Fake Gambling in Games
Something I see in games, is fake gambling. And I'm not talking about loot crates or real gambling. Nothing with MTX. I'm talking about having gambling mini-games in the game with currencies you get normally.
How do you view mechanics like this? Does it add value or just distract players from the real goals of the game?
I've leaned more towards, it ruins the balance a bit, but also it just distracts players. It's almost a low-effort way to add "content", but at the same time it's something some amount of players enjoy. I should state, some games are built around gambling to a degree, but this is more geared towards games that are not, but just added it in for fun on the side. Also, even though it's fake and not tied to any real money, there's a moral issue of is this a gateway to something worse?
Just curious about other devs thoughts. I tried adding it to my own game awhile ago, but I honestly took it out because of the things above and now don't consider it for my games.