News UK Commons recommends loot box regulation, ban in kids' games

The UK "Government"* should just introduce a blanket ban on loot boxes as in the Netherlands.

* Not sure the Tories really deserve to be referred to as the Government, at the moment.

 

Agreed, there is no way in hell that the gaming companies can limit this to "kids" games, it gives them a get out by saying "the game is 18 rated so only adults will play". It needs to be a blanket ban on all loot boxes where real money can be used.

I don't see a problem with puzzles/quests/tasks being played to win loot boxes but I am dead against real money being used to purchase anything in games other than the game itself or DLC.

 

Changing the rating of FIFA2019 from PEGI 3 to PEGI 12 or PEGI 16 would have a major impact on marketing and could significantly impact sales.
I would think parents buying their 8-12 year old kid a PEGI 12+ sports game might ask why it has this rating or skips it for something more age-appropriate.

What would be really interesting is if gambling mechanics require a PEGI 18

vs


Gaming and movies go through a lot of trouble to avoid a higher rating.
I would expect that it would exclude them from Nintendo platforms as well and many retailers.

 

If Lootboxes get rolled into existing gambling regulations as suggested then games containing them would automatically be 18 rated and almost certainly would have to have the yellow GAMBLE AWARE warning label on the front. Any account registered to an under 18 (PSN, STEAM etc) would have to block access to the game as well. If they get rolled into the Gambling Act any publisher wanting to keep them will have to register with the UK Gambling Commision too, which would mean they answer to dispute resolution and safe gambling limits too. It would be glorious.

I want it to happen just for the image of shop staff walking up and down adding warning labels to FIFA and Fortnite boxes.

 

Never bought a loot box in my life and never will, the most utterly stupid thing ever to be invented.

I've played BF1 for many many hours, still playing operations now just to get the operations battle packs and I'm still 100's of skins short of completing everything.

I still play because I enjoy it but there is no way I'm spending £1.89 for a single battle pack that I know will just give me duplicates. In the last 100 or so battle packs I reckon I've gotten 5 things I need.

Its one of the many reasons I haven't bought BFV because I'm sick to death of being ripped off, this coming from a 12 year BF veteran, they even had the cheek to offer me a veteran special price on BFV recently which was exactly the same price as it was to everyone else.

Until we all stop playing their silly games the con will continue, rant over

 

If it stopped at gambling mechanics it would do nothing, gaming is a multi billion dollar industry who can afford however many lawyers it takes to find loopholes in any legislation.

The only effective way is a total ban of any and all real money transactions in games that aren't 18 rated.

 

This is good news to my ears too, can't stand the mechanic. The only time I've ever bought any was £20 in crates for CSGO and that was because I got the game for free and had really enjoyed it so bought what I felt was an appropriate payoff. Just so happened I lucked out and got a knife, which I sold on the store and was able to trade in to get GTAV for free. Handy thing that as I basically didn't play that game beyond the first few hours.

It just encourages poor development strategies and terrible habits, it should totally be classed as gambling as it's literally no different to a slot machine.

 

This is a good start, the amount of money they invest in predatory practices goes far beyond gambling mechanics employed by casinos. This includes putting players in matches with loot box gear, the timing of loot boxes to when players are most susceptible and adjustable pricing for first purchase and later purchases in order to maximise transactions and profits.

I'm not really against selling premium cosmetics in a free-to-play game.
I don't like premium subscriptions.

That said, many practices are annoying. No confirmation when purchasing items with premium currency. Designing games around encouraging premium items. Ramping up the difficulty at a later point so that premium items are required to progress. Creating a prohibitive grind so that boosters can be sold to normalise progression.