Maybe it’s always been a gambling addiction, i dont really know. My kids (and their whole school) don’t play, but they buy and trade like they think they will make money. Some look up prices on TCG, some don’t. They think alt art, misprints, and the one good card you get per pack is worth gold. I only let them buy with money they make.
It’s the same with any fad, spectacle + interaction + collectables + artificial scarcity, and baby we’ve got a grift going.
The only thing that matters though is if the consumer believes the value they get out of the grift is worth the money they put in. Pokemon is a good grift.
Ok, but pokemon is $35,600,000,000 ahead of the next biggest media franchise ever. While I don’t know every single name on the list down to $1B, none that I know are based on catch them all and mostly children gambling.
Yeah, what’s your point? We’re not talking about all media, we’re talking about tcg’s and collectable fads, you know, the subject of the posted meme and comment thread? It was your comment!?
Maybe it’s always been a gambling addiction, i dont really know. My kids (and their whole school) don’t play, but they buy and trade like they think they will make money. Some look up prices on TCG, some don’t. They think alt art, misprints, and the one good card you get per pack is worth gold. I only let them buy with money they make.
To a certain extent it’s always been a thing, but the wave of streamers and the like getting way too into a couple years back definitely boosted it.
It’s the same with any fad, spectacle + interaction + collectables + artificial scarcity, and baby we’ve got a grift going.
The only thing that matters though is if the consumer believes the value they get out of the grift is worth the money they put in. Pokemon is a good grift.
Ok, but pokemon is $35,600,000,000 ahead of the next biggest media franchise ever. While I don’t know every single name on the list down to $1B, none that I know are based on catch them all and mostly children gambling.
Want a card? Buy a pack. Get the card you wanted? No. Buy another pack.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_media_franchises
Yeah, what’s your point? We’re not talking about all media, we’re talking about tcg’s and collectable fads, you know, the subject of the posted meme and comment thread? It was your comment!?
Honest question, in media franchises, to what would you compare the pokemon gift?
Bayblade, Magic the Gathering, Digimon, Yugioh, Pogs, baseball cards.
Basically anything that has a randomised collectible component that you can’t purchase individually from the provider is gambling.