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Senator Josh Hawley's press team announced yesterday "The Protecting Children from Abusive Games Act" which is soon to be introduced to the United States Senate.
a bill that would ban loot boxes and pay-to-win microtransactions in "games played by minors," a broad label that the senator says will include both games designed for kids under 18 and games "whose developers knowingly allow minor players to engage in microtransactions."
The game 'Candy Crush' was cited as an "egregious" example of pay-to-win with things like it's $150 "Luscious Bundle".
"When a game is designed for kids, game developers shouldn't be allowed to monetize addiction," Hawley said in a press release. "And when kids play games designed for adults, they should be walled off from compulsive microtransactions. Game developers who knowingly exploit children should face legal consequences."
Likely any such legislation would have knock-on effects throughout the gaming (and mobile gaming) markets affecting the gaming experience for non-minor players as well.
The Entertainment Software Association responded quickly stating that
"Numerous countries, including Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, determined that loot boxes do not constitute gambling. We look forward to sharing with the senator the tools and information the industry already provides that keeps the control of in-game spending in parents' hands. Parents already have the ability to limit or prohibit in-game purchases with easy to use parental controls."
With an acronym like PCAGA the bill may struggle to gain traction. Maybe we can come up with something better?
Previously: Belgium Moving to Ban "Loot Boxes" Throughout Europe, Hawaii Could Restrict Sale to Minors, Are Loot Boxes in Games a Violation of Gambling Laws?, Video Game Loot Boxes are now Considered Criminal Gambling in Belgium, Mobile Gaming is Dominant in the Marketplace / Blame Loot Boxes, U.S. Federal Trade Commission Will Investigate Video Game "Loot Boxes"
(Score: 5, Funny) by krishnoid on Thursday May 09 2019, @08:13PM (3 children)
The powerful lobbying groups will argue against it, because, well ... aren't loot boxes pretty much how laws are made?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Thursday May 09 2019, @08:25PM (2 children)
In that you can grind your life away without ever seeing one you like, but dump a few thousand bucks and suddenly you get everything?
(Score: 3, Touché) by Snow on Thursday May 09 2019, @08:40PM (1 child)
I think the message is that if you
bribemake a donation to your politician, then you can make your own laws.(Score: 3, Informative) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday May 09 2019, @11:17PM
When they call, I give. And you know what? When I need something from them 2 years later, 3 years later, I call them. They are there for me.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 09 2019, @08:38PM
s/t
(Score: 3, Touché) by fyngyrz on Thursday May 09 2019, @10:09PM
There goes Clash Royale's business model. 😊
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So you want children: "Daddy, what does Formatting 90% mean?"
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday May 09 2019, @10:48PM
Loot boxes don't hurt kids: Devs hurt kids. BURN THE DEVS!
Breaking news===== Devs go to local school and throw lootboxes at kids. Little Jimmy threw himself at the Devs to try and save his friends. Jimmy is hailed as a Hero.
Loot boxes banned...NOT!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2, Troll) by exaeta on Thursday May 09 2019, @10:53PM (2 children)
The Government is a Bird
(Score: 3, Interesting) by fyngyrz on Thursday May 09 2019, @10:59PM (1 child)
Yes. Despite the subscription and/or in-app purchase income model's success for the developers, the "buy it and it's yours along with all its features" model was one hell of a lot better for consumers.
However: that means the money is all on the devs/legislators side.
So... there's likely no going back.
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Cats have 32 muscles in each ear to ignore you with
(Score: 2) by exaeta on Thursday May 09 2019, @11:12PM
The Government is a Bird
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 10 2019, @04:37AM
Its a beautiful way to get money back from people so they remain motivated to go to work to earn some more.
Otherwise, all they do with their earnings is bid up the price of rents, food, and utilities.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 10 2019, @07:02AM
Wait, it's Feedom of Speech when you bribe politicians but it's real problem when idiots spend money on magic pixels to "win" more magic pixels?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday May 10 2019, @01:59PM
"Loot boxes" are just a bastardization of the old tried and true Treasure Chests you'd find in games. The biggest difference is, instead of gearing it towards how do we make this game fun. It's geared towards, how can we monetize this, and make it just fun enough for the person to keep doing it. There's no more, balanced loot tables, it's all skewed to the grind. The person who drops $1,000 on the game will likely get some good stuff, but the schmuck who didn't spend $1,000 on the game, may not ever get to the same point as the big spender. In the past, a game's release was geared towards getting as many people as possible to buy it while it was new/fresh. Then, usually the game's price would drop, except for a few select franchises that milk their customers for life (Blizzard, Call of Duty). Though, even they had sales, etc, and didn't stay at $60 forever.
Rant about Overwatch (the game from Blizzard):
Now, you have games like Overwatch, where you pay $60 for the game, then you have this awesome, nifty loot box experience. Then you can grind for all the outfits you want and can also pay real money for even more loot boxes. Yes, Overwatch is one of the least egregious about Loot Boxes as they are 100% just cosmetics (for now). What really makes me annoyed with Overwatch is that they are charging full game prices and then monetizing the game via microtransactions at the same time. Sure, Free to Play games need to make their money some how, but that model shouldn't bleed over into purchased games.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Friday May 10 2019, @02:15PM
Loot Boxes is a strange way to refer to the IRS.
Would a Dyson sphere [soylentnews.org] actually work?