// PC GAMER — GAMING
Steam Week in Review: Steam just got its first 'dopamine site', so you can fatten a fake backlog without spending a cent
All the interesting Steam facts for the week ending July 5.
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Watch Dogs 2 is currently $2.50 on Steam. It's hardly a classic, but it's not terrible either. At one cent per 10 minutes of content, how can you resist? It's only five pleasantly tactile mouse clicks away.
Maybe you can't resist. During Steam's seasonal sales it's possible to scoop up dozens of games for less than $5 a pop. Ted Litchfield found 31, many of which could individually keep you occupied for weeks. The temptation to splurge is probably irresistible, especially if you've been bitten by some of Steam's incentives to hoard: maybe you love to customise your profile using Steam points, for example. Or maybe you love trading cards. Or maybe you just find pleasure in watching your library grow.
Or maybe, one day, you really will find the time to play through Dead Island 2, even though you don't like zombie games, or first-person games, or games set in Los Angeles. For $5, it's an investment in case you change your mind about all of those things. I'm assuming that was the logic which led to the mysterious appearance of Gotham Knights in my library: I don't like Batman, I loath superheroes, and I can't stand grindy, icon strewn open world games.
As Mashable reports, Korea has a cost-free answer to the dopamine hit that comes with impulsive online purchases. FoodNeverComes is an app that simulates the shambling, shallow pleasure that comes with making an online transaction, except you spend no money. The user can browse a list of restaurants, select from dozens of menus, take pleasure in pressing "purchase", and then watch a fake GPS delivery tracker transport goods that never come. That's just one example of a growing number of these fake purchase sites, dubbed 'dopamine sites'.
As psychologist Dr. Gabrielle Schreyer-Hoffman tells Mashable, "We do see people use social media, shopping, and buying food to fill voids and avoid being present. Maybe you don't spend the money, but you're not really dealing with the core issue, which is: Why are we going to these websites to do this?"
Is it sometimes more pleasurable to buy games than to play them? I'm no psychologist, but reading about these Korean dopamine sites immediately puts me in mind of my Steam backlog. I wasn't surprised to find that someone has made a dopamine hit website themed around the current Steam summer sale.
At steamsalesimulator.com, developer Mike Wing has replicated Steam pretty much exactly. You can click "add to cart" on everything, add endless thousands of dollars to your wallet, and then hit that blessed "continue to purchase" button which triggers a succession of melodious, life affirming, congratulatory, slot machine-style chimes. Occasionally, Gabe Newell himself sends you a randomised gift. (Thank you, fake Gabe for gifting me fake Wall World). There's even a community market where you can buy fake cosmetics: for $0.09, I copped a Distinguished Antique Endtable for Don't Starve Together. Feels good, man.
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