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Video game "loot boxes" may become federally illegal??......
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coppercone2:

--- Quote from: NANDBlog on May 11, 2019, 09:44:11 am ---
--- Quote from: free_electron on May 10, 2019, 04:04:38 pm ---except the game doesn't do anything useful. it's just timepass ....

--- End quote ---
Well, you would think that.
First there are people trying to make a living on twitch and other steaming platforms, where this is practically necessary to run competitively.
Then there is the group belonging. I played Word of Tanks a few years ago. A group of 8 people are required to play a certain strategic game type. They literally kicked people out of the group, because they didnt had the certain type of "required" tank, which gave a certain edge in the game. The tank was 50 EUR, the price of a full game.
Imagine, that they place it in a lootbox, 2 EUR each, 2% chance of getting the tank.Putting math aside, after 100 trials, you have 87% chance of getting the tank.

So if you dont have it, sorry. Go and play something else, while we the big boys go and play the interesting part of the game.

--- End quote ---

For some reason I imagined something kind of epic, like dream team, epic strategy, shock and awe vigour that would impress the entire community, being held back by a digital purchase of 60 euro. Then some guy with his life setup for living on zero budget for the next 20 years has to do something crazy for some pocket before next week so the whole thing does not fall apart. Like the guild leader from that MMO based show called 'the guild'.

I think its more epic without the lootbox option since it gets rid of the gamblers and you will get a go getter instead at 60 euro. I can imagine next skype meeting some 18 year old living in the slums is heard yelling at eastern european gangsters that lent him money to get off his property and that he will have it next week...

I noticed alot of videogame stuff sounds extremely pathetic unless someone understands how being in a guild or clan that is serious feels. Kind of have to be there..
CatalinaWOW:
Drawing a line somewhere, even when you somehow get agreement on where the line should be drawn.  Because the problem isn't a line.  None of these addictive problems affect everyone the same way.  And the folks with a real problem don't stop because of some silly line wherever it is.

I would suggest a two part bandage on the problem.  Make the vendors of these gambling/addictive devices only sell any individual a fraction of their income.  And make the penalties for violation fall upon the vendor, not the user.  This second part makes it a more responsible party avoiding the penalties (remember the problem is the extreme addicts who over use the product.  They are the last ones to worry about penalties). 

The first part has real problems.  Agreement on an appropriate number, but more importantly, how to deal with someone with multiple addictive outlets.  It is hard, but conceivable to get a percentage of income that is relatively harmless.  And perhaps a reasonable social contract to exchange financial information for the right to access of your narcotic (oops I mean game) of choice.  But really, really difficult to control the multi-stream problem (and to allocate penalties for violation).

But at least this seems on a path to a solution which could control the excesses, while allowing the majority of responsible actors access to a variety of entertainments.
julianhigginson:
Smokey, you're missing a lot of points here.. I'm not sure where to even begin.
But I'll start by saying I'm pretty sure you are not, and have never been, a parent. And if you are, well, yikes...

Also. Buying loot boxes in a game is nothing like physical packets of baseball cards. As much as buying them can involve chance in what you get, that's about where the similarity ends.... For a start, kids will trade the cards. if there's something they want, they will normally get it through their friends if they don't get it directly... The other thing is that in the context of a game, the presentation of the rewards is done with very polished cues involving animation and music, designed *exactly* to enhance expectation and tension and resolve it with the chance rewards in exactly the right way to manipulate human minds, and cause addiction to the process of receiving the rewards. Baseball cards can't and don't do that, even with their pretty shiny foil wrappers. Now this doesn't mean nobody ever went crazy on baseball cards and sold their house to buy them (I'm sure someone must have, it's a big crazy world afterall) But the mental pressure that games with loot boxes put on people is far worse than the mental pressure packs of baseball cards exert.

I think we should definitely be talking about video games that kids play becoming more and more like poker machines - an industry that uses hard psychological data on the human perceptions of risks and rewards and pleasure to hook in and literally milk money out of adults, with no concern at all for any mental damage they may cause along the way.

And yeah, while we are at that we should also be talking about poker machines.... even though they are LOCKED AWAY FROM KIDS in licensed venues (damn big brother govimint inserting themselves into my kids recreational activities!) because even when used by adults they've evolved into something over the last 25 years or so that they never historically were (or at least a much more concentrated form of it) and they are causing far more damage as a result.

And maybe we should even be talking about advertising and marketing.... another industry that abuses research on regular human weaknesses and susceptibilities in order to try and exploit people.

This is how regulations work. We, as citizens see that something that keeps happening is not something we want to keep happening. so we get laws to stop that happening... If we can't do that, I guess there's direct action. But if, god forbid, someone went and organised a big loud proper boycott and protests over a game dev company and any company that supports them, over their use of loot boxes.... well, I get the feeling you'd scream about that too.
David Hess:

--- Quote from: wraper on May 10, 2019, 12:31:13 pm ---... instead of buying certain a item, you buy a cat in the sack hoping there is something good in it.
--- End quote ---

Instead of cat, sack contained chlorine trifluoride.  Would not buy again.

https://xkcd.com/325/
jh15:
on the phone app for my tesla s I have a loot box.
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