The battle of addiction: Are videos games psychologically adjacent to gambling?

Nintendo started as a card manufacturer company - with the decks commonly used for gambling - further evolving to a video game company. This got me thinking, what are the reasons behind addiction to gambling and/or video games. After further examinations, I concluded that video games and gambling have a psychological overlap.

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Why are video games, like Donkey Kong, so hard to put down?

Let's take the example of Donkey Kong: a repetition-based game that fills the player with the "one more try" mindset. The player is rewarded with a quick dopamine rush, inducing replay. I believe the randomisation of the game sequence is extremely effective in getting the player hooked. This unpredictability is also found in gambling, even though the penalization can be more drastic.

Video games allow for the player to fail and learn without a real consequence. Directly exploiting a natural human behaviour of risk-taking and curiosity when faced with a challenge. The closer a player is from dying while beating the game, the bigger the adrenaline rush. The bigger the risk, the bigger the reward, the bigger the addiction. Still video games reward skill, giving the player a sense of development.

Finally, beating the game leaves the player with a sense of fulfilment followed by a search for a new source of quick dopamine.

Video games vs gambling

Conversely, to the video game that rewards mastery, gambling rewards solemnly uncertainty, with the novelty of gambling being chance.

Although both activities have different fundamentals, they are both highly addictive in nature. In video games, the players gets hooked by the specious sense of progress while beating a level or learning from a near-death sequence. In gambling, the possibility of winning fills the player with hope, predestination and delusion.

In this Vault Entry, we explore the similarities between video games and gambling systems, particularly surrounding the reward system and addiction. Gambling and video games can further be used as forms of escape, where risk and failure exist within controllable feedback loops. They can serve as a window to behavioral tendencies, cognitive preferences and emotional patterns.

Similar dynamics can also be observed in other behavioral patterns such as pornography or eating disorders, where reward loops and emotional regulation gets entangled.

Where can we find similar "games" in our life?

Further entries will contain analysis surrounding social media and other attention based environments, exploring how these feedback loops shape human experience.