Our new Indie Games subforum is now open for business in G&T. Go and check it out, you might land a code for a free game. If you're developing an indie game and want to post about it,
follow these directions. If you don't, he'll break your legs! Hahaha! Seriously though.
Lootboxes, Microtransactions, and [Gambling in Gaming]
Posts
You mean an educational opportunity on why we should eat the rich.
I thought that's what Cooking Mama was about (I've never played it, not a fan of cannibalism).
In other words, with Monopoly, you are 100% guaranteed to have a bad time. Since it's 100%, it's definitely not a game of chance.
No, Monopoly really is an educational opportunity on why we should eat the rich. That's why it (well, The Landlord's Game) was first made.
Then capitalism got its hands on it. So now we've got Angry Birds Monopoly.
I mean...
You can't give someone a pirate ship in one game, and then take it back in the next game. It's rude.
In relation to this, something which is angering me greatly lately is that the apple app store USED to have a section for each game or app which read like this....
Top paid items
1. Box of gems ($4)
2. Crate of gems ($10)
3. Favorite characters pack ($20)
4. Istanbul Expansion ($5)
5. Lonestar Pistol ($3)
So you could quickly and easily see if a game was a poisonous free to play nightmare or a real game
But as of 12 months ago they changed the store such that there's just a little button which says...
"This game includes paid downloadable content blah blah blah"
And because EVERY game has at least some Paid DLC, every game has the button so you can't see whats a real game. In addition, games which USED to be real games that I play have gradually become freemium nightmare versions of themselves.
What this means is that it is literally impossible to provide a safe curated gaming experience to a kid on a phone or tablet.
It's the prisoner's dilemma, it's almost impossible to lose as an altruistic Co-op until one side betrays the other. And usually when faced with a Co-op acting in good faith, the people who like Monopoly will quit or be ruined before you have to turn on each other. Or they'll do it immediately after.
They shook, and with good reason.
Piss off mate, you had you're chance. European countries aren't going to back off writing laws explicitly dealing with this issue on the promise the industry self regulates. There is no reason to believe the games industry is capable of restraint. For a time they tried waiting around for game devs to get their house in order with mobile gaming and they just got worse.
That's the whole point of loot boxes.
Yeah but most of the time there’s some kind of ‘yeah but’ line of argument for why they shouldn’t need to change. But not this time.
Just as a tangent, I saw an advertisement for an actual gambling app a while back, and among its boasted features were hard monthly limits on credit card spending and an easy way to see how much you spent, so you could see when you were taking it too far.
When you have to tout these features, yikes.
Don't they invariably boil down to "yeah, but our shareholders..."?
Steam | XBL
yeah, but just think of the day you'll be one of them!
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
When you have to tout those features, but also can say, "These features are far more advanced, fair, and consumer protective than those used in "Magic pony happy town express", our competitors lootbox focused product targetted at 5 year olds"
Ah yes, the "temporarily embarrassed millionaire" theory.
Steam | XBL
*Shareholders immediately sell their interest and invest in Magic pony happy town express*
A lot of those features are required by various Governments. "Gamble Responsibly" had to be forced on them and are constantly evaluated and audited.
It’s not a very important country most of the time
http://steamcommunity.com/id/mortious
It's weird in the Uk I used to do some work repairing AWP machines (Slot machines) at a casino and for problem gamblers we couldn't force any bans on them or intervene in any meaningful way. The most we could do is hand them a leaflet with information and hope they would request a self imposed ban (most didn't).
Personally I also think its dangerous to have either side of the regulation argument, it's obvious the industry won't self regulate and something needs to happen but if you impose government regulation, it's authenticity to action for the industry to push the practice to the absolute limits (something in which they aren't doing currently).
Take for example in the UK there was a stink with mobile phone networks imposing inflation charges on customers contracts several times a year meaning a contract cost over a 12 month period could have 3 price increases (usually way under inflation but still annoying). The government got involved and regulated it to ban multiple increases in price and said if companies do this you could leave the contract. The government also said that companies could only increase prices by so much above inflation within so many times per year, so each of the networks now guarantee price increases by the maximum amount they are allowed, making costs worse for the customers than before.
I am trying to remember who supplied us with AWP software. Ash Gaming I think? It was a UK company.
They had the most terrible awesome puns for names. Abrakabra for a genie was food stand theme, Hiphophipotomus for a rapping hippo etc.
It’s not a very important country most of the time
http://steamcommunity.com/id/mortious
This is just outright evil.
IANAL, but I smell liability.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
The documents are from a class action lawsuit. Facebook initially had them sealed, but the Center for Investigative Reporting convinced the judge the the public's right to know outweighed Facebook's embarrassment.
A game targeted at children that even lets them spend 6500 bucks in 2 weeks is ipso facto predatory. Ban this shit like you'd ban smack dealers from a middle school playground.
What's really revolting is that they tested basic barriers to purchasing micro transactions that worked.
And then not only refused to implement them because they would cut revenue, but then actually told developers "hey, what's a little 'friendly fraud' between friends?"
Oh, that's another thing - they made it harder for parents to dispute charges.
That's just a term for any high spender in F2P
Academician Prokhor "Phyphor" Zakharov, Chief Scientist of China, Provost of the University of Planet - SE++ Megagame
So tell me how banks are going to take that part? I'm wondering if "dispute everything without review" is something they care for
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
The point was they were using it to refer to kids whom they were tricking into spending money, which is revolting and shows how diseased the internal culture at Facebook is.
I feel like “seals” would fit better when talking about children.
Also, how impressively abhorrent. This may finally get me to overcome my laziness and go delete my Facebook account that I haven’t logged into for like eight months.
The real term we should be using for children is "DO NOT FUCKING GO THERE ASSHOLE".