(Loot Box's) Number of child gamblers quadruples in just two years....

[fiestatastic]

Yeah it's a slippery slope. Blizzard is particularly playing with fire when it comes to this.

At Blizzcon, kids can buy coin tokens with real money that are used in slot machines that give mostly random generic prizes, but the highly advertised posted allure was the very low chance of a very valuable prize, worth real money. Literally slot machines for kids, in real life. The only difference being you have to exchange money.

5-10 years from we'll likely be reading about lawsuits stemming from that.

[stellvia]

And here we go. This is why everyone should pull their shares out of gaming companies until you see what is coming on the Horizon. The gaming industry will crumble with the new focus of mobile gaming when they don't have a way to monetize it. Because no game on mobile is worth even $15. Blizzard, you fucking fools should have weathered the storm, stuck to PC, and not had your eyes set on the very short MTX gold rush.

They will have to produce actual handheld games for mobile? Gasp!

[Guardian Bob]

If someone has the personality or mental incapacity to get addicted to gambling, banning lootboxes really isn't going to help them, because they'll just find it somewhere else.

If anything it's to make sure I don't buy games that cater to these kinda of people. We all know that those people won't stop gambling, which means the games industry won't stop supplying them games that actually have gambling. There's a reason why most countries make gambling illegal cause they too understand that these people are self destructive.

Like the other guy said, it really hasn't "quadrupled" over the last 2 years, its just that people are noticing it now. If gov't really wants to go after something, they should go after freemium mobile games that nickel and dime you to death, cosmetic loot boxes are nothing compared to that shit.

Cosmetic items are bad because the game will be altered in some way to push you to grind for them or give you the choice to flat out buy them. This is why modern games are getting grindy cause the loot box or micro-transaction system is designed to push you to buy them.

As for whether or not children gambling has technically quadrupled doesn't matter here. What matters is that more children are in fact gambling and the games industry is teaching children that gambling is a good addiction. Adult gamers don't want it cause we learned that this makes bad games, and parents certainly don't want to encourage their children to be addicted to gambling, so either way loot boxes and micro-transactions have got to go.

[Deleted]

Yeah it's a slippery slope. Blizzard is particularly playing with fire when it comes to this.

At Blizzcon, kids can buy coin tokens with real money that are used in slot machines that give mostly random generic prizes, but the highly advertised posted allure was the very low chance of a very valuable prize, worth real money. Literally slot machines for kids, in real life. The only difference being you have to exchange money.

5-10 years from we'll likely be reading about lawsuits stemming from that.

I've never attended Blizzcon, but we've had these things since I was a kid on every funfair. That's not gambling.

[Necroxis]

I've never attended Blizzcon, but we've had these things since I was a kid on every funfair. That's not gambling.

That moment when you're SO close to realize that the problem is far more pervasive than it seems and you just miss it by a hair.

It is gambling. Just because it happened elsewhere and SEEMED innocuous to an ignorant child's mind (When you were a kid) doesn't suddenly mean its not predatory.

[Deleted]

That moment when you're SO close to realize that the problem is far more pervasive than it seems.

It is gambling. Just because it happened elsewhere and SEEMED innocuous to an ignorant child's mind (When you were a kid) doesn't suddenly mean its not predatory.

No, it's not the same. It's just a fun game where you can win prizes. If you say that's literally the same as casino gambling, then you have no idea of the psychological effects of gambling and how it can destroy lives.

[Necroxis]

No, it's not the same. It's just a fun game where you can win prizes. If you say that's literally the same as casino gambling, then you have no idea of the psychological effects of gambling and how it can destroy lives.

It takes advantage of literally the exact same mental addiction area of the brain.

I mean believe whatever you want, but I'll never understand people trying to lessen the effects of children gambling for no other reason or outcome than the defense of billion dollar companies that give no fucks about you other than your money.

[stellvia]

No, it's not the same. It's just a fun game where you can win prizes. If you say that's literally the same as casino gambling, then you have no idea of the psychological effects of gambling and how it can destroy lives.

Is it? I was shocked when I visited Walmart earlier in the year to find out how popular gacha mechanics have become in the toy section. They had an entire bin of Overwatch figures sealed in bags, which you had to buy for like $3-4/each to get a random one out of like 16 or 30 of them or something. And that was just one of like a dozen such similar products. It was like an entire wall of one aisle just being these gacha products for minifigs, keychains, pencil eraser caps, etc. None of that was a thing when I was a kid.

[Necroxis]

Is it? I was shocked when I visited Walmart earlier in the year to find out how popular gacha mechanics have become in the toy section. They had an entire bin of Overwatch figures sealed in bags, which you had to buy for like $3-4/each to get a random one out of like 16 or 30 of them or something. And that was just one of like a dozen such similar products. It was like an entire wall of one aisle just being these gacha products for minifigs, keychains, pencil eraser caps, etc. None of that was a thing when I was a kid.

Yup, I'm about to turn 30 and there wasn't even half of this shit when I was growing up even ~10-15 years ago. I was shopping for my christmas grab bag for the family and I also saw this bullshit, "Buy something that you don't know what it is" gacha figure in the US cropping up more and more and I was blown away by how predatory this practice is now in our consumer culture.

[Deleted]

It takes advantage of literally the exact same mental addiction area of the brain.

I mean believe whatever you want, but I'll never understand people trying to lessen the effects of children gambling for no other reason or outcome than the defense of billion dollar companies that give no fucks about you other than your money.

There is no such thing as child gambling. Winning prices by playing games is not like putting money on red or black and being able to lose or win money as a consequence of that. Are arcade games also gambling? You put in money, you play a game. You can't even win a prize there, which makes it objectively worse.

