S. 1629, entitled “A bill to regulate certain pay-to-win microtransactions and sales of loot boxes in interactive digital entertainment products, and for other purposes.”
So, P2W is what we are all debating about? Blizzard certainly has constructive knowledge of the WoW Tokens being abused for boosting a.k.a - gambling (boost funneling of rng gear), for valuable virtual items (gear) through bosses (lootboxes) via player agencies.
They deceptively subvert the bill with the WoW Token as “grey area”. As well as through player-based agencies (used to be boosting communities [player agency] - now redacted to guilds [player agency]). These player agencies act as the mediator to in-game virtual bosses, whom upon defeat will have rng based rewards mimicking the loot box.
You pay to have these player agencies mediate conflict resolution on bosses whom house rewards in the same rng manner as a loot box.
It’s P2W. Paying USD (or your regions currency) through the digital store for conversion in to in-game currency (WoW token), where you pay a mediator (guild) to initiate conflict resolution (kill bosses/interactive loot boxes with instance based mechanics) for an rng chance (gambling) on valuable virtual items (gear).
It’s P2W. You guys paying these guilds to frolic you through the roses in LFR? No? Why not?.. Oh… Because it’s not seeing the raid or content inside you want…Its the rng based end-of-the-line gear (Heroic/Mythic) you are paying for a chance at (while 0 APM’ing the entire raid). The moment Gallywix handed over their spreadsheets to Blizzard it became undeniable constructive knowledge of the in-game P2W and they implemented the constructive knowledge to incite the in-game player-based agencies P2W structure.
EDIT: ADDING S. 1629
Since you guys are unlikely to read it; unless I copy paste /le sigh…
S.1629 — 116th Congress (2019-2020)
Introduced in Senate (05/23/2019)
This bill prohibits the publication or distribution of interactive video games and digital entertainment products that (1) include pay-to-win features and (2) are targeted to minors under the age of 18.
Pay-to-win features include making available for purchase assistance, advantages, or other awards that a reasonable user would perceive provides a competitive advantage in the progression of the game or product over those users who do not make such purchase. Pay-to-play features do not include purchases (1) that alter only the appearance of the game, (2) of game modes that make game-play progression more difficult that without such purchase, or (3) of add-ons that do not assist in the progression of the underlying game or product.
Additionally, game publishers and distributors are prohibited from including pay-to-play features in games and digital entertainment products that are not targeted to minors but where the publisher or distributor reasonably should know that minors use such games or products.
Sweet! Now you all have S. 1629 copy and pasted for you. You can read it, I assume you will revert back to my original post and digest my argument, and formulate your educational response. It is what we call a debate …