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Interview with Matt on his Gambling Research (Patreon)

Published:
2024-08-14 05:23:53
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

For those of you who want to hear Matt being responsible and talking about his gambling research, today is your lucky day!

Here he is on the Outside the Screen Podcast.

Paper discussed: Hing et al paper: N Hing, M Browne, M Rockloff, L Lole, & AMT Russell, ‘Gamblification: risks of digital gambling games to adolescents’ (2022) 6 Lancet Child and Adolescent Health 357-359; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(22)00124-9

Files

Ep 44: Gamblification (X2) and adorable rescue pups

This week we have an extended interview with gambling researcher (and podcaster) Matt Browne, about gamblification of computer games.

Comments

peta austen

very timely for Aussie political scene

Matt Dear

Very interesting talk Matt. I work as a sound designer in the games industry, and I've seen the gamblification of gaming go from a very controversial practice, to very much accepted as form of generating revenue. While there is still consumer pushback against these practices, they tend to be with the older generation, and especially so in people who either don't play games much anymore, or only play older games. There is a perception that younger gamers do not see these practices as new, they see them as normal. Early in my career I was approached by gambling companies to create audio content for gambling machines. Like quiz machines, or fruit machines in pubs. I decided it wasn't an area I wanted to be involved with. But, I did watch a few videos and read articles on sound design for gambling. There is a big focus on positive feedback, and creating satisfying audio that contributes to the dopamine rush of acquiring rewards, be they monetary, or manufactured desire. There is of course similar ideas throughout all game sound design, it's important that the player feel rewarded for certain actions, and for 'good' things to be encouraged, that drives the gameplay loop. But, I have also seen this employed to a very high degree with regards to in-game purchases, rewards, lootboxes, etc. There is *a lot* of effort put into making these sounds feel hyperreal, and highly rewarding. The quality of the sound is marked, due to it's scarcity. That level of detail and complexity of the sound is often related to the cost of the item, meaning the only way to play that 'high level' sound, is to purchase the highest value item. Very interesting stuff. On it's own gaming companies pivoting to different models of compensation for the developers and investors is not necessarily always bad. But, the focus on gamblification, and the active pursuit of 'whales', single users that spend 10s or 100s of thousands on a single games in-game purchases, is a damaging, exploitative, and predatory practice.

RareTripleBait

My Guru publishes in the real Lancet 🙄 (Just kidding, super stoked to listen to it. Title already seems interesting)

Linda Sears

Thanks for sharing this. There has been a trend in pedagogy towards gamification to keep students engaged in learning. I’d be curious to know if Professor Browne has thoughts on this.

Russell Halberdt

Outside The Screen is also a song and album by a band called Needlepoint ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

RareTripleBait

Very disappointed that Matt Browne PhD did not grace us with his Paw Patrol review. The episode description is close to false advertising 🥲