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Video game "loot boxes" may become federally illegal??......

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Ice-Tea:

--- Quote from: Smokey on May 10, 2019, 01:39:14 pm ---How about world of warcraft.  It's $15 a month.  Now consider starting out in wow that there is a certain game time investment just to get your character leveled up to the point that you can start doing stuff like raiding with your friends.  Say it takes you 1 month of game time to level up to the cap.  Fine.  Some people find that fun.  Others just want to get it over with.  Blizzard offers a "boost" for $60 to just skip that part of the game and have your character max out their level (at least they used to.)  That would save the person that doesn't want to grind for a full month all that time and makes their game experience much more pleasurable without effecting anyone else.  It's not required but it's an "in game purchase".  Should that be illegal too?

--- End quote ---

There's a fundamental difference: the variable reward part. Pay A and get B is, phychologically, clear and not very addictive. You pay for a service/item. However, if you pay A and get B, C, D, E, F or nothing at all it has an addictive component to it.

Gambling is generally accepted (even if it is frowned upon) but it is also regulated. The problem with loot boxes in games is that is gambling without any kind of regulation.

Smokey:

--- Quote from: Ice-Tea on May 10, 2019, 02:11:48 pm ---
--- Quote from: Smokey on May 10, 2019, 01:39:14 pm ---How about world of warcraft.  It's $15 a month.  Now consider starting out in wow that there is a certain game time investment just to get your character leveled up to the point that you can start doing stuff like raiding with your friends.  Say it takes you 1 month of game time to level up to the cap.  Fine.  Some people find that fun.  Others just want to get it over with.  Blizzard offers a "boost" for $60 to just skip that part of the game and have your character max out their level (at least they used to.)  That would save the person that doesn't want to grind for a full month all that time and makes their game experience much more pleasurable without effecting anyone else.  It's not required but it's an "in game purchase".  Should that be illegal too?

--- End quote ---

There's a fundamental difference: the variable reward part. Pay A and get B is, phychologically, clear and not very addictive. You pay for a service/item. However, if you pay A and get B, C, D, E, F or nothing at all it has an addictive component to it.

Gambling is generally accepted (even if it is frowned upon) but it is also regulated. The problem with loot boxes in games is that is gambling without any kind of regulation.

--- End quote ---

Again, how is that different from packs of baseball cards?

madires:

--- Quote from: Smokey on May 10, 2019, 02:36:03 pm ---Again, how is that different from packs of baseball cards?

--- End quote ---

The pack contains a specified number of baseball cards, the loot box contains a random number of random things.

free_electron:

--- Quote from: wraper on May 10, 2019, 12:55:19 pm ---
--- Quote from: Smokey on May 10, 2019, 10:38:22 am ---Note:
This is actually relevant here because we all have an interest in the tech world and this is an example of a stupid legislative reaction to a problem of scary new technology that's really a result of bad parenting, which is not going away any time soon and a slippery slope further down the road to anything "new" "digital" and "technology" being considered "bad for the children". 
For example, how about making all Youtube videos illegal since you don't know what ads you are going to see and kids might click them and buy something?

--- End quote ---
As this is electronics forum, imagine this. You purchase an oscilloscope. Start measuring signals, then it shows you a message: either you run 1000 loops around me before I do particular job properly, or pay 5 bucks and it might fix the problem. In small letters: there is 1 in 500 chance that you will win necessary option to do the job properly. Otherwise you get something useless. As in beginning it does not pop up that often, people just deal with it. Other oscilloscope manufacturers see it actually works and is an easiest way how to extort money out of customers, and all start doing same shit. As time goes by and people get used to it, it becomes worse and worse. So new oscilloscopes are pain to use without in oscilloscope gambling. In the end you cannot buy an oscilloscope which is comfortable to use out of the box.

--- End quote ---

except the game doesn't do anything useful. it's just timepass ....

ajb:

--- Quote from: madires on May 10, 2019, 02:58:52 pm ---
--- Quote from: Smokey on May 10, 2019, 02:36:03 pm ---Again, how is that different from packs of baseball cards?

--- End quote ---

The pack contains a specified number of baseball cards, the loot box contains a random number of random things.

--- End quote ---

I don't know about sports cards, but TCG booster packs at least generally guarantee you a certain number of common/uncommon/rare cards per pack, which is far more certainty than you get out of a loot box.  You also have the option to entirely short-circuit probability by buying the specific card you want on the open market, though obviously at a much higher per-card cost.

Really, loot boxes closely resemble gambling in many key respects, including the way that they affect people psychologically.  Given that gambling is widely regulated, why shouldn't things that are functionally equivalent be similarly regulated?

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