When Stop Killing Games's Ross Scott previously spoke about the initiative, he mentioned that the upcoming Digital Fairness Act was considering addressing game licensing but ultimately passing up the opportunity. Now, the European Commission has officially published a draft of the Digital Fairness Act, allowing us to see what the proposed legislation is targets and how that might affect video games and their makers. The draft act aims to "tackle unfair commercial practices affecting consumers online, while simplifying and harmonizing parts of the existing legal framework," and it will affect everything from dark patterns and subscription services to loot boxes, in-game purchases, digital contracts, and even influencer marketing.

What will be most pertinent to gamers and gaming companies is that gaming companies will be forced to be more transparent about in-game spending. This means they will need to show the real-world monetary value of virtual items purchased with in-game currency; loot boxes and other paid variable rewards systems will need to have rewards clearly shown as well as the probability of obtaining those rewards, and these systems will be unavailable for minors; and pay-to-win mechanics will be prohibited for minors under certain conditions. Platform designers, like social media companies, will also need to abide by new rules relating to what the Commission is calling "addictive design and attention-maximizing features."

Supervise recently exited Early Access on Steam with its 1.0 launch that changed many of the MOBA's core mechanics and ended up angering much of its fan base. One of the main complaints about the launch update was that it changed the rewards structure in a way that encouraged heavy grinding and pay-to-win behavior. With the latest hotfix (full patch notes here) the game's developer, Theorycraft, has made changes to the reward structure to give casual players more of an incentive to play. The game now rewards players with more in-game currency for completing challenges and daily missions—from 100 Prisma to 400 Prisma per mission. The individual Prisma gains for killing enemies have also increased, as have rewards for defeating minions and bosses. The changes also include changes to the RNG that introduce a counter that guarantees a legendary relic or perk after a certain number of capsule rolls, and equipment drops are much more frequent throughout the game as a whole.

In a dev log following the patch, in hopes of addressing the flood of negative reviews by acknowledging player feedback and giving players an idea of where the game is going in the future. For starters, Theorycraft says it will be engaging much more closely with the wider Supervive audience going forward. The idea is to share planned updates and features on Steam ahead of roll-out in order to gather player feedback in the ensuing discussion. Additionally, the developer acknowledged that the new-player experience needs work, so it plans to adjust the progression system accordingly, building on the changes mentioned in the above patch notes so that equipment scales according to the overall lobby level. The idea is to allow new players in more experienced lobbies to catch up more quickly to the rest of the lobby by giving them equipment that somewhat levels the playing field. Balance was also an issue that was addressed, with Theorycraft confirming the development team is working on a patch to make some of the more "oppressive" characters feel less overwhelming. According to the post, there will be a larger patch in the first week of August with more changes and a new hunter.

The Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket is billed as a "casual," accessible way for people to enjoy the fun of the Pokémon Trading Card Game, regardless of where they are in the world. That said, it looks like players will also have to endure the added fun of the financial burden of the real-world Pokémon TCG if they want to be able to play the game in any serious fashion. According to one gamer's analysis posted on Reddit, however, the amount of time you'd need to invest into Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket is anything but casual, clocking in at over two years of daily gameplay to unlock your first whole set.

The method used in the analysis was based on the likelihood of obtaining a new card needed to complete a card set in one of the two daily card draws available to non-premium players. Without optimizing gameplay using features, like the Points Shop or the Wonder Pick, both of which greatly increase the odds of drawing specific cards, players would need to play consecutively for 1843 days, opening a total of 3,687. Paying for a premium pass enables opening three packs a day, however, reducing that number to 1,229 days and resulting in a total bill of $404 for that period. It's only by making full use of the Wonder Pick and Points Shop that the total play time comes down to a little under two years, at a total of 655 days (around 1,310 packs). Upgrading to the premium pass reduces this, but will run up a total of $180 but reduce the amount of time significantly.