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

[OriginalName]

lol what does that even mean, "predatory consumer practice"? It's like talking to someone in a cult.

An example of a predatory consumer practice in a game, would be to intentionally match make people who haven't bought equipment or power with real money VS people who have, as to create an underlying need and incentive to make the non payer buy equipment or power.

A real life example of predatory consumer practice would be selling you a car without completely informing the buyer of the history or faults with this particular vehicle.

By extension of the latter, selling you a sealed TCG product, wherein the consumer only knows they are buying TCG cards (a car), they do not know the detailed contents of the TCG card pack (maybe its faulty stereo system or its subpar maintanence), it's dishonorable and is only there to artificially jack up the prices at your expense, so that you have to buy many more packs (get the car fixed) in order to be satisfied completely.

[Orange Joe]

And by this you are also admitting that Loot Box's are gambling, So congratz you killed your own argument.

Yes TCG's are gambling and Yes Loot Box's is also Gambling.

There is also major differences between the two (main one being ease of access) and both should be fully regulated to the point where a adult must buy them.

As it stands with Loot Box's that isn't the case at all, A kid can go into any store and get a PSN card and buy Loot Box's in a game like Fifa. If a kid walked into Gamestop and tried to drop $100 down on some TC's they should be stopped and have a parent/guardian requested to come in.

The only time this wouldn't be the case it would be if someone wasn't doing their job and if it was found out they would be out on their ass.

The amount of kids I see come in and buy PSN,XBL,Steam cards and ect... is fucken insane and they are doing it for loot box's 90% of the time.

Simple fix any game with Loot Box's (Gambling) should get a M or AO rating, At that point the gaming industry has done all they could/should do.

I'm sure your not even going to read half of what I said and will just keep going "naw your wrong".

Just curious which one you think is easier to access.

[Keeper Stalladris]

An example of a predatory consumer practice in a game, would be to intentionally match make people who haven't bought equipment or power with real money VS people who have, as to create an underlying need and incentive to make the non payer buy equipment or power.

What makes that predatory? Do you even know what the word predatory means?

A real life example of predatory consumer practice would be selling you a car without completely informing the buyer of the history or faults with this particular vehicle.

That's not predatory, that's ripping people off. You really do not know what predatory means.

Yes TCG's are gambling

hahahaha let's put an age restriction on them, you need to be 18 years or older to buy TCG packs hahahaha

[Yunru]

The sooner lootboxes are gone from games the better. How anyone can defend them is beyond me.

Only a addict would defend those. (or the one making money off them/ones getting paid to spread miss-information)

Also may i mention you cant sell anything for real money that you get in digital lootbox. (without breaking game rules)
Real life lootboxes at least usualy have a value of some sort -- but its still gambling.

Not that a while ago i have seen a digital lootbox outside that you roll on a site. But you do get real items -- still a scam tho. Mostly with pc upgrades and similar items. But since its set to a digital random luck, your chances are much worse than buying a store lootbox. (kinder egg, random toy boxes, cards and so on)

And if you think that those sites check your age...yeah they dont. Same goes for parental control in video games. Parents simply dont know how to use those.

If people do remember, steam had to put in-game digital items on cooldown + extra security to prevent gambling sites to use those items. (counter strike go)

[OriginalName]

What makes that predatory? Do you even know what the word predatory means?


That's not predatory, that's ripping people off. You really do not know what predatory means.

If you don't like the use of the word, why don't you clarify what you think predatory means and how what I am describing is not within the realm of a bad and dishonest business practice, meant to enrich the producer and scam the consumer.

[Keeper Stalladris]

If you don't like the use of the word, why don't you clarify what you think predatory means and how what I am describing is not within the realm of a bad and dishonest business practice, meant to enrich the producer and scam the consumer.

It's not about what I think, buy a dictionary.

[OriginalName]

It's not about what I think, buy a dictionary.

But you're incorrect, all the things I listed are exploitative means, some are illegal like selling a car without properly informing the buyer, but selling a TCG card pack is not illegal without properly informing the buyer.

They are both predatory, but I just wanted to hear what word you'd substitute in there, your stance on the subject of enriching consumer ability is a bit myopic and makes me question your intentions here, are you a hasbro shill or something?

[Polybius]

Hahaha!

We out here with real problems, especially children today.. But bro going to make a soap-box stand on kids gambling... LOLOL!

"We mustn't let Johnny spend his lunch money on bets with friends! This, by far from anything else, my young Americans is our BIGGEST problem with our youth!"

Just stop. I for one don't give 2shits about gambling, or even kids doing it.. There's alot of other shit kids are doing these days you should be worried about.

Child developmentalists and parents give a shit. That's more than enough for them to seek legal action (which they already are). You can say kids do worse and giggle all day but every little thing counts. It's not solely adolescents if that's what you picture as a child.

If anything this is an opportunity to teach kids financial literacy.

[qwerty123456]

Hahaha!

We out here with real problems, especially children today.. But bro going to make a soap-box stand on kids gambling... LOLOL!

"We mustn't let Johnny spend his lunch money on bets with friends! This, by far from anything else, my young Americans is our BIGGEST problem with our youth!"

Just stop. I for one don't give 2shits about gambling, or even kids doing it.. There's alot of other shit kids are doing these days you should be worried about.

I suppose you don't give a shit if kids smoke, drink, put nudes online, etc.... either then?

A kids brain isn't fully developed. And we already know adults get addicted to gambling.

