Ok, so we all agreed that it is gambling. But for some reason we let kids gamble but only after they reach sixteen? This feels weird.
Games with loot boxes to get minimum 16 age rating across Europe
11–20 of 208 posts
Re: Games with loot boxes to get minimum 16 age rating across Europe
#12Re: Games with loot boxes to get minimum 16 age rating across Europe
#13Okay? How will this actually change anything?
I don't think I have ever paid attention to a single age rating in my entire life. Does anyone do outside of fundamentalist parents who wouldn't let kids play most video games anyways?
Very spiritually European move.
What regulators should do is focus on easily applicable percentage-based fines. Make sure it's not just another line item.
Re: Games with loot boxes to get minimum 16 age rating across Europe
#14I never understood why video game lootboxes get regulated while real-life lootboxes like pokemon cards don't.
This is the same argument Valve is presenting.
(Opinions my own, naturally.)
I think they're right, really.
Obviously you need to require enough friction that the experiences are comparable (e.g. no letting someone impulse buy 100 times in half a second without having to re-type their "I am an adult" payment info or something analogous, possibly just a hard ceiling for everyone), but I don't think you can ban everything that touches the same sharp edge, and you can't mandate that parents teach their kids how to handle it.
So I think the best you can do is put hard limits on people's ability to hurt themselves without at least an "are you really sure" check, and maybe something like not allowing cash in the exchange without adult verification so the kids might, at worst, gamble their FunBux they earned playing a game and get burned on having lost a lot of FunBux, rather than their or their parents' cash. (This doesn't stop parents from giving their kids their credit card, but that's not really a problem you can solve...)
Re: Games with loot boxes to get minimum 16 age rating across Europe
#15Do they let 16 year olds gamble in casinos in Europe? Odd to ban it for kids but only some kids.
If you're forbidding people from doing things they could do yesterday, it's best to be a little conservative with your scope.
16-yo kids might do some amount of part time work, and should at least have enough of a concept of money to understand why pressing the "more loot boxes" button is a Bad Idea. They're also old enough that they might potentially have their own bank account and their own card, which then caps the damages to their allowance.
Re: Games with loot boxes to get minimum 16 age rating across Europe
#16I never understood why video game lootboxes get regulated while real-life lootboxes like pokemon cards don't.
I will say card packs are somewhat useful for drafting formats where you need a sealed pack of random unknown cards.
Just ripping packs hurts my soul. What a waste.
Re: Games with loot boxes to get minimum 16 age rating across Europe
#17I never understood why video game lootboxes get regulated while real-life lootboxes like pokemon cards don't.
Pokemon cards are addictive and fun but they're kind of analogue. Loot boxes are more like slot machines - they have flashing lights, animations and jingles to hook you in deeper. And because the lootboxes are in game they can be tuned in frequency and payout just right to keep you playing in a way boring cards could never be (beyond just boring probabilities)
Re: Games with loot boxes to get minimum 16 age rating across Europe
#18I never understood why video game lootboxes get regulated while real-life lootboxes like pokemon cards don't.
Pokemon cards have gone full circle, GameStop now has an online service where you can gamble on cards digitally just like lootboxes. You buy a roll at different price points to win a PSA graded card from a set of probabilities, and then you can sell it back for 90% market value to GameStop or have them ship it to you.
The proliferation of gambling over so many domains has radicalized me against it in a way that I didn't think would've been possible a few years ago.
Re: Games with loot boxes to get minimum 16 age rating across Europe
#19I never understood why video game lootboxes get regulated while real-life lootboxes like pokemon cards don't.
Because neither loot boxes nor Pokémon cards are actually that addicting. There is no strong link to actual gambling and these mechanics. The reason loot boxes get regulated at all is because people simply don’t like them, and they scream the loudest for someone to fix it. Very bad precedent.
Re: Games with loot boxes to get minimum 16 age rating across Europe
#20I wish they'd add mandatory labeling. I'm over 16 and have no interest in games with loot boxes.