A ton of games use psychological tricks to get people to spend. Look at hearthstone from Blizzard. You have to keep buying cards until you get lucky... and you never do. The randomized fashion makes it so you never stop spending even though you are one card away from your ideal deck. It has all the elements of gambling minus the real life rewards. There definitely needs to be some sort of regulation — perhaps punishing the randomized reward mechanics.
I did the same in WoW :) Bought up all the versions of a certain item in AH and sold at extreme markup over time. As more came up on AH I’d just buy them all up and continue. This lasted for quite some time and I diversified into other items. Let’s just say I could afford anything in that game :)
It’s funny how we know testimonials are hand picked but still get influenced by them, even if they don’t feel authentic. Those star ratings must act as dopamine hits or something.
As a designer I often run into creative blocks. Sleeping on them usually brings clarity. I’ve made it a point to never hand over any project until I’ve slept on it and had a chance to look it over the next day. Almost always I’ll find something that needs fixing or that could be done better!