What kind of legislation, though? Loot boxes seem like an easy one to write: gambling is illegal already in a lot of places. When it’s just exploitative greed, I’m not sure how it’s technically so different from charging exorbitant rates for swag at a baseball game or something. Or charging a few thousand bucks for a purse at some high-end fashion retailer.
To be clear: I loathe the FOMO trends in game development, overpriced skins, micro/macro-transactions, and all the “credit/XP boosters” type bullshit. Turning money into ingame currencies to obfuscate actual prices, the general design of games frontloading fun and then squeezing dollars out of you to feel that same high again…I’m just skeptical that there’s anything to do about it from a legal perspective that doesn’t apply to most of the rest of the capitalist enterprises out there. Please though, I want to be wrong about this, so any examples of how to curb some of these excesses would be great.
(Not: stop charging money for games. Not: end subscriptions. Not: make games free. I will not be tolerating any bullshit today from people who refuse to acknowledge how “microtransactions” are the topic and the problem.)
All forms of this are just lootboxes with more steps. We all finally admit lootboxes are bullshit, right? Even the most diehard kneejerk ‘but it’s cosmetic!’ yeahbutts are quick to say some it’s not awful, like lootboxes. But they’re all just gentler ways of taking unlimited quantities of your actual money.
Nothing inside a video game should cost money.
It’s a fucking game. It’s not real.
The game itself can and should cost money - the rise of allegedly-free wallet siphons proves how lucrative that bullshit is. They don’t need your money up-front; they’ll get more from wearing you down. But the fact the same bullshit is in flagship AAA games, including some which want to charge ninety goddamn dollars up-front, and have a subscription, proves they can take you both ways, because you don’t really have a choice. This shit is in everything. It is infecting the entire medium, and making the path to maximum revenue a matter of addiction and frustration. We were never going to shop our way out of it. We have to tell the whole industry it’s simply not allowed.
Legislation can’t fix stupid. We have to let people be able to hurt themselves or we are no better than slaves. Because at that point gov is dictating every aspect of our lives. Freedom isn’t free from consequences, but it’s worth it.
‘You say this every time a product is treated like a service! Make up your mind!!!’
Most of those aren’t even different situations - they’re all blatantly about charging real money inside video games. Just like this. “Microtransactions” are intolerable bullshit, and they’re in fucking everything.
I say this a lot because IT’S IN EVERYTHING. Hello, and welcome to the point! This greedy exploitation is the dominant strategy. It sucks for everyone, customers and developers alike, because you can either become this kind of (eugh) “live service,” or make less money than the suits expect. So every genre, every price point, fuckin’ single-player games, will grow this rot, and then try to soak you for unlimited quantities of real-life currency.
This needs to stop. There is only one way that happens.
Oh and fuck anyone still going ‘yOu wAnT iT fOr FrEe!’ when what I want is for companies to SELL GAMES, AS PRODUCTS. I am the one saying Genshin Impact should cost $60 and include the whole game, at time of sale. You are the ones who want it for free.
Only legislation will fix this.
If we allow this to continue, there will be nothing else.
What kind of legislation, though? Loot boxes seem like an easy one to write: gambling is illegal already in a lot of places. When it’s just exploitative greed, I’m not sure how it’s technically so different from charging exorbitant rates for swag at a baseball game or something. Or charging a few thousand bucks for a purse at some high-end fashion retailer.
To be clear: I loathe the FOMO trends in game development, overpriced skins, micro/macro-transactions, and all the “credit/XP boosters” type bullshit. Turning money into ingame currencies to obfuscate actual prices, the general design of games frontloading fun and then squeezing dollars out of you to feel that same high again…I’m just skeptical that there’s anything to do about it from a legal perspective that doesn’t apply to most of the rest of the capitalist enterprises out there. Please though, I want to be wrong about this, so any examples of how to curb some of these excesses would be great.
Stop letting games take real money.
(Not: stop charging money for games. Not: end subscriptions. Not: make games free. I will not be tolerating any bullshit today from people who refuse to acknowledge how “microtransactions” are the topic and the problem.)
All forms of this are just lootboxes with more steps. We all finally admit lootboxes are bullshit, right? Even the most diehard kneejerk ‘but it’s cosmetic!’ yeahbutts are quick to say some it’s not awful, like lootboxes. But they’re all just gentler ways of taking unlimited quantities of your actual money.
Nothing inside a video game should cost money.
It’s a fucking game. It’s not real.
The game itself can and should cost money - the rise of allegedly-free wallet siphons proves how lucrative that bullshit is. They don’t need your money up-front; they’ll get more from wearing you down. But the fact the same bullshit is in flagship AAA games, including some which want to charge ninety goddamn dollars up-front, and have a subscription, proves they can take you both ways, because you don’t really have a choice. This shit is in everything. It is infecting the entire medium, and making the path to maximum revenue a matter of addiction and frustration. We were never going to shop our way out of it. We have to tell the whole industry it’s simply not allowed.
Legislation can’t fix stupid. We have to let people be able to hurt themselves or we are no better than slaves. Because at that point gov is dictating every aspect of our lives. Freedom isn’t free from consequences, but it’s worth it.
Victim-blaming, dehumanization, and libertarian twaddle, all in one comment. Aren’t you a winner. Shoo.
Avoids commenting on the actual issue and resorts to name-calling. You’ve convinced me!
Two of those are reasons, troll.
Victim blaming? You consider people who willingly pay for game cosmetics victims? You have a pretty low bar, huh?
You say this for everything, holy shit man.
“Only legislation will fix this” was your response to WoW charging extra for early access, to Mortal Kombat having paid fatalities, to a Disney game not being free-to-play when it leaves early access, to a translation error from a developer who does not speak English and/or the developer adding paid DLC to their $20 game, to a free mobile game having in-app purchases.
I’m really starting to think that you truly believe game developers should perform unpaid labor.
‘You say this every time a product is treated like a service! Make up your mind!!!’
Most of those aren’t even different situations - they’re all blatantly about charging real money inside video games. Just like this. “Microtransactions” are intolerable bullshit, and they’re in fucking everything.
I say this a lot because IT’S IN EVERYTHING. Hello, and welcome to the point! This greedy exploitation is the dominant strategy. It sucks for everyone, customers and developers alike, because you can either become this kind of (eugh) “live service,” or make less money than the suits expect. So every genre, every price point, fuckin’ single-player games, will grow this rot, and then try to soak you for unlimited quantities of real-life currency.
This needs to stop. There is only one way that happens.
Oh and fuck anyone still going ‘yOu wAnT iT fOr FrEe!’ when what I want is for companies to SELL GAMES, AS PRODUCTS. I am the one saying Genshin Impact should cost $60 and include the whole game, at time of sale. You are the ones who want it for free.
Wow dude, you really need a hobby.