42K likes, 844 comments - unilad on December 8, 2025: "Beating a 90s game felt like climbing a mountain 🏔️💪⁠ ⁠ Today it’s more like dodging a paywall of bullets😵‍💳⁠ ⁠ Mental health experts are warning that modern game design has shifted from building skill to building addiction.⁠ ⁠ Veronica Lichtenstein, a licensed counselor and former teacher, said: “You fought through levels, memorized patterns and finally saw the ending… Your brain gave you this solid, lasting dose of satisfaction.”⁠ ⁠ Now, instead of endings, players get endless “offers”, $5 skins, $10 skips, pushed by algorithms that track player behavior and nudge at just the right moment. Lichtenstein calls it “junk-food dopamine”: short hits that vanish fast, training kids to crave constant stimulation.⁠ ⁠ She added: “Nineties games are a challenge for building your skills. Today’s games are often a test for your psychological resistance.”⁠ ⁠ Another expert, Melissa Gallagher, says 90s games offered “bounded entertainment”, natural endings, real breaks, and no pressure to rank yourself against the world. Now? “Everything is a task… It generates pressure, erratic sleep patterns, and makes too much noise on their minds.”⁠ ⁠ From Pokémon to Fortnite, the shift is real, and it’s changing how kids think, play, and even sleep.⁠ ⁠ Skill grind vs. dopamine drip, which era would you rather grow up in? 👀⁠".