No one ever even used the term child gambling, until people realized they can use it as an excuse to complain about microtransactions in video games. You just hate microtransactions. You don't give a shit about children. Where was your outrage when TCGs were introduced? By your definition that would be gambling as well. What about surprise boxes? You can go to a convention, and get like a surprise box from a certain product where you don't know what's in there. Like a Naruto surprise box with a DVD or some toys or other forms of merchandise. Where is the thread about how that is child gambling? How can we allow children to gamble?

Because it's not gambling. You're buying a product.

And when you pay to play a game, you pay to play a game. Whether it is an arcade game, or some game on a fair where you can win prizes. Children don't ruin their lives playing games.

Gambling happens in a casino or on a racetrack. Where people lose all of their money, then get money from a loan shark, lose that as well, destroy their lives and those of their families and either get their legs broken by a loan shark or end up jumping off a roof. So their family can cash out their life insurance and unfuck the things they fucked up for their families by gambling away all the money.

Comparing lootboxes in videogames or things like games, or TCG packs to actual gambling, is absolutely ludicrous and you make a fool of yourself if you do it.

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Is it? I was shocked when I visited Walmart earlier in the year to find out how popular gacha mechanics have become in the toy section. They had an entire bin of Overwatch figures sealed in bags, which you had to buy for like $3-4/each to get a random one out of like 16 or 30 of them or something. And that was just one of like a dozen such similar products. It was like an entire wall of one aisle just being these gacha products for minifigs, keychains, pencil eraser caps, etc. None of that was a thing when I was a kid.

Similar things existed. You are buying a product. You are collecting something. That has existed since forever. TCGs, stickers, Kinder Surprise Eggs. Even stamp collections where you don't know what's in it. I bought all of this when I was a kid in the 90's.

[Jtbrig7390]

Guys ignore the low post account that was made likely today.....

Its very clear what they are doing and there is no sense in arguing with them.

[Deleted]

Guys ignore the low post account that was made likely today.....

Its very clear what they are doing and there is no sense in arguing with them.

You are making no argument and you just don't like it when someone has a different opinion than you. OP.

[Necroxis]

Yeah I've been gone for a bit, I naively expected everyone to still be arguing in good faith. Clear to see that dude isn't.

Once again I'll never understand defending manipulating children into becoming gambling addicts by billion dollar companies when they give no shits about you.

[Jtbrig7390]

Yeah I've been gone for a bit, I naively expected everyone to still be arguing in good faith. Clear to see that dude isn't.

Once again I'll never understand defending manipulating children into becoming gambling addicts by billion dollar companies when they give no shits about you.

I guess for some it would be them admitting they are addicted to something and they refuse to accept that.

The rest are ether trolling or just ignorant and refusing to understand how its gambling.

[Deleted]

Yeah I've been gone for a bit, I naively expected everyone to still be arguing in good faith. Clear to see that dude isn't.

Once again I'll never understand defending manipulating children into becoming gambling addicts by billion dollar companies when they give no shits about you.

1) No one is manipulating children into gambling
2) Lootboxes aren't gambling
3) You don't give a shit about children

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I guess for some it would be them admitting they are addicted to something and they refuse to accept that.

The rest are ether trolling or just ignorant and refusing to understand how its gambling.

I've never bought a lootbox in my life. Are you addicted to buying lootboxes?

[Necroxis]

Oh Nevernude is just Arianna43 since they got banned for flaming. Using the exact same phrasing too. I see now.

Sorry for the OT posts, I knew I was having deja vu for some reason.

[Jtbrig7390]

Oh Nevernude is just Arianna43 since they got banned for flaming. Using the exact same phrasing too. I see now.

Sorry for the OT posts, I knew I was having deja vu for some reason.

Meh it happens lol.

[Deleted]

Oh Nevernude is just Arianna43 since they got banned for flaming. Using the exact same phrasing too. I see now.

Sorry for the OT posts, I knew I was having deja vu for some reason.

Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms.

No idea what you are talking about.

[crakerjack]

How the hell is overwatch considered gambling? You can't even trade the skins. If this is red flag worthy, then just what the hell were people smoking when pokemon/yugioh first came out? What about magic the gathering? People have been blowing countless amounts on those cards all for the sake of obtaining the rarest cards. Hell I barely played yugioh back in the day, but that didn't stop me from getting a couple packs every week. "My poor baby keeps asking me for money so he can buy those darn loot boxes! He's so addicted and it's the companies fault!" How about you make a moderate effort at parenting and learn to tell your kid no once in a while. Besides, it's not like loot boxes can't be obtained in game without spending real money.

[EbonBehelit-]

I think gambling should be fully legal and I should be able to do whatever I want with my money. I think it's on parent's/society etc. to teach kids/people to be more responsible with money instead of stopping gambling itself.

Replace "gambling" with Heroin, Meth, or Krokodil and then consider how this sounds. People get addicted to these things quite easily (often by design) and gambling is no different. Loot boxes, like all slot machines, are also designed to be addictive, which is insidious enough, but throwing children into the mix makes it even more problematic, since children have even less impulse control than adults do. There is a reason we legally don't allow minors to gamble.

We regulate most vice to mitigate the fallout that addiction to it causes, since gambling/drug addiction costs the economy a great deal of money overall, and contributes to societal stress.

We live in a society where people constantly buy shit they don't need and then complain that their wage is barely enough to get by.

To me this is like stopping apple from selling the latest gadget because people who can't afford it buy it anyway.

Modern advertising -- essentially being repurposed war-time propaganda -- is incredibly effective at making people want to buy superfluous things. It's no surprise then, that the people who have been exposed to it from birth have little to no impulse control.