Hey nice, finally regulating gambling for children
EU lawmakers to study ban 'loot boxes' and other addictive features in video games
Submitted 6 hours ago by Valiane@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
https://www.euractiv.com/news/hard-to-hit-pause-excessive-gaming-lands-on-the-eus-radar/
Comments
Zwiebel@feddit.org 5 hours ago
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Lootboxes are sooo 2010s though. It‘s all about season passes and general FOMO. I doubt they will correctly identify and properly regulate „addictive features“ in a way that puts an end to that but I guess we‘ll see.
TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
my nephews are all about the limited edition skins
wuffah@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
I’m of the strong opinion that we control the media that we are exposed to and that the resolution for problematic or undesirable media is to simply turn it off.
However: advertising, LLM’s, social media, and the Internet have forced me to capitulate that certain forms of media constitute a legitimate memetic hazard, and are capable of fueling addiction, misinformation, and general misery in large enough scales. I hate this conclusion because while I still heavily err on the side of media liberty and self-control, I cannot square that value with the reality of poisonous, hostile media.
We should not be subjected to predatory practices to enjoy the products, services, and entertainment that we depend on, and that are part of our shared experience and culture. Loot boxes, advertising, and financial scams are near universal in popular gaming products, and even software in general. To me, this eventually constitutes a monopolistic behavior that becomes reasonably unavoidable and must be regulated.
RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
To be fair, much of the memetic hazard posed by various technologies is not actually the fault of the technologies, but a fault of the person having no self-control, no accountability for their own actions, or having some form of undiagnosed medical issue they are unaware of.
Its like saying video games cause school shootings: the problem isnt the video games, its the person. The video games are an excuse to shift blame and accountability away from the person.
msokiovt@lemmy.today 5 hours ago
They won’t do it, and here’s why: AAA will lobby for the continuation because it will hurt their bottom line of that gets banned. They love to implement dark patterns galore, and modern games will certainly do that.
Don’t be surprised if this fails, as it will likely be more consumerism, considering the fact that the USD and bond bubble just burst recently.
Cruxifux@feddit.nl 5 hours ago
Loot boxes and microtransactions made me hate playing videogames.
Feyd@programming.dev 5 hours ago
Even the benign psychological manipulation away from just starting a game and enjoying it that is achievements is annoying
Deathray5@lemmynsfw.com 3 hours ago
The EU is one of the few institutions that will stand up to large companies. Not quickly and not enough but they have
Kirp123@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Some European countries have banned them already. Belgium and the Netherlands as an example.
SleeplessCityLights@programming.dev 4 hours ago
There are still loot boxes in Belgium, they just work differently. You get to see what is inside before you start the transaction, allowing a person to only open the ones with contents they want.
msokiovt@lemmy.today 4 hours ago
That’s good news, but will the EU make it law for the entirety of it? I’d say no, but this is for sure promising. Us Americans need to get clocked for our dark pattern usage.
southernwolf@pawb.social 1 hour ago
Watch the end result be you can’t find random chests in Minecraft dungeons or Terraria caves cause it falls under the category of “lootbox” in games…
(May seem hyperbolic, but we are talking about 70 year old boomers trying to make regulations for video games. I’m not sure I have the most positive view of the potential outcome)