What Slot Machines Can Tell Us About Our Brains 

I'm really happy to hear this spoken outside of typical games media journalism, and all without alienating the practice of gaming as a hobby? Good stuff, made me smile genuinely, as someone who regularly clocks in many hours.

Gotta spend more money. I am still missing both Stealth Olivia (SS tier) and Muscle Hank (SSS+ tier) characters to complete entire collection.

"Dark Flow" sounds like Flo from the Progressive commercials super villain alter-ego name.

*It's very similar to phone notifications* Sometimes you have a notification "a reward", sometimes you don't... It's a lottery! And that's why you just keep checking your phone even though you should be focused on homework.

It's fascinating that some companies are going for "well, we're completely removing loot boxes then" and others are "you know what we need to change? Let's call it a _surprise_ _mechanic_ and add a virtual slot machine in the game"...

Game companies: There isn't enough research on surprise mechanics yet! -literally puts in a slot and pachinko machine so old research can apply now

People who go to casino’s want to gamble. People who play games don’t. Removing loot boxes will be beneficial to everyone except maybe EA.

Love how the show just encouraged whistle-blowing on dubious research to keep people gambling in video games 👍

The sad part is that big game publishers know these things, and they are actviely doing this to make more money than they need, preying on children and problem gambleres whom wanted to escape gambling and finding gambling in video games. And of course, thank god for Jim.

"Hooked kids up to slot machines" *An Ethics board would like to know your location*

Me: What can slot machines can tell us about our brains? Is that even possible? SciShow: You bet!

...continues scrolling through social media... curse you dark flow

So this is why I can't stop thinking about cherries!

Thank God for Jim Sterling.

The whole “even if your ‘strategy’ is pulling a lever” thing made me unexpectedly crack up.

I will never gamble. Because I know I have an addictive personality. Any video game with a randomized reward that lets me try again and again will have me hooked for hours or even days of soft-resetting to get what I want. A good example is shiny pokemon. Or loot drops in Diablo.

Looks like "surprise mechanics" to me!

Hey, I'm a game developer, background in video gamedev, but I now work in the casino gaming industry: Casinos actually hate being compared to video game loot boxes, because loot boxes are much much worse and more manipulative than casino gambling. All gambling games (table or video) are made and heavily-regulated so that the odds never change. You have the exact same chances of winning any game you would ever play; same odds of a jackpot, same odds of a near miss, same odds of a royal flush or a two pair or whatever it may be. It's literally illegal to do otherwise. A slot machine or casino card game has no memory, it doesn't know or care when you last won or lost, or who is even playing. Whereas loot boxes in AAA games or mobile games are NOT random, they do NOT have the same odds of winning each time. A casino game is a fair roll of the dice, but a loot box is not a roll of the dice despite the game publishers want you to think they are. Loot boxes are an algorithm, specifically tailored to each player to maximize their revenue generation. A loot box knows when you last won or lost, it will intentionally do near misses to trigger your brain, it will change the "odds" unfairly to maximize its manipulation of the user. Microtransaction sales are the worst of this, as these games will individually create sales per user according to their adaptive algorithm, specifically offering sales on the digital items it knows you want at the price it believes you're most likely to make a purchase at when it thinks you're most vulnerable to this kind of sale offer. Digital goods don't actually cost anything for the publisher to sell, all price is artificial, and will be tailored for maximum manipulation. So yeah. If you tell a casino game designer or casino manager that AAA game loot boxes are gambling, those casino people will be very offended, as casino stuff (while designed to take money of course) are far less slimey 😅

Ive been gaming for years and the lootboxes are a cancer in our community. We all hate it, and greedy companies know that, so they hide it behind jargon to get away with it. If anyone doubts me look up NBA 2k20. It litterally had people playing slot machines to get players they want, ans the game is rated for EVERYONE. So your 8yr old kid can litterally pay money to play slot machines. And its even worse than real life slot machines cause there is absolutly no chance to get that money back.

This is the video on gambling/loot boxes that we need years ago! Thank you very much for expanding on the specific psychological pitfalls for problem gamblers.

Natasha Dow’s Addiction by Design is a great book if you’re interested! If I remember correctly, it’s more of an ethnography about slots in Vegas than psychology, but still interesting.

Oh god, dark flow perfectly explains so many of my useless distractions (common with my ADHD). Interestingly, my father is a pathological gambler, and it's his side of the family with all the ADHD (he shows symptoms himself too). This makes me want to look more into ADHD and pathological gambling symptoms. There are higher rates of addiction in those with ADHD than those without, and a big part of ADHD is seeking immediate gratification and differences with dopamine. This video was more interesting than I expected, not that I was thinking it would be boring or anything.

