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Comment by Termitiono | Hacker News Reader

Because a normal hobby is not designed to be addictive.

A hobby like wood working doesn't push you to do woodworking every day and there are not people behind this non existing mechanism who design it like it.

Also normally a hobby costs money due to physical parts of that hobby. A software engineer as a hobby only needs some computer, would worker needs a metal saw.

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That's the important part. Not only are these games "designed for addiction," they are written as if someone opened up a psychology textbook on manipulation and implemented every chapter.

It is human abuse.

Fitness hobbies also punish you for taking some time off. But they still just happen to be that way, instead of being deliberately designed, and that's a distinction that should very much be allowed to make a difference. It's not unusual at all for intent to carry legal significance.

The risk/benefit calculation of fitness activities is overwhelmingly positive. Their health benefits of exercise might as well be infinite. Even such a benign activity can be pathological though: accidents and lesions during training, anabolic steroid abuse, body image issues...

The risk/benefit calculation of predatory gambling video games is overwhelmingly negative. It's really no big loss if they were to be outlawed straight up. We have much better games available for our enjoyment.

There was a leaderboard posted in the local gym. It was for the most frequently coming members. Some of them regularly racked up >400 visits a year. I didn't even realise at the time that it was weird until a doctor mentioned that these are likely people with addiction or body image issues. I guess you can overdo anything.

> A hobby […] doesn't push you to do [it] every day

Look at organized sports, if you don’t show up enough times, you don’t get to play anymore.

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