August 27, 2021
I've played actual games wherein investments and stock market playing were part of the game, and I still had emotional reactions to losses and gains.
Anyone who sees their money as no longer real, and who sees losses in the stock market as fake because of some confetti or balloons on a screen has problems that wont be fixed by telling apps to stop using cute emojis or visuals.
The idea that someone sees these and stops thinking of it as real money is as detached from reality as an actual person who sees these and stops thinking of it as real money.
I'm aggressive enough on the apps that you would consider my behavior \"gameified\" by looking at the pattern, regardless of the fact that you can't read my mind and \"prove\" I no longer think of it as real money.
There will be stupid people who use these apps and lose lots of money because they're bad at strategy or stock markets or understanding money. That is not a failing of the apps, nor is it the fault of some fake pixels on a screen designed to look like a party-scene for buying stock.