CS:GO had those near misses baked into it because of the way the "slot machine" spun around the dial would just barely tick off a valuable item before landing on an item that isn't as valuable.

thank you for this episode. it really never peaked my interest, but i´m glad i saw this. because, as a child of the 80s, i used to play - and to an extent still do - computer games and i had noticed how much empty time i was investing, that would be more beneficial for studying or working. i still play games recreationally, but i really noticed how many many games over the years adapted their online game offerings to encompass such small items, that get you hooked. at the end of the day, you are investing small in game purchases - it´s really not a lot of money you lose, but that small investment of money, keeps you from quitting the game and do something more productive or entertaining, because you are being conditioned to want to reach that daily goal, that daily perk, this weekly or monthly accomplishment. and all you really do is, spending hours infront of a display, moving shiny objects around, smiling and more often than not cursing at your opponent. now isn´t that nice for entertainment!

I watched this video in the morning and when I went out to get coffee my mom told me I have a nice alarm (the sound at the beginning). This coupled with the subject of the video gave me the idea to make an alarm out of sounds from a video game I like to make me more excited to wake up. Has anyone else tried this?

You can tune (and slot companies do) the reels to have more 'near misses' to take advantage of people's idea that a near miss is better than any other miss. There are also partial wins (where you get less than the bet back) that work on the same sort of principal.

Question. What is the difference, if any, between a company that makes drugs as addictive as they can to maximize profit and a company that makes slots as addictive as they can to maximize profit?

The "flow" and "wired" state you experince while doing things like gambling, speeding, extreme sports, drug taking, drinking, smoking, some video gmaes and movies is awesome. And very hard to obtain in other activities. And it require a lot of effort and focus to achieve doing non risky or pleasurable experiences. But if you manage to obtain it to study or work you will almost certainly become rich and sucessfull.

Great video! This really explains how I feel when playing competitive Rocket League. I feel like the matchmaking is setup to induce flow there.

You should have left a link at 7:20 for those potential whistleblowers (i know its technically being a leeker)

Damn, ive been trying to get my hands on that legendary oliva stealth skin for months

Also, I used to work for a company that printed lottery tickets. The near miss effect is something the scratch off lottery industry takes full advantage of even though if you think about it there is no such thing as an actual near miss where little pieces of preprinted cardboard with special ink over a scratch area is concerned. But its easy enough to print lottery tickets where you have to match 3 in a row to simulate the idea of a near miss by printing tickets that have 2 out of 3 of the symbols you need nearly exclusively.

Thank you for including the last part about ethics

It's interesting how intermittent reinforcement can be good or bad. Like unpredictability as a flow trigger opposed to gambling. And how it's demonized, even though personally as a ADHDer it has been really helpful in relationships where I'm treated well, otherwise I get utterly bored in 3 months. I think it's the intention that makes the difference, whether it's to support or selfishly take advantage of. Not that intermittent reinforcement is always abusive.

I don't have addictive personality. Everything becomes boring, quickly.

I really liked that little poke at developers to call out predatory mechanics. Hold people accountable and don't let them slip something in at the eleventh hour.

I never knew that gambiling games did that to people and great video man :]

The only thing I am addicted to, is gaining knowledge.

Slot machines 🎰 teach us we like shiny things 🔥

There has never been an end of humans trying to live off other humans and gambling is the most mental addiction.

A standard microscope would be FAR from 'Boring' - and a Stealth Olivia would indeed be 'Legendary'

Thanks. I've always wondered why lootboxes or gambling never appealed to me and now I know.

GREAT WORK

fun and engaging surprise mechanics!

In the same realm of timing payouts, the tones that slot machines emit are specifically chosen to trigger sensations of happiness and excitement in the players. It draws players in and to those most susceptible, keeps them playing.

awesome video very interestting

As someone who asked to be barred from casinos, thanks for this video, i learned a lot and will definitely keep staying away from it.

That schedule of reinforcement thing sounds a lot like positive reinforcement in dog training.

You can really apply this slot machine concept to any behavior u want from anything or anyone

I don't know if loot boxes are the same as gambling, but the video games industry is counting on it being just like gambling.. Addiction is a great business asset, and a wonderful tool to rob people while pretending not to.

Hank. I used to work for a casino. I've seen horrible things. I don't think I will change the world/gambling addiction but what is that number to talk about the horrible gambling thing?

