I was not familiar with how it works in electronic entertainment companies, but this sure sounds scary... and sad at the same time. Almost like most of us will end up playing games we would barely enjoy.The problem is that over the last 10 or so years, the trend has been for tech companies to believe customers are just a manipulative mass, and that any complaints can be chalked up to the app not being manipulative enough. Taleworlds executives probably don't believe this directly, but as a broad tech industry trend its almost suffocatingly pervasive. Universities have been giving massive grants to game developers for like a decade to research how video game player manipulation works. Everything's about data now and you can't go 2 feet as a coder without seeing someone telling you how effective it is to use user data to subconsciously manipulate your audience rather than ever directly addressing them. And unfortunately its working, because data driven games are by far the most profitable.
P.S. Little quote from the link you posted. I know this is a typical grant request style, but still...
"These will show us how businesses can start up and grow to develop a new generation of games with the potential to improve society."
I can smell 'Skynet Fan' a mile of...