15 European gambling regulators unite to tackle loot box threat

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xMustard wrote:

why does lootboxes and poe matter at all. its a mature rated game last i checked. thus nobody under aged should be playing, thus nobody under aged should be buying loot boxes unless they have permission from their guardian anyway, thus its the guardians fault and not GGG

if it is considered gambling, which it basically is, not sure how that changes anything.

this is from the ToS

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Age restriction: If you are based in the European Union, you must not use the Website, Materials and Services if you are under 16 years of age, and if you are between the ages of 16 and 18, your parent or legal guardian must have consented to you accessing and using the Website, Materials and Services. If you are based outside the European Union, you must not use the Website, Materials and Services if you are under 13 years of age, and if you are between the ages of 13 and 18, your parent or legal guardian must have consented to you accessing and using the Website, Materials and Services.

now im not exactly sure the legal age to gamble in certain places, but i know in my country its 18. so if you're the age to use the website you're the age to gamble, thus you're the age to buy lootboxes. its on you, not GGG

The issue is kids under 21 or 18 are playing the game and are gambling with real money. You can buy steam gift cards and use the money to buy lootboxes. Also, there are tons of games out there that are much worse than POE for gambling boxes.

This is why there needs to be regulation. Casinos are responsible to check id's of people gambling and they get in trouble if people under age are gambling in their casino. Right now there is nothing in place to prevent kids from gambling in these games. Now you can say well they need a credit card but they don't. They can buy steam gift cards with cash and use that. They also do use their parents credit cards for these games with or without their parents knowledge. It is a fact. There are numerous stories in the news and online about it.

While POE does a decent job at making gambling boxes fair they still are misleading with your chances at winning because your chances go down after each box because of duplicates. The more you play the worse your chances are.

all these shills in this thread defending predatory lootboxes that take advantage of an highly addictive thing such as gambling make me sick. Sure, you might get something every time, but you're gambling to get that one item that you really want and some people will often spend hundreds until they get it.

I'm glad there are people out there fighting to get this predatory shit regulated and i'll laugh at the shills when lootbox gambling gets regulated to shit.

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CAPSLOCK_ON wrote:

all these shills in this thread defending predatory lootboxes that take advantage of an highly addictive thing such as gambling make me sick. Sure, you might get something every time, but you're gambling to get that one item that you really want and some people will often spend hundreds until they get it.

I'm glad there are people out there fighting to get this predatory shit regulated and i'll laugh at the shills when lootbox gambling gets regulated to shit.

predatory shit?
personal responsibility has been thrown out the god damn window in this world.
do you claim all marketing techniques, tactics, strategies to be predatory??

gambling is not some evil thing. unless you're a complete moron you know the chances of getting what you hope for, in all gambling instances, is low.
if its "addictive" for you, take personal responsibility and stop or don't do it ever. it isn't GGGs fault or the lootboxes fault, or gamblings fault that you cannot control yourself. that mentality has to be snuffed out immediately. its ridiculous

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Aim_Deep wrote:

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DoubleU wrote:

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Aim_Deep wrote:

I'm sure there are kids like as young as 12-13 playing this game who are getting "hooked" on gambling.

The issue there would be where are the parents?

Were you ever a kid? My parents didnt even know I skipped like 4 months of school I hide it so well. Oblivious of course.

So, it's now GGG's job to raise the kids? What about the students that play too long and don't get their studying done? Should the EU put a limit of one hour per day of gaming and no logins after 8pm local time on the regulation books?

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Orbitalx wrote:

So do you agree that that duplicate item is worth drastically less than the first copy of that item that you received?

For weapon MTX, not at all. For some pets, no. For some hideout decorations I like, no. If the MTX is one I will probably use on a lot of my characters, a second copy is still very useful.

For most of them, the duplicate is a loss. For most of them, even the first one I don't really want is a loss. That is why I seldom get more than 1 or 2 boxes in a league. Last League, every box I got, I ended up with something I wanted and used. The only thing I didn't get that I wanted was a duplicate weapon effect.

The loot boxes were always by far the most morally grey aspect of one of the most fair financial models of any game I have come across. I appreciate the boxes make ggg a good slice of income but going by how long town takes to load in a league nowadays it is apparent to me they could do without them and all the better imo.

As to gambling discussion, calling people "idiots" for their vices makes me wonder if some people are very young with limited life experience or legit think they are perfect.

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LowBudget780 wrote:

Some people can't stop, hence the term "addiction."

they still choose to start though, don't they.
whos responsibility do these people fall under? the companies? the governments?

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xMustard wrote:

predatory shit?
personal responsibility has been thrown out the god damn window in this world.
do you claim all marketing techniques, tactics, strategies to be predatory??

gambling is not some evil thing. unless you're a complete moron you know the chances of getting what you hope for, in all gambling instances, is low.
if its "addictive" for you, take personal responsibility and stop or don't do it ever. it isn't GGGs fault or the lootboxes fault, or gamblings fault that you cannot control yourself. that mentality has to be snuffed out immediately. its ridiculous

This x1000.
Nothing is worse then abusing the personal freedom of an adult.

And since PoE is listed as 18+ game, this is end of discussion.
People can go cry more.

Well gambling pretty much means that one takes advantage from morons (im talking about them real self-control lacking individuals). But few days ago i had to help a mother buy Fortnite(save the world) or whatever that is,for her kid.

According to her these money were the kid's money (40€) (11 years old),whatever that means.

I tried real hard to explain that the game is about to go free,and he is giving money away. The mom agreed,and tried to reason with the kid (i can't intervene here since it's not my business when it comes to a decision).

Then something interested happened,the kid brought up the skins and perks coming with that purchase.

He knew about streamers,youtube content creators etc,i was impressed to say the least. That kid has no idea what he's about to give these money for but he used these twitch/youtube contents to strengthen his point (which is pretty much just child being hyped up). Eventually the mom agreed since its a "present",and child happiness.

Point is,even if it's not really ON-topic,i can see how these boxes ESPECIALLY the way EA and Activision deal with them,can actually take advantage of these kids. Even if they are just kids,they know just enough to get a parent that's not a gamer to agree with them,which is pretty scary. I for one wouldn't bite but a clueless person will simply hand out the money,and hype+child inexperience (when it comes to what to spend money on or not)will do the rest.

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LowBudget780 wrote:

A little bit of both, that's why there should be regulations set in place.

ok. so what about the children addicted to sugar. or adults addicted to coffee. or your wife addicted to shopping. or you addicted to video games.

do you also appeal to the government to regulate that? at what point does personal responsibility get thrown out the window and somebody else has to take responsibility for you - as soon as you're "unable to help yourself"?

you're never unable to help yourself. and it is never the job or responsibility of the government to regulate everyone because you're unable to help yourself.

i am amazed at how willing people are to throw away their freedoms to the whim of the government. it is amazing.