I understood your point, I just don’t agree. There’s a fundamental difference in how it psychologically affects people, and your insistence that lootboxes aren’t that bad kinda just lends credence to my point.

Let’s not pretend either of us has any influence at all over what becomes law. Our stupid debate will certainly never affect a damn thing regardless. If I was writing laws, it’d be a very different place and general and I’m sure you wouldn’t like most of my ideas. I can complain all I want, nobody is listening anyway.

Regardless, I’ve enjoyed the spirited debate and you’re certainly entitled to your opinion!

Random distribution in a game is fine, the problem is entirely being able to use cash to get them. The solution is very simple, as you’ve pointed out, hundreds of games have already figured out less predatory ways to add content and keep a game alive.

The cash for randomization is fundamentally what makes it so insidious. Everything you’ve mentioned is wildly preferable to paid mystery bullshit. Seasonal outfits, battle passes, whatever. If you know what you’re getting before you choose to buy it, that’s your choice.

The part you can’t quite get is the outright advantage that loot boxes will sometimes give people decent stuff without having to grind, which all the current alternatives don’t do. I’d take randomized tables over mandatory grind any day, but I certainly don’t want to ban either.

This is the most Stockholm Syndrome shit I’ve seen on here. You do realize that the grind only exists to push people into buying the bullshit right? Games should be fun to play, with rewards coming regularly from normal play. If you’re ‘grinding’ through a mess of bullshit to avoid paying, or if you’re paying to skip the grind, then why are you bothering to play a game you don’t actually like playing? A little grind is understandable and fun, I’m looking forward to a little boss farming in BL4 later tonight. But that’s the fun part of the game, playing it and hoping to get something good.

It’s definitely appropriate that every other item on your list is illegal for minors in almost every country on earth. If I thought we could reasonably keep ‘blind boxes’ an adult indulgence I wouldn’t be opposed. But they are so deeply tied to children’s toys, I don’t think you could ever have them available for adults in a form that isn’t just begging for children to figure out ways to buy them anyway. It’d be incredibly hard to justify banning them only for children, especially on the admittedly abstract basis of psychological harm.

Setting aside that, I believe they should be fully illegal simply on a consumer protection basis. A business should not be allowed to sell a mystery product. There’s no justification for it IMO. There is no reason we should allow businesses to sell us useless bullshit and hope we get something we actually want. You can still have MTG, you can still have mobile games. But let people buy the shit they want, or don’t. If the business model can’t work, somebody else will figure it out.

But of course, there’s no fucking chance of that happening here in the US, so I keep hoping somebody else will tackle it (though Brazil’s attempt here wildly misses the bar unfortunately).

Gambling is at least ok in my book because it’s only legal for adults and in specific, regulated locations. It’s still fucking idiotic behavior to engage in, but whatever, adults can waste their money, I don’t really care. It’s easy to avoid unless you live in Vegas.

I’m sure I’ll alienate most of the user base here, but anything that involves turning money into ‘pulls’ should be illegal for minors, and honestly probably just entirely. Magic, Pokemon cards, blind boxes, the stupid Lego minifigs I love to collect. Ban all of it, it’s bad for our psyche, it’s wasteful, it’s anti-consumer bullshit that should never be allowed. If you can’t make money selling your product directly, then you don’t deserve to run a business.

You’re right though, the gambling analogy perfect. I doubt paid loot boxes are significantly worse than letting children gamble. But still, there’s a reason we don’t let children gamble, and loot boxes certainly aren’t any better.

Gambling involves the opportunity to win something that actually exists. The fundamental issue with loot boxes is your gambling for code that can’t be sold, traded, or preserved past the lifetime of the game.

It’s a disgusting practice that preys upon people’s psychological reward centers and has been normalized by our obsessive consumption. It should absolutely be illegal.

The only delusional one here is you. Yell all you want angry boy, it doesn’t change reality.

Are there really people playing VR stuff regularly? I only know 2 people in my circles that bought equipment for it, and both of them got sick of it after a couple weeks.

I don’t know, what I’ve tried was fun for about 10 minutes, but that’s about all I could take before the headache starts.