2d ago

Brazil's president has signed a ban on selling loot boxes to minors as part of a larger online child safety law

www.pcgamer.com

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/49748743

The loot box ban will go into effect in March.

Gaming @lemmy.zip

BrikoX @lemmy.zip

2d ago

Brazil's president has signed a ban on selling loot boxes to minors as part of a larger online child safety law

www.pcgamer.com /gaming-industry/brazils-president-has-signed-a-ban-on-selling-loot-boxes-to-minors-as-part-of-a-larger-online-child-safety-law/

29 comments

For once something done "in the name of child safety" that i can get behind, since it actually aims at protecting children and isn't just a disguise to achieve a different goal.
Brazil wants to protect the children so they ban online gambling for them. I wonder how Brazil will verify identities to sell loot boxes to adults.
U.S wants to protect the children so they scan and read chat messages of every citizen. Great.
Uuh i hope this won't backfire into a "leftists are trying to take our fun away" drama. Like, that's literally what happens in Germany a lot. Greens (center-left) want to outlaw selling combustion engine cars from 2035, lots of people say "boohoo they're ruining our way of life".
I think it would be better to make as little as possible rules for the individual people, because after all, if it helps, nobody thanks you, but if it hurts, you're going to make a lot of enemies.
Better focus on the big things. (economy, geopolitics)
edit: but yes also lootboxes are gambling and should be disencouraged.
Lootboxes require a gambling license in my country. Because it's fucking gambling.
- Do pokemon cards require a gambling license?
  
  They should, and I'm not even joking.
Looking into this it seems that lootboxes aren't banned in the sense that would benefit the industry and players as a whole and will instead incentivize game developers and platforms to create age verification systems.
Brazil had the chance to outright ban lootboxes full stop and the fact that they didn't take it is really disappointing.
- Lootboxes arent even the problem they used to be because developers have realised people will just pay $30 straight up for 1 skin anyway. On top of a subscription disguised as a battlepass, they dont need lootboxes anymore.
- Even if you took the hardcore view that loot boxes are outright gambling, gambling isn't illegal for adults. Why would loot boxes be treated more stringently than online casinos, even in your scenario?
  Also, it doesn't incentivize age verification systems, age verification systems are now mandatory. They are needed to be able to sell any games marketed at adults, including porn games, games with loot boxes and presumably any other game with an 18 and up rating by their official ratings board.
  The loot box panic has mostly been another variant of the "will someone thing of the children" violence panic of the 90s. Just like then, age ratings and parental controls should have been the solution, but because gamers were too busy being angry and self righteous online they went with it to this point.
  
  From what I tracked in one game the odds were wrong, so it goes against legal gambling laws where even if it is electronic it has to have payout odds that match the presented method. I.e. if its 5 cards, odd should be 1:5 in flipping the reward card. But some games it could be double or quadruple that.
Selling loot boxes to miners is still ok, right?
- Only miners of age. Miners who are minors are banned.
  
  Societies with minor miners^† have bigger problems than lootboxes tbh
  † IRL, not Minecraft players.
  
  I see what you did there
Lootboxes as currently used in Overwatch 2 is fine. You simply get them for playing. And that's that.
- That means they're not "sold"
  Semantics make a difference

29 comments