WR152 Story Board by Ellie Goodrich

Research Question

goode06 — 2025-03-18 17:03:32 UTC

How can the "egg" system of the video game platform Roblox's simulator genre of video games be evaluated for both closeness to "legal" gambling and for damage on vulnerable groups such as adolescents?

Thesis 1

goode06 — 2025-03-18 17:03:50 UTC

The egg-hatching system of ROBLOX simulator games is one that exposes minors to gambling-like behaviors which increases the likelihood for problematic addictions related to and including gambling addiction. This system uses X Y Z to normalize addiction-prone behaviors.

Argument 1a

goode06 — 2025-03-18 17:04:11 UTC

Personal Conclusions 1

goode06 — 2025-03-18 17:04:26 UTC

Sources

goode06 — 2025-03-18 17:04:39 UTC

Goldman, Eric. Roblox must Defend Illegal Gambling Claims–Colvin v. Roblox. Santa Clara: Newstex, 2024. ProQuest. Web. 2 Mar. 2025.

Jiménez-Murcia, Susana, et al. "Video Game Addiction in Gambling Disorder: Clinical, Psychopathological, and Personality Correlates." BioMed Research International 2014 (2014)ProQuest. Web. 2 Mar. 2025.

Kindbridge. “Are Loot Boxes Gambling and Therefore Addictive?” Kindbridge Behavioral Health, Kindbridge Behavioral Health, 9 Jan. 2024,

kindbridge.com/gaming/are-loot-boxes-gambling-and-therefore-addictive/.

Kindbridge. “Can You Gamble without Money? A Dangerous Question to Ask.” Kindbridge Behavioral Health, Kindbridge Behavioral Health, 5 Jan. 2024, kindbridge.com/gaming-and-gambling/can-you-gamble-without-money-its-a-dangerous-question-to-ask/.

Macey, Joseph, and Juho Hamari. “Investigating relationships between video gaming, spectating esports, and gambling.” Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 80, Mar. 2018, pp. 344–353, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.11.027.

Molde, Helge, et al. “Are video games a gateway to gambling? A longitudinal study based on a representative Norwegian sample.” Journal of Gambling Studies, vol. 35, no. 2, 5 June 2018, pp. 545–557, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-018-9781-z.

Osborne, Jason W. “How Loot Boxes in Children’s Video Games Encourage Gambling.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 20 Feb. 2024, www.forbes.com/sites/jasonwosborne/2023/05/25/how-loot-boxes-in-childrens-video-games-encourage-gambling/.

Sanders, James, and Robert Williams. “The relationship between video gaming, gambling, and problematic levels of video gaming and gambling.” Journal of Gambling Studies, vol. 35, no. 2, 18 Aug. 2018, pp. 559–569, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-018-9798-3.

Simon, Daniel. Hidden Gambling Addiction in Online Video Games. Budapest: Óbuda University Keleti Károly Faculty of Economics, 2020. ProQuest. Web. 2 Mar. 2025.

General Ideas to Explore

goode06 — 2025-03-18 17:04:53 UTC

Sub Question A

goode06 — 2025-03-18 17:08:13 UTC

What does external research say or imply about the closeness of "hatching eggs" to legal gambling?

Sub Question B

goode06 — 2025-03-18 17:08:48 UTC

What extrapolations can be made upon the external research correlating legal gambling to this system?

Sub Question C

goode06 — 2025-03-18 17:09:23 UTC

What does external research say about how damaging this style of gambling is on vulnerable groups?

Sub Question D

goode06 — 2025-03-18 17:10:06 UTC

What extrapolations can be made based on such research? What are my personal conclusions?

Prerequisites of A

goode06 — 2025-03-18 17:13:18 UTC

What constitutes real-world gambling
What is the structure of "hatching-eggs"
What are some other things that are "gambling-like" in nature and how have they been classified as such
How do these compare?
How can the logic from gambling-like things be applied to this system?

Prerequisites of C

goode06 — 2025-03-18 17:14:25 UTC

How damaging is legal gambling on vulnerable groups?
How damaging is something that is gambling-like to vulnerable groups?
How are these related
What elements from something that is gambling-like tend to cause damage?
Can something that is gambling-like cause the same problems as gambling itself?
How can these conclusions be applied to "hatching eggs?"

Definitions

goode06 — 2025-03-18 17:16:40 UTC

"Legal Gambling" - A term used to describe things that are classified as forms of gambling under the law ie: roulettes, poker, blackjack, slot machines

"Gambling-like" - Something that shares elements of gambling shown to be problematic, but is not or cannot be legally defined as gambling due to some stipulation within the law

"Egg-Hatching" - The examined form of gambling-like behavior similar in nature to loot boxes. It is a system where the player spends real world currency or currency exclusively obtained through real world money on an "egg" which then hatches into a random "pet" (a thing that floats around your player's model while providing some bonus within the game, these tend to have quantity values associated with them and values assigned by an inter-player trading group) based on random chance.

Background Information

goode06 — 2025-03-18 17:16:55 UTC

Thesis - List as Revised

goode06 — 2025-03-18 17:33:37 UTC

Argument A's List

goode06 — 2025-03-18 17:34:09 UTC

Personal Conclusions List

goode06 — 2025-03-18 17:34:28 UTC

"Skin-Betting"

goode06 — 2025-03-18 17:36:04 UTC

Logic for how this is considered gambling definitely ties into pets

Personal Thoughts

goode06 — 2025-03-20 05:08:18 UTC

Make thesis smaller
Make thesis more specific
Answer the questions in one-four sentences to make up the introduction
Provide arguments from the text both FOR and AGAINST this idea
Apply the logic for other topics to this one (like in the infographic)
Incorporate some stuff from engineering discipline maybe
Conduct a case study on the success, implied age range, and shown consequences of media relating to egg hatching simulator games

Opposing Viewpoints

goode06 — 2025-03-20 05:09:46 UTC

Is something "gambling-like" able to be considered damaging on the scale of actual gambling behavior?
Is a game geared for children capable of creating addiction later in life?
How do loot boxes (by extension eggs) cause addiction?