Petition to make ESRB declare lootboxes as gambling

Will force ESRB to rate any game with loot boxes AO.

change.org/p/entertainment-software-rating-board-esrb-make-esrb-declare-lootboxes-as-gambling

This is your civic duty to save vidya.

>hey guyse, let's complain so much about it and make the government regulament lootboxes, what could go wrong?!

>ESRB
>government

How retarded can you be?

I honestly hope contrarian shitposters all die.

>implying the gambling authority wont chime in once ESRB declare lootboxes as gambling

Should they not?
Is it not gambling?

hello reddo

I'd agree if there was a clause. If you disclose lootbox acquisition rates per item, it's fair game. If you refuse to disclose this information, it's public gambling.

Meant for

The ESRB is a joke.

>Someone disagrees with what I said
>He must be a contrarian
Remove yourself from the gene-pool

How is a lootbox gambling? This is sooo stupid

spend money for a random product
china requires chances to receive items to be published, i think

ESRB lists them as gambling. Government has laws to abide by in regards to gambling. Is it that hard to understand?

Hello shill.

>it's perfectly OK if I tell you your low gambling jackpot chances. I am disclosing that you do not have a high chance of the jackpot you want so feed our system which in itself is corrupt.

Wow. Here's a crazy idea, why don't you guys gee idk...vote with your wallets?
>b-b-b-but we're too dumb! we need the government to regulate our poor impulse control!
Not an argument.

>spending money on a lootbox

You've got me wrong here. When people see that their odds of getting that epic Witch Mercy skin is only 0.00028%, they are going to be significantly less inclined to go out and spend money on these shitboxes, mostly because they are paying for a pathetically low chance at timelocked items. This would either encourage devs to stop being absolute kikes and filling their boxes with trash so that the odds are reasonable, or they would simply lose out on sales in entirety. I hate the state they are in right now, and this is my pseudo-solution.

Because of whales, small subset of people who spend fuckloads in microtransactions. These are the people video games with stuff like loot boxes target, not average people who "vote with their wallet"

That's not gambling retard. You still receive a product, even if it's not what you wanted.

I still don't understand why Overwatch skins were blocked behind RNG/gacha shit. If it was a free cellphone game I would understand, but I paid 40$ for the game. Why lock skins like that?

It doesn't help that blizzard keeps passing skins as 'new content' and players keep eating that shit up.

>Why lock skins like that?
it cost a lot of money to deal with all the community toxicity :'(((((((((((

No, that's retarded
What should be AO is games with ingame microtransactions

It's gambling and it's exploitative but after all i benefit from it, there would be fewer games if no one could milk the whales

>ESRB lists them as gambling.
So? ESRB is not a government agency. The ESRB's opinion of what is or isn't gambling is has the exact same legal signifigance of what Sup Forums thinks is or isn't gambling.

it's gambling for the same reason it's gambling if you make a slot machine with 95% chance of giving a dave and busters brand pencil grip

For almost a decade EAs been doing this with FIFA... and not a god damn word. Now because it's your precious Star Wars, every little cry baby turd is coming out of the woodwork bitching about how immoral it is. And this is nothing compared to FIFA.

40 hours to get the most desired thing in the game or else pay? Try over 1000 hours. You literally only care because you wanted something to be your way and you didn't get it. If not, you would have seen the writing on the wall back in 08.

With that said, all the things anons are saying to do on here have been tried multiple times with Fifa. Including this gambling. Whether you like it or not, when you select purchase on the loot crate, you're agreeing that even the least desirable reward is worth the price. They are not required to give you anything better. By legal definition it is not gambling. They've made this clear on their Fifa forums. I've heard of lawsuits over there too, but never seen any evidence.

Long and short of it is simple. Like everyone is saying you need to vote with your wallet. But no-one will.

Yeah but those don't exist faggot. Jesus Christ, how old is the average Sup Forums user?

>lootboxes
>gambling
Retard

>wanting the government involved in videogames
you just want to cuck yourself and everyone else

You cant win money from a lootbox, mods please close this stupid and gay thread

read it again

But that's not gambling either. They literally have these at Dave and Busters. You put your buck in and spin the wheel. Because they give you something on every spin, even if it's 5 tickets, you're still getting something.

