Posted on 05/08/2019 12:06:19 PM PDT by Sir Napsalot
US Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) announced he is introducing a bill that would potentially bar the sale of loot boxes in certain video games. If enacted, Hawley's bill, called The Protecting Children from Abusive Games Act, would ban loot boxes and "pay-to-win" microtransactions in titles targeted at or popular among minors, likening the business model to addiction.
"Social media and video games prey on user addiction, siphoning our kids' attention from the real world and extracting profits from fostering compulsive habits," Senator Hawley said in a statement. "No matter this business model's advantages to the tech industry, one thing is clear: there is no excuse for exploiting children through such practices. …
(snip)
Loot boxes have been a point of controversy in the industry for many years. 2017's Star Wars Battlefront II, for instance, garnered a lot of criticism and backlash for the way it initially incorporated microtransactions, effectively tying them to your progression. In response, publisher EA removed all loot boxes from the game just prior to launch, but that didn't help stem the push for anti-loot box legislation.
(Excerpt) Read more at gamespot.com ...
I personally don't know if "banning loot boxes" is a good way to stop "exploiting children", there are PLENTY other ways of exploiting children if you care to look around.
I just know USUALLY when gubmint gets their hands on something, it usually have 'unforeseen consequences', that needs even more gubmint effort to solve.
In any case, I think this should be up to the parents of said children to decide/regulate their child's behavior.
Fire away.... /ducking my head
Agree, maybe if the parents don’t either give the kid a credit card or a huge amount of in game cash, their wouldn’t be an issue.
Why is a republican in the business of ‘Banning things’.
Seems to me parents just shouldn’t have their kids’ phones hooked to a payment system. These things aren’t really taking advantage of kids, they’re taking advantage of lazy parents.
Oh God, when our daughter was 6 she racked up $800 in “micro-transactions” (my a$$) because her Mom had enabled it once then forgot to disable it. Got all the money back but learned a big lesson about all these games targeting kids. Disable the auto pay and lock it down.
They are worried about this? They won’t protect the country but they’re worried about video games? ‘Look what I did for you’.
“Why is a republican in the business of ‘Banning things’.”
In case you haven’t noticed ‘banning things’ is very popular on FR.
Can we ban Bill Clinton to protect the children?
RINO
Or Joe Biden?
Does that mean in all the iPhone apps as well?
If they really want to protect children they should be Banning the NEA and Dept of Education
I’m sure I’m not the only one who wants to know: What’s a loot box?
I know you are advocating more parental supervision, and I am sure there are some similar cases like yours, but not sure a proposed gubmint bill is the right way to solve this ‘crisis’.
I don't know, but if it's anything like Caine and Duvall had buried in the barn in Secondhand Lions, I want one!
Nanny state is for progressive buttwipes.
I agree completely. It was user error on my wife’s part, pure and simple. The government has better things to do than watching how you spend money on games.
Someone needs to edit that meme picture with inspector whatsis from Casablanca to say something about “Gambling going on in my video game, I’m shocked, SHOCKED”... Or the like.
A game that I’ve enjoyed playing (something warships) uses loot boxes to promote/profit from some of their ‘rare’ and (of course) overpowered ships. It would not surprise me if roleplaying games do the same with the ‘sword of infinite pwnage’ or ‘armor of infinite desire’, if you get my drift.
Either way, I’ve become convinced that the practice is predatory, and would prefer that the game companies just offer the sword of pwnage for $50, or whatever.
But that’s the thing, the gimmick. If they offer it for $50, there are a lot of people who will say ‘no way!’.
Offer it as a potential reward, loot box only $5 each, chance at other prizes inside, people will pay $100 for the dang thing and convince themselves it was a bargain, because they got some gems, a spare shield and some in game gold/trinkets on the side.
Not sure I want the gubmint muscling in on it either, but whatevs.
It is gambling, though, and any game company that tries to tell you otherwise is lying through their teeth.
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