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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 5298749" data-attributes="member: 2067">It's true that it's voluntary. So is a slot machine. So is <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4137782.stm" target="_blank">online gaming</a>. So is <a href="http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v34/n4/abs/ijo2009288a.html" target="_blank">eating more than you need</a>. So are most drugs (at least initially). Being voluntary doesn't mean it's not addictive. <a href="http://www.sleepwake.com/self-control.html" target="_blank">Self-control isn't all it's cracked up to be</a>. It's different from a chemical dependency, but the psychology that goes into addiction (independent of the chemical dependency) is pretty well documented. Taking advantage of our brain's <a href="http://www.treatmentsolutionsnetwork.com/blog/index.php/2009/01/08/dopamine-plays-a-role-in-risk-taking-and-drug-addiction/" target="_blank">dopamine triggers</a> for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforcement" target="_blank">reward-seeking</a> in such a callously opportunistic way as is, in my book, a level of exploitation that I'm not comfortable with. The issue of retail psychology is <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3634141/They-have-ways-of-making-you-spend.html" target="_blank">pretty well documented</a>, so the question isn't "does it exist?" The question is: at what point do you draw the line between advertising and "marketing strategy" and manipulating people's minds to make a quick buck?In my view, randomized reward systems like random booster packs cross that line, for me. For most people, they're probably fairly harmless (not everyone dies playing WoW), though I'm not sure what you as a consumer get from such a business model. I don't know how buying randomized packs instead of buying complete decks makes it any better of a product for the purchaser. I'm not going to tell WotC that they can't (or shouldn't be able to) do it. But I do find it distasteful.In a similar way, I find something like the <a href="http://www.foodgeekery.com/reviews/double-down-with-kfc/" target="_blank">KFC Double Down</a> distasteful. But KFC is (and probably should be) free to produce it and sell it. I'd just like to do my little part to create a little zone of sanity around myself where such a thing is not very present. I'd like to have consumers smarter than that. I'd like to have consumers who truly purchase something with the value of that something in mind, rather than consumers who love gambling on a friggin' pack of cards for D&D. But if some people want that thrill, I'm not going to stop them. I won't participate in it, though. And that's completely within the realm of reasonable human action.<img src="http://palmgoon.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/the_more_you_know2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /></blockquote>

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