The gaming industry is one of the fastest growing in the world. Over the course of 75 years, computer games have gone from a dot jumping on the monitor screen to graphics at the level of high-quality video shooting. The famous inventor and entrepreneur Elon Musk made a prediction that the current generation of people will consume games in which the virtual space is completely indistinguishable from the real world. In fact, he predicted the emergence of some kind of analogue of the Matrix. It is quite natural that wealthy investors and entrepreneurs were among the first to appreciate the financial potential of computer games. Today, the virtual market is a field of activity for global corporations that actively lobby their interests in legislation, create a positive image of computer games in society necessary for sales, and popularize their products and the lifestyle of players through e-sports. In terms of their capabilities, they are in no way inferior to alcohol and tobacco manufacturers. As follows from the report of the British regulator Competition and Markets Authority CMA, the production of one AAA game from the category of popular franchises can cost more than a billion dollars - and the profit pays for all this many times over. To create For new online games and related products, global corporations actively attract professional psychologists, pay for numerous studies of human involvement in the game process, and constantly improve game mechanics, trying to reach the maximum number of consumers. Today, the audience of top games exceeds the population of entire countries or even continents. For example, “World of Tanks” has 50 million registered users, and “Crossfire” has 1 billion accounts. More than 10 years ago, psychologists segmented players into killer, communicator, careerist and researcher. Each archetype has its own system of rewards in games, algorithms that push the user to maximize online and financial investments in their accounts. And the more dependent a person is on the gaming process, the more profitable it becomes for game manufacturers. The phenomenon of each financially successful game, as well as 6 main genres and more than 90 subgenres of computer games, have been studied. Today, in order to teach their child to successfully withstand the onslaught of gaming corporations, every parent must have certain knowledge. For example, to understand what attracts young people to popular online games and how addiction is formed. In other words, have an idea of ​​the psychological hooks that manufacturers use to catch unprepared people. Psychological hooks in games can be divided into several large categories: 1. First of all, it is a random reward of varying value for a simple action. A number of games, including massively multiplayer role-playing games and mobile games, involve a special game loop. This cycle includes significant rewards for simple actions performed. The anticipation of such a reward causes a chemical reaction in the human body, accompanied by the release of dopamine, the “pleasure hormone.” The brain remembers a pleasant feeling and strives to repeat it. The same chemical reaction can be observed when a person uses drugs. This is how addiction is born. The principle of random reward was first explored and proven by behaviorist Burres Frederick Skinner in the early thirties of the last century. For the first time, it was massively implemented in slot machines known as the “one-armed bandit.” In online games, it is implemented in the following processes: - when gaining experience necessary for character development; - when raising the level and choosing the necessary skills; - when knocking out an enemy and getting a game currency for completed tasks; - when receiving things for completing tasks that can usually be purchased in the game store only for real money; - when knocking out random, including rare items, from monsters or players in PVP mode; - when creating items with different chance of production; - when rewarded for completing.