The Belgian Minister of Justice, Koen Geens, wants to forbid loot boxes since they can be seen as gamble in video games. Of course, this is due to Star Wars Battlefront 2. He wants to set a ban of these lot boxes on the European scale or forbid selling such games to children.
This is quite interesting. Something similar is happening here in Australia, in the state of Victoria. They're investigating lootboxes and their relation to gambling.
To be honest, I don't know if it's going to hold much water. This brings into question other types of loot boxes like trading card games, which are consumed primarily by younger people. Of course, the loot boxes in question are different and are predatory in nature.
If you ask me they're worse than gambling because they ruin an otherwise excellent form of digital entertainment. It's a stupid kind of addiction and shouldn't be implented in video games, they never benefit from it and I feel bad for those that don't have the wits to ignore them. But it's not just loot boxes, pay to win is a pain in general, I hope one day micro transactions become an abnormality.
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Anything with micro-transactions should be banned in my eyes, if you buy a game i expect to get the full game. Not have to pay to get specific items, without anything physical to show for it.
It's kind of like Amiibos but at least you get a little statue, but hate how in BotW you need them to get certain armours as they said you would be-able to unlock everything you get from Amiibos later on in the game, which was a LIE
I am not opposed to DLC per se. If it adds clear and defined extra content, like a new campaign, I have no problem with paying a bit extra. Loot boxes are a whole other beast though. You pay for it, but you have no idea what you're going to get. It's gambling, pure and simple, and should be banned from video games.
I hope that classification laws in Australia are amended so that any games that allow chance-based purchases are classified R18+ for gambling references (or similar) by default. I think it's absolutely ridiculous that games that only vaguely allude to gambling (such as Kirby, Mario Party and Wii Party U!) or those that contain only simulations of real-world gambling (such as casino games) are slapped with either PG or M ratings while other games, including Pokémon Shuffle, that contain shameless microtransactions are allowed to slide with as little as a G rating with no consequences whatsoever.
Slapping harsher classifications on such games would surely deter at least the major publishers from succumbing to such scummy practices.
"Gee, that's really persuasive. Do you have any actual points to make other than to essentially say 'me Tarzan, physical bad, digital good'?"
Keep up the good work Belgium. Even if this doesn't get anywhere, they're at least putting pressure on the loot box business, which is more than my government would ever do.
Imagine if the film industry tried something like loot boxes:
"buy a ticket to see our film at the cinema with a 75% chance that it'll be a different one of our films that you don't want to see, a 10% chance that it'll be the correct film but missing one of 5 random scenes and a 0.025% chance that it'll be the correct film in-tact but with all of the actors performing completely in the nude."
In states where gambling is already legal, I can't imagine them doing anything about it, though, alternately, in states where gambling is legal the gaming industry (the other gaming industry, meaning gambling) has a VERY strong lobby and does NOT like to share their empire and ensures that all gambling only occurs in their approved (read: grafted) facilities.....so the real casinos might get on board with banning loot boxes.
This is gambling in its truest, purest form, through and through. And the fact that the electronic entertainment industry has decided to follow the actual gaming (gambling) industry is bizarre and depressing.
At least with trading cards, though, you're buying tangible property to own, trade, or sell. With loot boxes, it's raw gambling....a pull of the lever with vanishing cash and no tangible gain. With trading cards you're arguably trading for the price of the material/distribution/artistry.
I’m kind of on the fence with government intervention... if they outright ban all microtransactions and loot boxes that would be phenomenal... but chances are they don’t care about gamers either... chances are they just want it regulated so they have to force game developers to obtain a gambling license and then they can tax games with loot boxes. I hope it’s the former and not the latter.
Can we maybe talk about this without turning it into "ban all microtransactions"? It would be tough to argue that loot boxes don't entirely suck, but microtransactions can be done in good ways, or at least acceptable ways. You don't have to like them, and you definitely don't have to like the way some companies use them, but it's a rather extreme position to say they should be entirely banned on principle.
I wouldn't mind seeing loot boxes banned, mind you. Although I think the sheer backlash from Battlefront 2 is already likely to cause a downturn in the practice.
@Zyrac Well, you can't ban loot boxes either. All they're doing right now is looking into regulations, meaning that any game that contains loot boxes will probably get labeled 18+ in Europe, and it may get a label warning about the in-game gambling with real money. Gambling itself isn't banned in Europe, so I don't see how gambling in video games can be banned.
Of course, the 18+ label is enough to scare off some publishers. EA doesn't want FIFA to get a 18+ label, because they know too that a lot of their customers are teens. It depends on the country, but PEGI labels aren't enforced rules, a 7-year old can still buy a game rated 12 for example. I do believe you need to be at least 16 years if you want to buy a game rated 18+. However, if that label is going to include gambling as well, they may need to tighten the rules, and you're probably required to show some form of identification to prove you're at least 18 years old. Or they could add a separate label that specifically deals with the gambling part.
I believe that the issue of loot boxes was raised here in the UK - but it was decided that they should be classed as luck-based packages (like Pokemon Trading Cards) rather than gambling, unfortunately...
Ideally, I'd like to see them banned altogether - but, failing that, I'd at least like to see them being heavily regulated - with a clearly labelled % chance of 'winning', each piece of loot box code being carefully scrutinised by an independent body and perhaps even required parental approval for each purchase.
Hopefully Belgium can get this pushed through EU-wide before Brexit (ugh! ) so that the decision covers the UK as well...I'd be delighted to see one of the blights of modern gaming wiped from existence!
That's the major issue here. Should trading card games be banned too? Once you take off your tunnel vision of dislike, you realize this is more of a gray area issue.
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