> Only bit I disagree with is that the big spenders are doing it purely because of addiction or gambling.
People spend big in games because:
* The spending is very stimulating visually and audibly (think lootbox openings)
* The gains from their spending translates directly to game-social prestige, game power, or both (i.e. an Advantage)
* This Advantage allows them to lord over the players who have spent less (or 0 in the case for F2P players)
Whether that manifests into addiction depends entirely on the rest of the game's design (but you know, games that introduce the Advantage tend to want to make a lot of money by getting you hooked on spending...)
> Second, games provide a sense of community. A lot of game revenue is monetizing people's desire to not be alone. Calling these players addicted is I think reductive.
Yes, these games do provide a sense of community because they are purposefully designed to do so. Without an incentive to play while getting lorded over by whales, the fish will leave. Without a bunch of fish to lord over, the whales will leave. Again, this depends on the game's design, but the vast majority of them encourage addiction to the Advantage and its use against others.
Maybe you can extend this analysis to IRL stuff. I don't know because I don't participate in any of it.
Source: [Let’s go whaling: Tricks for monetising mobile game players with free-to-play](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNjI03CGkb4&t=0s)