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Choze

EA and Star Wars leads to governments looking to get loot crates under control.

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Played the new GTA update last night. You get a free spin of the prize wheel every day. Spun the wheel (my first time ever doing it), won the top prize* and swaggered out like a boss. Good times. Fuck you Rockstar.

*The ludicrously expensive supercar they have on a podium in the middle of the casino. It's the only prize that's worth winning IMO.

 

With regards to GTAs microtransactions, they've actually been good up to this point. You pay money, you get guaranteed results. No random loot boxes or rewards, just cold hard (in game) cash. The new content is always "free", so it's like the microtransactions are essentially paying for DLC, except you can also earn them in game if you can be arsed.

The idea of gambling something that you could have paid real money for is problematic though. Fortunately, there's not actually much point playing the machines that take tokens/money.

Edited by Goafer

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https://www.theguardian.com/games/2019/sep/12/video-game-loot-boxes-should-be-classed-as-gambling-says-commons

 

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Video game loot boxes should be classed as gambling, says Commons

Children should also be barred from buying addictive in-game rewards, advises report

 

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Damian Collins, the chair of the committee, said: “Loot boxes are particularly lucrative for games companies but come at a high cost, particularly for problem gamblers, while exposing children to potential harm. Buying a loot box is playing a game of chance and it is high time the gambling laws caught up. We challenge the government to explain why loot boxes should be exempt from the Gambling Act.”

Might take a while with wannabe Supreme Leader Johnson as he removes all the democratic and legal institutions slowly.

Edited by Choze

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It appears that EA are once again in trouble with their Ultimate Team mode in FIFA. This mode has already been altered in Belgium and it looks like France is the next country set to take action.

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In Europe, EA has already been accused of exploiting its young fans with a system which is essentially gambling, and now we're seeing two new cases emerge in France, both of which have been filed by players of the game who claim that the only way to "win" in the Ultimate Team mode is to pay real money – and lots of it.

One of the lawyers, Victor Zagury, references gambling in his statement, and mentions the action already taken on this matter in Belgium and Holland:

"In this game, everyone wants to have a dream team to go as far as possible. My client spent €600 in five months without ever getting a big player. The developers of this game mode have created an illusionary and particularly addictive system. The more you pay, the more you have the possibility of getting big players. We believe that a gambling game has been integrated into this video game because buying packs is nothing more than a bet. It is the logic of a casino that has entered their homes. Today, an 11 or 12-year-old teenager can, without any restriction, play FUT and commit money because there is no parental control system in this mode. Belgium and the Netherlands have already taken up this issue."

Zagury's client, known as Mamadou, spoke with sports outlet L’Équipe, admitting that he had spent €600 since the game’s release, yet the best player he had received in Ultimate Team packs was Napoli’s Kostas Manolas:

"I didn’t even know him! Put so much money in just to get Manolas… People I know have put in €2,000 or €3,000 it’s crazy… The amount I have spent has made me fall behind on my rent payments."

I'd love if it France does the same as Belgium. That means there will be increasing pressure for EA to do something about it. They should also take a look at Take-Two's NBA games while they are at it.

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Progress has been made.

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In 2019, the Netherlands Gambling Authority (Kansspelautoriteit, Ksa) imposed an administrative order subject to a penalty of up to 5 million euros on Electronic Arts Inc. and Electronic Arts Swiss Sàrl each for violating the Gambling Act through its ‘Packs’ in the FIFA video game. The District Court of The Hague recently ruled in favour of the Ksa in this matter. The judgment was published today.

The Ksa imposed the orders subject to a penalty because the popular FIFA football game contained illegal loot boxes. These loot boxes are like treasure chests. The FIFA loot boxes, for example, would contain football players that could improve the performance of the team that the player was using to play the game. The players contained by the loot box are determined by chance, and the contents cannot be influenced. The fact that football players sometimes have a high value and that they can occasionally be traded constitutes a violation of the Gambling Act. Under Dutch law, a game of chance that allows a prize or premium to be won can only be provided if a relevant licence has been granted.

A study carried out by the Ksa in 2018 found that there may be a correlation between playing games that incorporate loot boxes and development of an addiction to gambling. Chairmen René Jansen: ‘The Ksa believes it is crucial to shield vulnerable groups, such as minors, from exposure to gambling. For that reason, the Ksa supports a strict separation between gaming and gambling. Gamers are often young and therefore particularly susceptible to developing an addiction. As such, gambling elements have no place in games.’
Following the publication of the study, the Ksa called on companies in the gaming industry to adapt their games so they were no longer infringing the Gambling Act. A number of companies heeded the Ksa’s call. However, Electronic Arts Inc. and Electronic Arts Swiss Sàrl did not.

