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Comment by mschuster91 | Hacker News Reader

> Before that we had Magic the Gathering.

Similar to Pokemon, you at least got something tangible. Even if MtG or Pokemon shutdown tomorrow, you can still play with your cards until you die, and then your kids can play with them.

Or you can sell them to other kids or collectors.

> Then you have Mac Donald and their monopoly game.

Also, here you got a tangible benefit (you got fed).

This is the key difference versus paying for Ninja Wars, or even for non-pay2win-stuff like "skins". The second the game servers get shut down is also the second your collection becomes worthless. And if you're done with the game you can't even sell on your stuff to someone else.

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Watching a movie on a DVD or from a file on your hard drive is still a movie, tangible or not.

In the example of the Magic card, those cards had no value for a human being, biologically speaking. We gave them value. You could as well write the card text on a piece of paper and play it the same way.

The fact they are tangible pieces of paper doesn't erase the gambling-for-children aspect. Nor does it give them any more real value than a video game bonus. They have the value we estimate in our heads.

You give for example a low value to a LoL skin. But to a player that spends hours a day on it, and use it as a central platform for social interactions and fun, the skin has an impact, and for a long time.

I played dota for a years, I never bough a skin, but when I won one, I sure used it.

A difference with MtG is also the target market. I started playing with 8, went to my first tournament (also the first time I met players other than my best friend) at 10 and we got laughed at for having German cards. Pretty much everyone was 5-7 years older than us.

Not sure how it is nowadays, but on the other hand, from what I read, you just buy whatever deck you want directly instead of going through boosters.

Remember when you could buy people things on Facebook for around $1 that were essentially icons? I can't remember exactly how it worked or what they called them, but I remember thinking at the time that you're essentially paying for a PNG to be displayed by someone's name and finding it weird. For a lark I wrote to their support team and suggested that I'd design them an icon for a cut of its revenue, and got a generic "thanks for the idea, we'll think about it" email response.

They were called gifts. I thought it was a kind of clever way of displaying status and demonstrating that you were thinking of someone, just like real gifts or cards. I definitely would prefer a social network with modest ambitions that covered its costs this way rather than targeted advertising and pay to win social gaming.

Gambling (especially aimed at minors) def gives me an "icky" feeling too, but I'm not sure the "tangible" aspect is very key.

To me, it seems like McDonald's food that's physical but lasts a short time is about as tangible as a skin that's not physical but you can use for years.

> To me, it seems like McDonald's food that's physical but lasts a short time is about as tangible as a skin that's not physical but you can use for years.

Well... at least with McD there is a natural limit on how much one can spend on gambling Monopoly (=how much you can eat before having to barf). With most digital goods, there is no such limit, and to make it psychologically worse, there is nothing actually "representing" what you got for your money - it's all numbers and code that depends on a central server.

Isn't McD worse then? It's encouraging people to eat/drink more sugar and carbs then one should just for a chance to win. Making them more unhealthly. There is also no limit, people can (and do) buy it and chuck it away. Or eat part of it. And end of the day you have nothing "representing" what you got for your money except some more weight on the scale. The skin lasts a lot longer and is better then junk food. At least the skin is neutral, McD has a negative benefit even if it is more tangible.

Collectible card games are literally the same as the stuff you get in CS:GO, that is, the CS:GO random items can be resold for a lot more money than you invest in it - if you get lucky.

But I just don't know why people are all up in arms about these things now when random card packs and such were a thing a while ago.

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