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

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julianhigginson:
At the end of the day, loot boxes in games aren't even that much of a biggie, compared to the overall drive to push addictive behaviour generating technology into pretty much everything it can be... there's a whole range of things being turned addictive for the sake of a bit of extra human engagement, and it's really not a good thing for human health.

At least the addition what is basically slot machines that chew up real money inside regular video games that kids play is an obvious "WTF" moment for some.

Here's something far worse - it's a side-note in this article, but options trading is now "gamified" and being pushed to unsophisticated traders.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/06/17/20-year-old-robinhood-customer-dies-by-suicide-after-seeing-a-730000-negative-balance/#61d9eac81638


--- Quote ---Kearns may not have realized that his negative cash balance displaying on his Robinhood home screen was only temporary and would be corrected once the underlying stock was credited to his account. Indeed it’s not uncommon for cash and buying power to display negative after the first half of options are processed but before the second options are exercised—even if the portfolio remains positive.

“Tragically, I don’t even think he made that big of a mistake. This is an interface issue, they have slick interfaces. Confetti popping everywhere,” says Brewster referring to the shower of colorful confetti Robinhood routinely deploys after customers make trades. “They try to gamify trading and couch it as investment.”

--- End quote ---

james_s:
I don't *like* those stupid games, or social media for that matter, both are engineered to be addictive, the latter is arguably much more damaging to society. I'm just skeptical whenever it comes to creating yet more laws, there are so many laws already that nobody could ever be expected to know all of them.

flowib:

--- Quote from: Mr. Scram on June 15, 2020, 08:53:08 pm ---
--- End quote ---
They tend to do when children are involved. I really have trouble imagining what kind of lowlife scum you have to be to consciously design gambling into a product for children and young adults. "Your own responsibility" also becomes hazy when addiction is involved.
[/quote]

From my own experience, being prone to addiction and having poor impulse controls i must have sunk most of the money i had (and that of my parents at occasions)in childhood into loot boxes. Ive played World of warcraft (and TBH blizzard is a saint compared to some others) there are some real unscrupulous companies out there that will happily bleed you dry in an attempt to get some item so you can atleast remain viable in competitive gaming.

Ive read other comments about parental responsibility i take offense to that. My entire family is on the spectrum parents and siblings included and i think my mother was glad i was too preoccupied with online gaming to cause her much trouble, she had a rough time with all three of us and there was a period when all i did was play world of warcraft, it had gotten so bad all i did was play WOW go to some special school only to be tossed out of class every day because i couldn't or wouldn't behave. In the end my parents decided to limit my available play time in WOW. But not before a screaming freak out on my part.

And my experience is not a one off, i know at least a dozen people from my time in special education that had similar experiences, as a matter of fact the majority of those who attended that school had problems regulating their online gaming play time. And most went through one or more depressive episodes later in life.

Im no neurologist, however i firmly believe that all this addictive gaming in life did cause physical changes in my neural pathways similar to those encountered in alcoholics or substance abusers. At least this is what i have been told by a number of psychologists who i have debated and or consulted on the topic. In short what i've gathered from them and from reading up on the neural pathways involved : An addiction is an addiction and once you have been addicted to something its very easy to roll into another addiction. Gaming could very well be the new gateway drug.

Those online gaming companies are in my eyes at least just as guilty and cause just as much mischief as some of the pharmaceutical companies that pushed opioids on the American public causing the rural opioid epidemic in the States. To some that are genetically or are in certain socio-economic situations it can be devastating and cause long term damage that can't be fixed.

I'm no fan of government overreach in general, however article 22 of our constitution delegates the improvement of public health to the government, and if loot boxes are in anyway dangerous to mental health of young people they should ban them outright.

But the discussion should be broader , i am fundamentally convinced that most social media is at least as toxic to the dopamine levels of their users, and in general has caused some nasty societal changes that we have yet to experience the full ramifications of. Facebook and the rest of those W****ERS are no hair better then the guy slinging dope.

I'm afraid that without a ban by the EU and the US congress the Dutch ban becomes hard if not impossible to enforce and therefore i wholeheartedly support anyone that is willing to take on these companies as they pray on some of the weakest to create shareholder value the US should take a sledgehammer to microtransactions in general.






asmi:

--- Quote from: julianhigginson on June 22, 2020, 12:02:55 am ---At the end of the day, loot boxes in games aren't even that much of a biggie, compared to the overall drive to push addictive behaviour generating technology into pretty much everything it can be...

--- End quote ---
Then we need to make EE illegal then as I'm totally addicted to it and over years spent absurd amount of money specifically so that I can spend even more money on it in the future (like better eCAD tools that allows me to design higher performance stuff which is obviously more expensive to make). :-DD


--- Quote from: julianhigginson on June 22, 2020, 12:02:55 am ---there's a whole range of things being turned addictive for the sake of a bit of extra human engagement, and it's really not a good thing for human health.
--- End quote ---
Living is not good for human health as it invariably leads to death. Let's ban that too? |O

State has no business in personal affairs. I will die protecting my freedom to do stupid shit.

rrinker:
 Multiple thoughts

"Stupid and irresponsible" to say that parents should be responsible for their children? What planet are you from?

Ban alcohol? We tried that in the US once. It was an unmitigated disaster.

Sugary drinks and food? They have applied an extra tax to sugary drinks in Philadelphia. The only people paying the tax are the poor it was supposed to help, because they still want soda and do not have an easy way to go outside the city limits to avoid the tax, and people who are wealthy enough to not give a darn. People in the middle just drive short distances to escape the city limits and buy their soda there.

The whole idea of loot boxes and in-game purchases I think is just stupid - but a law against it? If it's so bad, stop buying, stop playing, the game developers will have to change their ways. None of this was needed when you ran your own servers for games, now it's justified as supporting the on-going operation of banks of hosted servers to support the players. Multi-player games were more fun when you could actually mod them on your own server.

To clarify - in game purchases that are more or less REQUIRED to advance, not the shortcut stuff. There are plenty of games where you can (eventually) reach the highest tier and not spend any real money - it just takes a LOT of play time, slogging through mid tier levels over and over to accumulate enough of the in-game currency to 'buy' advanced gear. If they want to put a shortcut in there for those that WANT to, go right ahead. But don't require it. The random nature of real money loot boxes though, is just s stupid idea - as much lazy developers as it is greed from the game publisher. But there is no need for a law, not at all.

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