And fuck you don't even need to be a gambling addict to fall prey to shitty practices like loot boxes.

example: I play a game called Valkyrie Crusade, in order to place in the top 1-500(where the best rewards are) and even the 500-1k ranks you need to purchase loot boxes to get special cards with a skill that only works for that event. You occasionally get free gems but you would likely need to blow years worth of free gems on a single event to get a good enough rating. Trying to make sure I ranked in the top 500(i think) so I could get the awakening material(which like double or triples a cards power permanently and increases its max lvl) from a specific event I spent over 500$ on that events lootbox and still didn't get the two cards with the special skill for that event.

When someone spends 500$ on a loot box its not because they think its fun, they do so because they feel like they wasted money by not getting the item they need/want and only stop when they get it or get disgusted with themselves or the game.

[Keeper Stalladris]

But you're incorrect

Nope.

In b4 how loot boxes are not meant to exploit people's addictions... 3 ... 2...1... go!

No, it isn't. It might be addictive, but that doesn't mean it is meant to exploit people's addictions. Otherwise you could claim that games in general are meant to exploit people's addictions.

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I suppose you don't give a shit if kids smoke

Uhm, nope.

drink

Nope.

put nudes online

Uhm.... no? Why would I? Are you a pedophile or something?

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Child developmentalists and parents give a shit.

The same people that say killer games turn you into a school shooter? Yeah these people might care. You people don't. You just hate lootboxes.

[OriginalName]

Nope.

What a dude, tell me how it's not, then.

[Powerogue]

I see how loot boxes can be/are exploitive but how much vs old exploitative practice had they had modern technology.

When a lot of us were young there were Pokemon cards (or insert whatever cartoon you were into). Those are loot boxes and most of us didn't even know how to play the game. It was sports cards before that. There were quarter machines where you could gamble on getting the shitty penny toy from it that you wanted.

I think the only differences are now there are more available parental controls but the stores are in your house.

I don't think "because it was also bad before we definitely shouldn't bother regulating it even when it's clearly getting worse" is really the right call here.

[Verdugo]

Nope.



No, it isn't. It might be addictive, but that doesn't mean it is meant to exploit people's addictions. Otherwise you could claim that games in general are meant to exploit people's addictions.

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Uhm, nope.


Nope.


Uhm.... no? Why would I? Are you a pedophile or something?

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The same people that say killer games turn you into a school shooter? Yeah these people might care. You people don't. You just hate lootboxes.

It takes a special kind of person to defend lootboxes.

[Keeper Stalladris]

It takes a special kind of person to defend lootboxes.

I'm not defending them. But that doesn't make them gambling. If you hate them, don't buy them. Better yet, uninstall all your games. get off your ass and get a real life.

[Protean]

I think both are at fault when it comes to children, the parents and the company's. Parents need to fucking parent and stop letting technology raise thier kids.

Technology evolves too fast for parents to keep up in many areas. It's easy for you, because you're into gaming. Imagine instead if you had to keep up with the evolution of biogas technology.

Something complex, everchanging, in which you probably have no experience or interest. You have to some extend rely on the competence of the decision makers in this case.

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I'm not defending them. But that doesn't make them gambling. If you hate them, don't buy them. Better yet, uninstall all your games. get off your ass and get a real life.

Do you ever stop up and wonder how you can be the only one out of thousands who doesn't see them as gambling?

Are people that stupid, are you that smart and special? Or are you perhaps wrong?

[Keeper Stalladris]

Do you ever stop up and wonder how you can be the only one out of thousands who doesn't see them as gambling?

Are people that stupid, are you that smart and special? Or are you perhaps wrong?

You just ignore everyone who disagrees with you. The people that say they are gambling just hate them cause they hate it when companies make money.

[UnluckyAmateur]

No, it's not that simple.

It's that simple only when the age rating for the game is adult only.

That won't do shit either, I used to slide MA games in between two Es and got away with it every time.

[Motso]

Just because a solution isn’t 100% bullet proof, it doesn’t make it useless.

Take alcohol for example, it’s forbidden to sell it to minors, yet it still happens, because realistically, stores can’t be asking for everyone IDs, and some minors just don’t look like minors at all, some use fake IDs, some will just ask a grown up to buy it for them… does it mean we should legalize the sale of alcohol to minors or that we should ban alcohol ?

A compromise between the two sides, even if not perfect, is sometimes the best solution.

This is a solid analogy.
I mean its not even really a matter for debating, despite what people may think. The link is well established, and it is only a matter of time.
https://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore...d&subId=613669
There are papers under parliamentary review here about this exact issue.
Apart from a couple of outliers, the arguments defending this shitty practice fall into either the 'free market uber alles let you kids eat ratsac its the parents fault no regulation rah rah rah' capitalism shills. And a group I am affectionately calling 'the hair splitters' because well we can't make a decision if someone is using a definition that can be dissected. I haven't seen a single actual argument for why loot boxes aren't objectively terrible and probably bad for kids.
Be that as it may, I laughed till I damn near died when I woke up this morning to see Captain Master-Baiter had been banned.

[sam86]

why ppl ignore that what really popularized loot box and made it explode is overwatch ?

[Motso]

why ppl ignore that what really popularized loot box and made it explode is overwatch ?

Apart from being provably false, it is pretty irrelevant. Which specific game brought this issue to the forefront of people concerns isn't really important. It has become a pox on many many games at this point.