E46: Economics of Sweepstakes, Vertical Word Game Progression, and UXR Failure

Is fair matchmaking actually bad design? And how exactly did gaming companies fumble the bag when it came to the army of PhD psychologists they employ? We talk: • Sweepstakes, social casino, velocity, and why most players never cash out • Why Wordle feels flat to some designers and why elegance is not the same as progression • Surveys as UX, not truth machines, and how to extract signal without lying to yourself • Compensating differentials, handicaps, and why 50 percent win rates kill progression • Bots, deception, and whether games are magic shows or fraud Chapters

• (00:00:00) - In the Case of Moral Utility
• (00:00:41) - The Game Economist Cast
• (00:01:42) - Phil vs. Wordle
• (00:05:57) - The Need for Difficulty in Word Games
• (00:10:39) - Total War: An Absurd 4x Game
• (00:13:34) - How Sweeps Are Getting Around the Gambling Laws
• (00:17:43) - Are Loot Boxes Legally Gambling?
• (00:21:29) - How Social Casino Works Without Sweeps
• (00:23:48) - How To Win at MMOs
• (00:27:03) - How to Win on Surveys
• (00:32:38) - The Cognitive Task of Food Preferences
• (00:36:24) - Have Surveys Ruined Mobile Games?
• (00:38:22) - People's feelings in 'Star Wars': Are they reliable?
• (00:39:22) - Battlefield 1: Skill Based Matchmaking
• (00:44:48) - What's The Argument for No Skill Based Matchmaking
• (00:48:45) - Is Bots Bad for Content Ethics?
• (00:53:58) - Rejecting Kantian Ethics