FTC to hold public workshop on the ethics of loot boxes

[poochyena]

52 minutes ago, Orangeator said:

Yeah, no... NOT a handful. Nearly every human being has inherit cognitive biases that drastically affect their logical reasoning when it comes to gambling.

Yet only a very very tiny percent of people have a gambling problem.

42 minutes ago, Orangeator said:

all humans still suffer the same cognitive bias that would drastically effect their decision making when purchasing a loot box.

That sentence doesn't even make sense.

[Thaldor]

51 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Because a handful of people can't control themselves, so we need to punish the rest of society.

I wouldn't ban them, but bring them to legally where they should be, meaning gambling (they would need to pay taxes, can't market games so freely, any game with gambling is straight R18 or whatever the legal gambling age is and so on). And I don't mean only lootboxes but every other way games gurrently use same practices as casinos ("premium currency", real-life prizes (these are rare, but recently Sea of Thieves gave out 20,000£ golden bananas), directly working with real casinos for real gambling (which pretty much how they turn it should be illegal) and borderline clear P2W elements).

 

There's good reasons why gambling is regulated and monitored and IMO game developers are bending the laws quite far talking BS about not being gambling. It's not about the vulnerable people for me, for me it's about the morality. If game developer wants to use gambling practices in their game, they are free to do so but at the same time they become gambling company and they must be licenced, pay their taxes and follow the laws and currently some of them are starting to look like building Disney slotmachines for kids and calling them video games because they still can get away with it.

[Inkz]

IDK if you guys have heard of a game called Fate Grand Order, I love the game, but you can tell there are people on their who have a serious problem sinking thousands into it because of its manipulative mechanics. 

[Arika]

19 minutes ago, Inkz said:

Fate Grand Order

it's a Gacha game. thats kind of their entire point. some do it VERY well and actually makes F2P a viable option, most of them are absolutely a cash grab, FGO being one of them

[Inkz]

4 minutes ago, Arika S said:

it's a Gacha game. thats kind of their entire point. some do it VERY well and actually makes F2P a viable option, most of them are absolutely a cash grab, FGO being one of them

Oh I know it all to well, I have played every day for about the last 10 months. I love the game so much so I stick with it but the Gacah is the one thing that constantly makes me frustrated and wanting to leave. 

[williamcll]

Imagine putting a hard cap on additional fees for a singular game.

[JustWantTech]

 

6 minutes ago, Arika S said:

it's a Gacha game. thats kind of their entire point. some do it VERY well and actually makes F2P a viable option, most of them are absolutely a cash grab, FGO being one of them

Gacha games are fine if they give freebie in-game currency once in a while and sometimes add limited-time or permanent shop to buy the characters that you like. This gives you the option whether if you willing to pay or just wait until you have enough in-game currency to guarantee that you would get that character that you like.

If those games don't have these, they're pretty much a cash grab.

 

Gacha system is also a terrible idea if you are force to use a certain powerful character, that can only be obtain from gacha, just to clear one stage.

[FPSwithaWacomTablet]

I am looking at you, Love Live....

 

I mean for a music/rhythm game, there's a LOT of gatcha elements in it.

 

And the fact that you consume "hearts" (think tokens in arcade games) and face a cooldown timer when playing a song really dampens the experience without shelling more cash.

 

It's decent for a rhythm game, but I'd rather pay once for song packs rather than pay for "hearts" everytime I play a song.

[JustWantTech]

BTW gacha is not the same as loot box despite it use the same RNG bullshit. If you want someone to do something about, you'll have to ask the Japanese goverment about it, since most gacha game are marketed for Japan only, but it's not like a big deal in Japan it seems.

 

Even if FTC makes rules about it, it would only affect US game developers

or games marketed to US.