Lose half a million in front of thousands of people on Twitch and the dangerous normalization of slots

After seeing a few hours of direct on Twitch, the money lost by XQC is not even calculated in its last streaming session. Yes I am sure that the keyboard shortcut that allows you to replace what you lose at constant rhythm in its "slots" emissions. Also, thanks to a small tracking, I know that when this piece began to set the 12: 00 of May 20, its account showed a positive balance of just over 477,000 dollars and, one more hour afternoon, I had less available than I have managed to save in seven years working. Also that to 13: 37 there were 800 “turkeys” of the initial half a million.

• The fool's disease
• For a bunch of dollars
• Influencers with all letters

The content creator minimizes the problem ensuring that it can allow it and, for the moment, it is true. He will have entered a huge amount of money for streaming " slots ". A much softer word than the terms "casino", "slots", "game house" or "game of chance". The content creator, who talks about his "small or moderate problem with the game" instead of "ludopathy" or "ludopathic disorder" is also more pleasant. However, XQC has even caught on this little acceptance. “ People made me think I had a problem. I was wrong, there is n1. Sorry for apologizing, ”said the streamer in his discord.

The fool's disease

Ludopathy is a foolish disease. Not of course in medical and psychological terms, but from a social perspective. "I don't understand how people can fall into that" or "Why do they play if you are made to lose" are some phrases that probably have all heard at least once. The sensation of immunity generates an adequate climate to sentence the sick and the ignorance of a silenced problem gives enough daring to express it. The big problem is that, behind these value judgments, a great stigma sits that tries to blame the victims.

It is comfortable to think they are dumb. They have fallen into a problem that we have dodged because we are smarter and we know that the game is made so that only the owner of the casino wins, because we never had intention of winning in the first place and because it costs us a lot to get money to waste it from this form. However, this approach is not very different from the one who thinks that depression is an invention , that there is simply learning to assume things or whose great advice is that "you are not sad" and "you put a good face to the lifetime". "If you have anxiety, relax, uncle."

The forgotten variable when we talk about game addictions is that nobody uses it to earn money. There is the possibility that the first couple of times we play for that. However, it is not very different if you turn that couple of euros stationed in the last classic in enough to invite the family to dinner or lose it miserably. The scientific issue of addiction is in the segregation of dopamine , a hormone that leaves us a great sense of relaxation and well -being after appearing in large quantities. It is the game in itself, its randomness and the fact of knowing that there could be a reward that makes the ludopats continue playing.

Eye, because this must be repeated: it is not the reward itself that generates dopamine download or what can turn a player into a ludopath. It is the mere fact of its existence and the immediacy. The previous uncertainty, the moment in which we still hope to win, is the one that acts as a drug. Although I am a sociologist and not a doctor, the studies demonstrate with total certainty that, in this sense, the biological mechanism responsible for the groceries is no different from the one that makes the recreational consumer a cocaine addict. It is not the effect of substance or behavior, it is the consumption process.

For a bunch of dollars

The stoamers entry point in the world of slots broadcasts are advertising campaigns . Every day, content creators are contacted with commercial proposals related to the game among which are initiatives of the type “Make a broadcast playing on our website for so long in exchange for so much money for you and both for your account”. Unconscious of danger to them and their audience, tempted because betting pages pay disproportionate amounts or under the premise that they will only do it once; It is easy to see why so many fall into this situation.

However, Behind each accepted campaign there are dozens of personal dramas . The first is that of the content creator himself, who has self -infected to a parallel lottery in which the prize to distribute is a problematic game disorder. Behind him and although many do not want to take responsibility, some of the most faithful spectators of him will go. Not everyone will end up hooked in the same way as not all content creators do. However, a part of them will suffer a problem that alters the rest of their life. All for just a handful of dollars.

Ludopathy is not a physical illness and there is no medication in the form of a miraculous cure. In fact, the use of the term "cure" is even avoided. Almost all help federations for the victims of the game of chance talk about "chronic disease" and use the word "rehabilitation." With it, they reference that The danger of relapse is constant . A single day when a currency is thrown into the slot or the betting machine can relaunch the destructive pathological game loop with which the addiction began. In the best case, on the way I would only have lost money. However, it is common for delay when recognizing the problem also involves social isolation and, in the worst cases, suicide.

The first time I consulted the data to a person in charge of Fear, Among the 180 people who attended a local association, 2.5 million euros accumulated in game debts . A human group in which the probability of making the decision to end the life itself is multiplied by six with respect to the general population and that, during the rest of its days, will have to follow a series of guidelines that avoid their relapse. In short, it is a serious mental health problem that I would not want or the worst of my enemies.

The excuse that XQC used to justify its casino games streamings is that "_ it should not be a behavior model for anyone." There are also other content creators who interspersed among their runs some other message about how bad the game is. However, and here we enter the field of opinion, It is not logical to want everything good of a profession and dismiss any responsibility . If I want to call me journalist, I must inform myself to make texts; Who wants to be a footballer, must train hard and if my desire is to create content, I must be willing to assume how my practices affect the audience. Because, although many detest it, the term influencer is the one that best defines its work.

Influencers with all letters

Thorstein Veblen is one of the most important sociologists in history and the greatest contribution of it came in the field of consumption. Although his theories have been reviewed over the years, one of the elements that remains in force almost 100 years later is that of the emulation . According to his theory of the idle class, we emulate the leisure and consumption of the highest classes to create our own way of relating to material goods. It is a concept that can explain why some want luxury cars and others pull loot boxes to get the best skins.

I must not be the only one in my generation that for years felt immune to the publicadad. The truth is that what Jorge Javier Vázquez said as I watched television in the living room gave me a bit the same because what I was doing was snacking with my grandmother. However, it was because I had not yet found my reference group. The streamers are the great leaders of this reference group The world of video game and, in general terms, enjoy a great ability to influence the consumption of their spectators.

This situation makes us particularly vulnerable. We tried one game or another because the content creators begin to play it and go viral or use skins because the best players use them and look very. Companies spend amounts of wild money to get the equivalent in marketing to the coup d'etat of the custard ads starring Ronaldinho. They earn money because everyone knows that, in one way or another, thousands of people will imitate it . It is true that they do not have to be models of behavior, although it would not be bad either. However, it is evident that, they want or not, they are consumer models.

Issue casino games harms the creator of content and his audience. Because the rich are also ruined because of ludopathy, because bets are still profit to lose money and because not only fools develop problematic game disorders and, above all, because the philosophy of sugar envelope is enough Uncle Ben to know that A great power entails a great responsibility .