You can't even make a profit with the skins with overwatch
How is it gambling

>Gambling is the wagering of money or something of value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning money or material goods. Gambling thus requires three elements be present: consideration, chance and prize.
There is no money to be made and digital cosmetics are not material goods.

Appealing to the ESRB is reasonable. Appealing to the government is not.

Didn't the ESRB already say they don't think it's gambling, though?

You're wrong.

You've always been wrong.

Stop shitposting. Get your political shit OUT of video games.

>change.org

Because it makes them a lot of money.

CSGO and Killing Floor 2 crates give you shit that you can sell on the steam marketplace
>durr store credit isn't the same as money
Fuck off

but if they did exist, everyone would recognize it as gambling (perhaps the law would not, but you can change the laws). loot boxes are just like them, but loot boxes exist

>physical good with real life value
>can trade, resell, whatever the fuck
>odds are disclosed and put on every pack
>can easily just buy singles of what you want
>can easily make proxies with chinkshit that 99% of the time will pass for the real thing
>versus
>virtual good with no value outside of garbage currency used to buy more virtual goods
>no odds disclosed anywhere
>buying what you actually want requires you to buy dozens and dozens of boxes to get currency to get what you actually want

the skins have value as evidenced by the fact that people want them, in fact they even sell them online sometimes

It's not.

>old laws are archaic and don't think about future innovations
Wow why wouldn't they tell the future when making laws what the fuck?!

Also technically doesn't that make lootboxes worse than gambling?

"The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is an American self-regulatory organization that assigns age and content ratings to consumer video games. The ESRB was established in 1994 by the Entertainment Software Association (formerly the Interactive Digital Software Association)"

"The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is the trade association of the video game industry in the United States...Most of the top publishers in the gaming world (or their American subsidiaries) are members of ESA, including Capcom, Electronic Arts, Konami, Microsoft, Bandai Namco Entertainment, Nintendo, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Square Enix, Take-Two Interactive, Ubisoft and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment."

So your solution is to petition an organization run by the very publishers who are creating these games?

>virtual goods with no value

How is it possibly gambling then? Gambling is wagering money for a return of equal or potentially higher value.

There's basically two sides to this: either the contents of the lootboxes have value, in which case they're not gambling just as card packs and blind bags aren't, or the contents have no value, in which case they don't fit the definition of gambling at all.

You can sell them for cash on g2a

user don’t waste anime pics on a pile of dull bricks for a head like him. Just because he got out of special ed his freshman year of highschool he doesn’t think he’s stupid anymore.

card packs and blind bags are gambling (conceptually if not legally)

The ESRB was created to prevent government from sticking its nose into regulation over "video game violence." Literally the only thing that will move the ESRB to act on this is for to a legitimate threat of gov regulation.

>vote with your wallet
>some whale votes for you instead
Yeah that's pretty fair. I see where you're going with this.

He meant vote with mummies wallet.

Or how we vote with our voices as well as our wallets?

Where the fuck in your "muh free market" manifesto does it say that consumers are supposed to either buy something or not, and shut the fuck up about it?

The law works on precedents. If no regulation has been brought into these things, there's no reason to start now.

blind bags and trading cards are legally obligated to disclose their odds, you moron

Loot crates for cosmetics are fun though. Stop bitching about everything.

>Loot crates for cosmetics are fun though.
t. plays games for the goyboxes and not the gameplay

You're the cancer killing this industry, kindly find another hobby to ruin.

unless you think the regulation will promote general welfare of course, the real point ive been winding up to though is that gambling should be legal

I want the rice hat in rising storm 2 but that requires level 99 :(

It literally made them hundreds of millions. That's why. TF2 was the testing ground Overwatch was a calculated strategy that worked like a charm.

you are the joke

The ESRB is owned by the ESA, you retards. Until a first-world country (Europoor doesn't count, just look at all that legal stuff with Steam and consumer's rights that took forever to happen) makes an official ruling on this they literally have zero incentive to regulate lootboxes.

