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.
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.
I also think the odds should also be not only disclosed, but made prominent
Typically spelled "gacha", although I have to admit that "gotcha" seems apt.
That's not how I use the term. I think of a loot box as a treasure chest or similar that you discover while exploring which, when opened, gives you some loot!
On the other hand if you're talking about a package with a random assortment of stuff in it that you buy without knowing what's inside, I call that a "grab bag" or "mystery bundle".
Am I too old? What games were primarily responsible for changing the vocabulary?
nba456_•1h ago
benoau•1h ago
steele•1h ago
gmadsen•50m ago
rincebrain•43m ago
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...)
mikkupikku•1h ago
idiotsecant•1h ago
teeray•1h ago
jayd16•36m ago
Just ripping packs hurts my soul. What a waste.
djtango•35m ago
dietr1ch•20m ago
smelendez•6m ago
TheAceOfHearts•28m ago
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.
EQmWgw87pw•28m ago