Such legislation is toothless and deliberately designed to be toothless. It’s worded vaguely enough that no games will ever get caught by it. Just another corrupt politician doing their thing.
Too bad it won’t amount to a hill of beans.
Well, first of all our accounts would have to have the same last name to transfer characters across accounts which would fall under falsifying information which is frowned upon.
… Okay?
I honestly have no idea what kind of example you are trying to make here. None of that falls under what the above legislation is trying to combat, which is in game gambling.
What you are describing is more along the lines of paid character boosting, which is already pretty frowned upon by Blizzard for multiple reasons. The above suggested scenario has nothing to do with Blizzard.
Just to be sure, Valrayne, are you in defense of the practice of lootboxes in games and companies that abuse them such as EA?
Pretty much this, unfortunately. Money talks at the end of the day ![:confused:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/confused.png?v=6" ":confused:")
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Pursuit of profits.
Capitalism.
Nope, we pretty much got it.
And selling digital items that don’t even really exist for money falls right in with that pursuit of profit thing.
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I remember when Congress was more concerned with backward messages from satan in heavy metal albums and rapper promoting violence against the “system”…
Not a bad move, because loot boxes kind of suck, but so boring. Shouldn’t they be focusing on the devil worshiping going on in fortnite or hello kitty island or something?
Thank god… this era of loot boxes/pay to win is so toxic for video games in general
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To clarify for you, I, like any other sane person am strictly against such abusive practices that EA et al utilise that should be legally branded as gambling and therefore banned or regulated. The problem, as always, is in the detail. It takes only a cursory glance at the wording on this proposal to see there are legal loopholes in it so large you could park both old and new Dal in them. E.g. the mention of “geared or orientated towards children” immediately destroys any chance this proposed legislation will have any effect whatsover.
Like I said above, the only aspect of WoW I could think of would be the WoW Token as a loose “Pay-To-Win” example, though it could easily dodge the law as any advantage it gives is relatively minor thanks to Warfronts and WQs and it’s expensive enough irl to dodge the Micro part of Microtransactions.
https://www.hawley.senate.gov/sites/default/files/2019-05/2019-05-08_Protecting-Children-Abusive-Games-Act_One-Pager.pdf
Here’s a link to the overview of the act. It targets TWO kinds of games; as you said, ones catering to a younger Audience (Candy Crush is named in the larger version, though it doesn’t take much of a stretch to include the likes of Fortnite, PvZ: GW and other such) but also ones catering to a larger demographic that Developers KNOW Minors play - such as Call of Duty, Battlefront II, GTA and the likes.
we don’t have a lootbox in WoW so not to worry here
Shouldn’t this be the responsibility of the parents? I personally hate the “Lootbox” a lot of games implement but I refrain from playing those games. Sounds like some politician or big wigs kid ran up a huge bill using daddy’s money and the company said too bad so now he is pushing on legislation to do something about it.
The Government really doesn’t need to stick their faces into this, they get this passed then they are going to want more restrictions added to the ever growing video game industry.
No right now parents need to be held accountable and start paying attention where their money is and to make sure their children don’t get a hold of it.
In an idealised world, Corporations would respect their consumers, Parents would be loving, but stern, carers properly gearing the next generation to make the world even better for the following generation and the government would exist only to assist those who are currently down on their luck.
But we don’t live in that world. The funniest part of the “We live in the Darkest Timeline” jokes is that there is some actual merit to that statement.
Corporations had their chance to do right and keep the Government out of it; they did not do so.
Parents/Carers had their chance to do right and keep the Government out of it; they did not do so.
Now the Government has come to do what must be done…and I can just imagine the Corporates screaming at this hell of their own design. They had their chance. They didn’t handle it responsibly.
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Does the require parental consent thing actually work, ever? Would that required each account to go registered at the company? Or the good old select your age in this box?
Even if it does that doesn’t seem like a change to anything. Because really how else kids are getting money outside from their parents.
If it doesn’t actually work then it’s like clueless politician work on the system he/she doesn’t understand just to get on front page. Or worse quell the public anger on companies with… well. I don’t want to say a fake law. Let’s say… unenforceable law.
The reasons why we are having the issues now are because the Government keep sticking their noses into things where they don’t belong. they created the laws that protect the Corporations and allow them to run rampant, they made laws that cripple the parents from properly teaching their children without fear of retribution. I can go on and on but i really don’t want to use the forums as a platform for my own political views, it is neither the place nor the time.
All I will say is this is still a parental problem.
You can thank Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher for that, as that was their administrations in the US and UK respectively was the turning point for Capitalism.
Getting your news on GD forums, what could go wrong?
HotS has actually already changed how you buy loot boxes. You can now only use gold earned from playing/completing quests. You can no longer use gems to buy loot boxes. Last I knew, Overwatch and Hearthstone had not switched over just yet. The change in HotS has been well received by many.
Then HotS is safe.
HOORAY!!!
As much as I would love to see poorly implemented lootbox systems banned, I feel that we should be careful before backing any legislation from individuals who do not understand the culture, business or ramifications that their legislation could have in the tech industry.
Just the simple summary alone seems too broad. " implementing features that prompt users to pay real-world money to advance in the game, called “pay-to-win,” or receive rewards at random for a fee, called “loot boxes."
So what about card games? Mobile Gacha games? If CSGO is any indication, it is possible for gambling addictions and “manipulative practices” to occur in games where the loot boxes have no actual impact on the game itself.
No one would ever defend the invasive and poor implementation of the Loot Box by companies like EA or Ubisoft, but honestly, I think the best way to end the practice is for people to vote and act with their wallets.
I honestly always worry about TCGs and CCGs when this stuff is brought up, that’s how these things do business, its not gambling when they do it it just part of the hobby.
Just hearthstone, OW doesn’t have P2W boxes.