Aristocrat leisure limited, a major manufacturer of slot machines have designers that knows human psychology so well.

it's amazing how human brains are wired to enjoy risk, novelty and unpredictability

Wow his hair really was straight back then, I'm already so used to the chemo hair

HANK ITS GAMBLING !!!! Thank you for sharing this information friend

This only is really effective on me when the near miss turns out to have an alternative purpose or use. For example, in a game where I value playing with others, getting something I can't use that others can is helpful (such as in Borderlands), on the other hand, when I'm playing solo and have no interest in multiplayer play, unless the items my character can't use sell for a sufficient amount of in-game currency it feels meaningless and in all honesty has the reverse effect on me, making me want to play it less. Maybe that's just because I am a game designer so I readily notice these sorts of things and they turn me off, but that's been my experience anyway. I do agree though, that what you're saying is what the research, as far as I can tell, does say, so I'm not saying its wrong, just that it hasn't really been my personal experience so maybe the truth of it is a bit more complex.

It's always such a shame that research is trailing behind the damage. I'm certain that the company's and "regulators" are fully aware that what they do isn't ethical or healthy. They know the way they treat their staff and customers as well as journalists and governments is beyond contemptuous. They just don't care. The CEO's make millions, or billions, their staff are disposable, they think their customers are idiots (though sometimes we do act like it), games journalists are either corporate mouth pieces or blacklisted and governments are slow to act, easily distracted by baseless moral panick and hung up on technicalities because those "regulators" work for the games industry and make generous campaign donations to further their agendas.

What does it say that I find slot machines brutally, *insufferably* boring?

This explains why I don't play slot machines.

I gotta say, deleting Candy Crush was a relief. Damn Ponzi scheme!

Slot machines trick you into playing in a number of ways. Yes there are near misses but also false wins, spins in which you do get a win but it’s less than your bet. It’s still a loss overall but your brain is tricked into thinking something good happened and it gets a reward response. The colors, sounds, and graphics themselves allure players to keep playing as well. You also many times trick yourself into thinking there is a pattern in the randomness of the spins that doesn’t really exist. You think you can predict when a win is coming but you can’t. And the oldest myth to slots is that if you feed it enough money and play long enough, a big win is certain to come. It just isn’t true.

There probably is dome nuance there, buying in game currency? Not gambling, loot boxess? Gambling

Thank you for this video 💞💕💞

I played video games for over 10 years, the ones with loot boxes and all.. Got out from the depressive gamers life with some help and after half a year of freedom one weekend tried slots for the first time.. Oh boi. There is no way I can trust money to my self ever again. I guess opening loot boxes was just a training for the real gambling. Thanks Geben

Gambling has been always a frustrating and bad experience for me. Maybe because I know that I won't get anything from it. I quite enjoy flow tho. For example I love to play WoT Blitz (not for the loot boxes or anything, I just enjoy the simplicity of the gameplay) and I find myself in a flow situation where I enjoy this piece of trash game more than I should.

Thank God for Jim Sterling

Read Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg folks. There is a whole chapter on this topic

omg i finally get the steath olivia skin!! :OOOO

I ban myself from making even a single microtransaction on loot box or gacha. I'm extremely vulnerable to them and know I wouldn't stop....

Plot twist: Those slot machines aren't random. They used science and research to keep us playing it.

Well mostly it's publishers forcing developers to implement these mechanics. :(

Whenever I play slots, I'm really playing with the algorithm. I spend $20 and a couple hours with free drinks watching for patterns and trying to think "if I was a regular person, what would the algorithm expect me to do? What could I do to convince the algorithm to let me win this round?" Sometimes I cash out and switch machines to see if my outcomes change whether I use the slip they print out or cash I could go to the bar and drink there, or I could spend that money on slots and have entertainment AND the drinks

As a slot machine developer this is very interesting

6:08 sounds like my diminished rewards from smoking weed and drinking

Check out Bill Bure on Conan in 99. He did a bit about this.

Man am I glad that early on, I was a cheapskate that vowed to never spend any real money on in-game currency.

I just want slot machines put back in my Pokemon games!

I'm so sorry, Hank. This is a really interesting video, but I kept getting distracted by how the color of your t-shirt messed with the green screen effect, and made it look like the editors had pasted your head onto someone else's body.

If they weren't gambling, the video games industry wouldn't be skirting the legal definitions so much.

The ridiculous thing about "pay to win" video games is that you don't actually need to pay for anything to play or win - they capitalize more on impatience. Players don't want to actually play the game, they just want to smash their opponents as quickly and easily as possible. I played a couple popular mobile games and never spent a penny, but competed satisfactorily. I definitely experienced the addictive nature of these games, as they kept me signing on daily for hours at a time to complete the multitude of scheduled tasks for rewards. Once the rewards are collected the player thirsts for more to get their characters over the edge to the next level. The solution is to pay for the extra rewards and possibility for immediate advancement. Some people justify it as a nominal fee for a bit of daily fun, but after you add up a few dollars per day it sums to $100+ per month. Ordinarily a person would only pay $5 - $10 total for the privilege to own a computer game - but now they are forking out $1000+ per year just to play a game. I quit playing out of distain for the amount of time I spent on the games - and the increasing complexity of the game mechanics. The game developers kept adding more mechanics for increasing the power and ability of characters, and of course, this added more opportunities for the player to pay to gain advantage over these extra features.

