richer and more dynamic world than is actually there. To deepen the immersion. Alas, for me that only works when the randomness is invisible. As soon as it's thrown in my face, I see a slot machine.

Like with many things, it's easier to picture it as a spectrum: Randomness as a technical tool on one end, an obvious slot machine on the other.

Business ¶

Well, gambling addiction is bad for people. I hope that's a given. It's great for business, though. Dopamine dependency keeps your players playing. Keeps users using your app. Even if they know it's bad for them. And active concurrent users is something every investor likes to see going up. Anyway, win-win, right? More money for your business, and the users have an engaging experience.

Yeah, by now it's kind of horrifying how many people still swallow that. Never mind the consequences. There's a reason gambling was regulated so tightly.

At least with loot boxes some have woken up. But in regards to general gameplay or UIs I honestly see no progress so far. All those small little dopamine triggers? Still there.

But I probably have strange tastes for UIs. For me the best UI doesn't divert any attention, doesn't leave any impression. I just do what I opened the app for and be done with it. I shouldn't feel anything when using a good UI. It shouldn't consume enough attention to evoke feelings, because any attention consumed is diverted from my original task. It should just communicate the information needed for my next decision. It should be boring, predictable, invisible. UX people will likely disagree… very much so, I assume.

And by now more than a few have noticed that work with LLMs can sometimes follow a similar pattern: Well, it almost got it right… just a few tweaks here and there… better, but problems there… and after how knows how many rounds it finally works. Or not. But no matter the final outcome, a bit of a dopamine roller coaster.

Again, this is a spectrum: A little bit of eye candy doesn't hurt. But if you ever found yourself opening up an app without meaning to… well, that's the other end. Where Pavlov's dogs and Skinner boxes reside.

Social and systemic ¶

I'm probably a bit more aware of this dynamic than most. At least judging by the fact that no one ever talks about it. But maybe everyone else thinks that, too. So how knows.

But honestly to me it feels like the financial industry and part of the software industry have become the new dopamine dealers. The software and games industry are more like school yard dealers (hook them when they're young), and the financial industry is for adults with money to burn (or not).

Maybe those industries are just "exploring new revenue sources" until there is push back from society. And it's a lot easier to try that with something insubstantial like money, software and entertainment than with e.g. buildings. Not for lack of trying. Various property bubbles sure felt like land developers gambling a lot. And there's always the Overton window to push ever so slowly.

Maybe it's just that over the last few decades we've grown up more and more used to our daily dopamine fixes. And where there's a demand, supply will soon follow. Consequences be damned.

Final words ¶

Anyway, I wish I had something positive to end on. But I don't. It's just one of the many small things that still leaves me baffled when observing how people behave. Something I keep noticing but sure wish I wouldn't.

If you're reading this: Thank you, non the less. Maybe it helps to spot and avoid trouble. Or if you make games or apps maybe it even keeps you from putting slot machines into them by accident. Anyway, take a cookie. Can't leave you without any conditioning now, can I. 😉