bugSo you went for the red herring :D

lexluthermiesterThat's one way of putting it. :laugh: I tend not to assume people are being deceptive until there is a reason to believe such, generally. :peace: The analogy Ford used didn't work because it was a functionally different situation from what EA and others are doing with loot-boxes, but the comparison was easy to see from his point of view.

64KFor the folks that have been around gaming for a while know that microtransactions are a blight. They give incentive to Publishers/Developers to work microtransactions into their games to squeeze out a few more dollars from their games.

lexluthermiesterUm, ok. Did you actually have a Wii? I have two and remember very clearly using my CC to make purchases directly on both systems. Sorry mate, you're incorrect on this one.

lexluthermiesterThat's one way of putting it. :laugh: I tend not to assume people are being deceptive until there is a reason to believe such, generally. :peace: The analogy Ford used didn't work because it was a functionally different situation from what EA and others are doing with loot-boxes, but the comparison was easy to see from his point of view.

bugI would be content if p2w titles were labeled as such. I would be ecstatic if, once labeled, they're also marked as 18+ because, you know, that's when you're legally allowed to own a CC to pay for all the crap.

bugThat's not right either.
MTXs are just tools. Tools are not good or bad by themselves. One again, I will refer you to Path of Exile: free to play, full of MTXs, yet none of them gives you a gameplay advantage whatsoever. It can be argued that a bigger stash does, but for the purpose of our discussion here, when you buy stash space in PoE, you buy stash space; there's no chance/luck involved.

I would be content if p2w titles were labeled as such. I would be ecstatic if, once labeled, they're also marked as 18+ because, you know, that's when you're legally allowed to own a CC to pay for all the crap.

64KLast year Ubisoft announced in one of their quarterly financial statements that they now had more revenue from microtransactions than the did from the actual sales of games. Think about that for a minute.

FordGT90ConceptI have about 20-30 WiiWare and Wii Classic games. All credit card transactions for me were for Wii Points, not games directly.

FordGT90ConceptHow are Bioware Points any different from Wii Points?

bugI would be content if p2w titles were labeled as such. I would be ecstatic if, once labeled, they're also marked as 18+ because, you know, that's when you're legally allowed to own a CC to pay for all the crap.

FordGT90ConceptI concur. ESRB needs to be kicked to the curb and games need to be rated for what they are. ESRB is fully incentivized to sweep sketchy payment systems under the rug (you know, "surprise mechanics!").

64KIf it did become illegal to sell loot boxes to minors here in the USA then how could it possibly be enforced? Neither the Publisher nor the online store have any foolproof means of knowing how old the buyer is. A 13 year old could lie and say they are 18. They could start a new account using their parent's ID info and credit card info or setup a new account and use PayPal for purchases.

The only way to be sure that such a law would have any meaning at all is to outlaw loot boxes for everyone. Children and adults. I doubt that Congress is willing to go that far but we'll see.