Video and audio content are not interactive. You never feel active manipulation from static media.

Games in that model will be accused of manipulating players into having as much play time as possible even sacrificing quality. The same addictive mechanics can be used for time instead of money.

That is true, and is also happening in other mediums where the incentives are setup this way. The biggest culprit I’ve seen is recipes. What you want is the ingredients and instructions laid out with minimum fluff. What you get is pages and pages of useless storytelling to improve the metrics of the page so that the page gets ranked better for engagement so that it can sell ads.

But won’t people get bored and just stop playing? I wonder if songs have gotten longer since the rise of Spotify and Apple Music.

Then you could get games that are long for no reason