• Welcome to ZD Forums! You must create an account and log in to see and participate in the Shoutbox chat on this main index page.

US Senator announces a new bill to ban loot boxes.

thePlinko

What’s the character limit on this? Aksnfiskwjfjsk
ZD Legend
I honestly don’t like the ban.

Yeah we all hate loot boxes, but instead of forcing people through law to do something we should just use the power of capitalism to get rid of it. If nobody buys their loot boxes then it won’t be a problem anymore.
 

el :BeoWolf:

When all else fails use fire
Joined
Feb 5, 2016
Gender
Centaleon
I honestly don’t like the ban.

Yeah we all hate loot boxes, but instead of forcing people through law to do something we should just use the power of capitalism to get rid of it. If nobody buys their loot boxes then it won’t be a problem anymore.
I REALLLY don't think that would be effective. Sure people talk about how scummy companies are, but even still people still go out and eat up what they're serving anyway.
 

Shroom

The Artist Formally Known as Deku Shroom™
Joined
Jan 21, 2011
Gender
Fun Guy
Good. It's scummy, and companies that notoriously do it try to sell their lack of microtransactions in a game as a feature, even though it's littered in their other games. Lookin' at you EA.

This stuff should just be in the game for free, or just gone in general. You wanna release new aesthetical updates? Release them for free or for cheap DLC. I think there's been an outspoken cry from the consumer base that these are **** business tactics, and there's been too many instances of influencers persuading kids to buy into this stuff.

If Big Brother™ wants to kill a **** business practice, then let him at it.
 

thePlinko

What’s the character limit on this? Aksnfiskwjfjsk
ZD Legend
I REALLLY don't think that would be effective. Sure people talk about how scummy companies are, but even still people still go out and eat up what they're serving anyway.
I just don’t like it when the government bans things. First of all the constitution says they aren’t even allowed to do that, second I think the government should have as little control on our lives as possible. It’s more of a matter of principle then practicality.
 

Cfrock

Keep it strong
Joined
Mar 17, 2012
Location
Liverpool, England
we should just use the power of capitalism to get rid of it. If nobody buys their loot boxes then it won’t be a problem anymore.
This will never work and it's because of capitalism that it won't. @TheBlueReptile talked about how loot boxes tap into the kind of addictive behaviour that keeps traditional gambling profitable, but beyond that the loot box business model is built on the knowledge that 99% of your players won't buy any, but the 1% will buy everything they can. They're called "whales" and devs/publishers are only interested in them, the players who will spend hundreds of euros/pounds/dollaridoos/drachmae/simoleons/etc. on anything and everything that comes their way. You will not convince these whales to boycott loot boxes. They are going to buy dozens, if not hundreds, of them no matter what you or I or anyone else does.

In addition to this, there are other industries that rely on loot boxes to be profitable. Youtube and Twitch channels that make substantial revenue from videos of them opening loot boxes, videos intended to show off the content inside to potential customers and to drum up the hype that you (yes, you!) could get all these cool skins and emblems too if you just shell out £4.99. Didn't get what you wanted? Just buy some more, dude, it's fun. These people, who make revenue from opening loot boxes on stream or on video, will keep the practice alive and profitable, just like the whales. A boycott would be as effective as a change.org petition. 'Voting with your wallet' doesn't work in the economy we have today. You do not have any power as a consumer to influence things like this.
---
As for the bill itself, I hope it passes because these mechanics being banned in the US will possibly have a major knock-on effect of developers not including them at all in other regions, too. That said, I'm not optimistic. The US tends to favour businesses and their track record of even just understanding video games is spotty at best. I can't imagine that half of US senators would know what a loot box even was after hearing arguments (because you bet that most simply won't read the bill at all). Perhaps it seems hopeful that a Republican has proposed the bill, but even then he's had to frame it as protecting children specifically, not consumers. Either he's only concerned about minors, or he knows his party won't consider it without that angle. With the Republicans in control of the Senate, it's very possible the bill won't survive a vote there. That is assuming they still control the Senate when the bill eventually comes up for a vote and assuming it gets through Congress. The Democrats seem like the kind of party that would back such a bill but you'd be surprised by the things the Democrats have opposed in the past. No doubt Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will have something useful to say about it, especially since she actually knows what video games are, but she's just one voice and the Republicans think she's The Enemy.

So yeah, fingers and toes crossed. I'd very much like this to pass, I just can't quite bring myself to believe that it will. Hopefully I'm wrong.
 
Last edited:

Castle

Ch!ld0fV!si0n
Joined
Oct 24, 2012
Location
Crisis? What Crisis?
Gender
Pan-decepticon-transdeliberate-selfidentifying-sodiumbased-extraexistential-temporal anomaly
I gotta say, I get a sort of sick thrill at the prospect of Big Brother coming down hard on the video game megacorps even though I detest government intervention on principle. I'm still not certain it is needed here but even though it is concerning that legislators are turning their attention back to video games because of this, I still think only the likes of EA, Craptivision, Ubisuck, Warner Bummers, et. al. can get hurt from this and that just fills me with the warm fuzzies.

The only drawback would be if legislators get a taste of blood and start getting it into their heads again that video games have to be further legislated. Then it'll be 1995 all over again. I don't see that happening though. I mean, I wouldn't put it past em, obviously, but the surpreme court has been pretty clear on video game's first amendment coverage. I think any attempts to legislate video games at this point would only end up embarrassing any politician who tries.

This is only in the U.S. obviously. In Europe and Australia and anywhere else really all I can say is "good luck."

On the converse, I honestly don't mind if the whales want to dump money on these corporate hacks. If stupid people want to let themselves get taken advantage of, that's their right. I don't mind the suits getting rich off it so long as I can still get the few decent games released once in a blue moon from the few remaining honest developers who actually give a fart about making an entertaining game.

The Democrats seem like the kind of party that would back such a bill but you'd be surprised by the things the Democrats have opposed in the past.
It was Democrats who waged the crusade against video games in the mid 90s. That was an attempt to straight up censor content up to and including threats to wholesale ban video games in America. It only ended with the formation of the ESA, the US video game industry's lobbying arm and their ESRB content ratings board. Incidentally it was our old gal Shrillary Clinton who lead the crusade, alongside party members Tipper Gore who wasn't even an elected official, just the wife of Al Gore, and Old Indie Joe Lieberman who was a Democrat at the time.

During the infamous GTA "Hot Coffee" incident California Democratic Senator Leland Yee was a major voice calling for the outright ban of sales of violent video games. He's still currently doing time in fed pen for trying to smuggle weapons across the border from mexico for the cartels. He was also a vocal gun control advocate.

No doubt Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will have something useful to say about it, especially since she actually knows what video games are
Cortez is an idiot. Don't let the "cool millenial" schlickt she's got going fool you. The airhead doesn't know much about anything.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top Bottom