Netherlands following Belgium on the correct path there. Here's hoping it continues to snowball so that Loot Boxes eventually die out.

Link to this topic on ResetEra with further links.

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About as useless as a gambling limit you can set yourself, but still, it's something of a step in the right direction. 

 

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Like asking a smoking addict to put a limit on how many cigarretes they smoke in one day; but with no form of outside support or nicotine patches.

Working As Designed.

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1 hour ago, Dcubed said:

Like asking a smoking addict to put a limit on how many cigarretes they smoke in one day; but with no form of outside support or nicotine patches.

Working As Designed.

Yep, basically.

Similarly, most banks offer gambling blocks, and the only thing in the way of you removing the block? A 24 hour cooldown. Oh, and the block doesn't even stop all gambling transactions, just some. 

Where there's money to be made, I guess ::shrug: 

Customers who spend more than is healthy to, and maintainable, on anything really need more support. It's just not taken seriously enough when it comes to games, I feel. Not only is there for the issue of age restrictions being easy to bypass, but from what I've read/seen, they can find it harder to open up than those recovering from other addictions, like drugs or alcohol. 

I don't know, I just hope people get the support they need. A block available on cards aimed at those with microtransaction spending addictions more like those seen with GamCare and GamAware for gambling - which are much harder to remove, and generally better integrated, than the ones banks offer directly - would be the way to go I think. Or maybe they could just work closer with the virtual storefronts, because spending habits could highlight vulnerable players who are overspending quite easily. 

Fingers crossed things only improve. 

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2 hours ago, Julius said:

About as useless as a gambling limit you can set yourself, but still, it's something of a step in the right direction. 

It’s a lot more than the vast majority of companies are doing. I’ve had many discussions around doing similar things that for $$$ reasons always go a certain way and EA could have opted to do the same thing. 

39 minutes ago, Julius said:

Customers who spend more than is healthy to, and maintainable, on anything really need more support. It's just not taken seriously enough when it comes to games, I feel. Not only is there for the issue of age restrictions being easy to bypass, but from what I've read/seen, they can find it harder to open up than those recovering from other addictions, like drugs or alcohol. 

Totally. I think this kind of has to be taken up by governments to actually recognize the problem for what it is before much will be done. Some countries are starting to realize it’s a bigger issue but still far too many are not. I believe in the UK there was a Lords review of some sort that said loot boxes should be considered gambling and legislated as such quite recently. Hopefully that goes somewhere and it helps to move things forward.

43 minutes ago, Julius said:

Or maybe they could just work closer with the virtual storefronts, because spending habits could highlight vulnerable players who are overspending quite easily. 

The difficulty with this is at some point you need people to self-identify what is a problem for them. If someone earning $1k a month is spending $1k a month then there is an issue, but how would the store know that about them? It’s very difficult to identify where the line is but I do agree there needs to be more tools available to those who need them.

Things will get better, but it will probably take a long time.

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Bloody horrible.  EA and their ilk are absolute ghouls that need to be fined and regulated into oblivion.

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12 hours ago, Dcubed said:

Bloody horrible.  EA and their ilk are absolute ghouls that need to be fined and regulated into oblivion.

EA, CDPR, Nintendo, Wizards of the Coast, Disney, The Pokémon Company, Hasbro, LEGO, Panini and loads more.

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7 hours ago, Cube said:

EA, CDPR, Nintendo, Wizards of the Coast, Disney, The Pokémon Company, Hasbro, LEGO, Panini and loads more.

Funnily enough, some of those companies listed are owned by other companies listed in the same sentence (Pokemon Company owned by Nintendo, Wizards owned by Hasbro).

 

It's funny really, because when you think about it TCGs like Magic have been operating on the booster pack model for years, but they can get away with it due to the products having resale value. Hence why MTG Arena is considered rather problematic because if you're buying gems in a very predatory system for that game you are paying for digital goods that can't be refunded, especially considering you can't trade your cards on Arena.

 

It has gotten rather out of hand but I feel like things are taking too long to get sorted and properly regulated, possibly due to business interests and protecting said companies on government part. COVID won't have helped in that regard.

 

But maybe we will start to see digital legislation on the part of governments to protect this reckless spending that can occur digitally.

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