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