Except that when I watch SciShow episodes I feel like I'm winning every time. 😉

That explains pistachios.

while this is obviously troubling, I find these studies absolutely fascinating. It shows us just how easy we are to fool. The fact that more people bet on dice rolls if they get to roll (rather than just having them rolled by a machine) is utterly bizarre, because of how obviously wrong that is. I always cringe whenever i hear coworkers say things like "you gonna play to win" when it comes to gambling, as if there is any strategy in any of these games. Unless you are gambling against other humans, you are always playing a losing game. The best defense against this is education. The more we understand about our own behavior, the easier it is to guard against tricks like these. As a wise man once said "The person who thinks he cannot be fooled, is the easiest person to fool".

I'm addicted to slot machines and they have destroyed my life. I go in and think I'll only spend X amount and leave broke. Unable to pay bills or buy food. I just lost all my money yesterday on slot machines and the depression , frustration and anger I feel at myself is so intense I can't function at any normal level at all. I have noticed a major correlation between taking Xanax and playing till I have nothing left so from now on if I'm taking Xanax, zimmos or Valium I am making sure I've no access to money. I have a very difficult week ahead again now cause I took extra meds and thought I could control myself.

Loot boxes are credited as the biggest gambling mechanism in online gaming, meanwhile, GTA V has a casino.

"Dark Flow' There is a star wars joke there somewhere

Life is a gamble. You don't know what will happen in the future. You just keep living it.

I can see how "flow" fits within flight simulators, like I can relate to! : p 🇨🇦

Lotteries are fixed. The lottery company knows how many winners they send to each outlet, they know the odds of a payout happening. The more people having the same winning number, the less the individual winner gets, because the lottery company is not going to pay out the same amount to each winner. And if no one picks the winning number (they can tell the odds by how many play), then the lottery company shrug their shoulders and say, "Sorry about your luck," and keep the money themselves instead of looking for another winner. And if a vendor posts that they hard a winner, that's a heads up that the odds of getting a win there has decreased. Ultimately the games are meant to separate people from their money.

Video games are so often advertised as being "...the most addictive game...". In what other industry is addictiveness seen as a good thing? Does the tobacco or vaping industry advertise as being addictive? Coffee? Alcohol? Gambling? If any of these things advertised on their packages that they are MORE addictive than their competitors there would be all kinds of social and political backlash, but for some reason, as for many of the negative aspects of gaming, they are seen as a boon. And we let them get away with it. Video game industry, particularly online multiplayer video games, are a very perilous and lawless place right now. Our laws and politicians - 90% of whom do not even have smartphones - need to catch up with the technology and do their jobs of protecting their citizens.

Scishow Hanks my brain

Really, this goes for virtual rewards for virtual currency, too. One very complex game was "Hogwarts mystery" of the Harry Potter world. Introductions were all well and good, but the story didn't happen till "third year." The storyline was so bogged down in the play of the game. (same classes, same actions, same rival harangueing you till it's like you're physically beat up each time you play.) The fun stuff didn't happen very often, though you could make it happen more often if you paid real money for the virtual currency. I could probably put the elements of the storyline in a fifty-page book half the dimensions of the average 200-page SF book. The first Harry Potter book is three times the size of an SF book, and the second one is five times. And the rest are bigger. And Warner Brothers doesn't need anybody's money; they get enough from their moviegoers.

I want the Dr Turtleman skin

Psych major I can confirm this is taught in psych class, a whole lot

you should go watch the "let's go whaling" lecture, it immediately starts by saying "we will leave the ethics of it on the side for now, let's focus on psycologically manipulating people into spending as much as possible"

Slot machines make me feel empty and I hate them and any sort of gambling like that with a machine, lottery tickets on the other hand... I almost feel like slot machines feel like a waste of money because it's based on timing and every random # of tries get a win while for lottery tickets it feels more like luck as if somehow you will pick and play the correct numbers like a premonition.

1:00 1:58

Dark matter, dark energy, and now dark flow! When will the darkness stop!?

Just one minor complaint. you used micro transaction as interchangeable with lootboxes at one point. Which is not the case especially for the topic of this video. Lootboxes or "surprise mechanics" are the term for the random stuff. Micro transactions on the other hand can be perfectly fine as they just describe "paying a small amount". I think we can all agree that buying a pack of gum for 1$ and pulling the lever for 1$ are totally different things in this context. Both are microtransactions, but only one is -gambling- a surprise mechanic.

""""""Suprise Mechanics"""""" tend to exploit the exact same mechanisms that make gambling what it is. Just because it doesn't look like gambling on the face of it doesn't mean i isn't.