Why the fuck would you side with the companies that do this stuff, what do you gain? Honestly? I could understand if lootbox money was being used to make the next game in the franchise or whatever better, but the next year they take their earnings, add a few maps, some new guns at best, and sometimes even take away content and put out the same fucking game. In what world would you not side with people actually trying to do something?

You sound like the type of faggot that calls people fat lazy nerds that do nothing but bitch on Sup Forums, then when they try to do something you talk shit anyway. Kys my man.

People who like video games probably don't play FIFA. Now that it's garnered public attention it's the exact moment to bitch, moan, and push for this shit. Not because it's fucking Star Wars.

>you get a good feeling for trying, that's something
>it's not gambling, it's buying that feel of excitement sir

>petitions

Well at least in siege its pretty harmless. You dont pay money to open them. Im not sure how other games work but csgo lets you sell them to save money to open. Nobody is forcing you to pay for them.

There's a few problems with that.
You're assuming that a majority of gamers buy lootboxes when in fact that it's just a few people buying hundreds of dollars worth of lootcrates for whatever reason.
The other issues is, these gamers would have to move to some other transactions for these lootcrates transactions to become obsolete.

It's called learned helplessness, simply put it happens when an organism just gives up and accepts a shitty situation as the norm.

I'm tired of lootboxes allowing a percentage of players to provide a continuing source of income.
All players should have to pay.
Subscriptions for everybody.

>hundreds
Try thousands.

>Vote with my wall and don't buy lootboxes
>They end up in my game anyway
This actually happened. Time for government to step in.

I can see maybe thousand dollars.
But who is the fuck face that has enough money for that and still afford food?

LMAO FUCKING OVERWATCH
LETS DO IT

>type casino in google images
>see this
what the fuck
am I gambling for my image results now?

We do fucking pay. It's called buying the game dumbass. It's also cheaper than ever to make games especially ones with pre-built systems like Battlefield.

Where do you think that lootbox money is going? To make the next game or improve on it? I seriously hope you're not that stupid.

You're conflating the concept of a blind purchase with the regulated act of betting and/or games of chance. Just like with trading cards the devs state that the value of the contents is equal to the MSRP and any perceived value beyond that is subjective and driven by the community.

Your internet it shit, that's just placeholder for when it's loading the actual thumbnails.

It's loading. Stop being Australian.

You have IQ of nigger

no no, it loads them, THEN covers them up
I'm not joking, I got a very fast internet connection

Rich people, popular streamers. Stream yourself opening boxes, get a surge of viewers and get more money from donations for even more boxes.

the money is used to make other games though (albeit perhaps inefficiently). the whales are the group being exploited, and the beneficiaries are the non-whales (to the extent that the lootbox money goes into making games), the people who own the game companies (to the extent that lootboxes increase the bottom-line profit margin), and the people who work at the game companies (to the extent that their companies may now be more willing to let them sit on their ass while the easy money rolls in - cf. valve, or at least that's how it seems from the outside)

Or we could just play the games, and never ever hover over the option.

this constitutes gambling according to stupid fucking nerds throwing fits on the internet

Oh also idiots with really good job. I know a doctor that constantly just cashes in shitty MMOs. Then complains when he doesn't have any money for anything.

This is a legitimate industry wide issue, stop trying to downplay people's concerns because you think it's cringe or w/e.

This could have a funny side effect of publishers suddenly being okay with AO games.

It's never "pretty harmless" because it's literally the worst method of unlocking cosmetics that's yet been invented. You're just refusing to turn a critical eye to anything related to goyboxes, from game design to its exploitative nature.

there is no difference between "perceived value" and actual value; trading card manufacturers cannot enforce their price controls
it is gambling

>the money is used to make other games though (albeit perhaps inefficiently)
No, the money goes straight into the shareholders' pockets. All the biggest franchises, from CoD to Overwatch, are already massively profitable without lootboxes, and the net increase in budget after lootboxes were introduced is 0.

Here's proof.
I don't know why it happens, but it isn't my internet speeds fault.
Censorship? I don't know.

Yes in Japan, it's it

Small companies that run F2P games need MTX sales to sustain themselves. Big corporate machines like Activision-Blizzard and EA just use MTX sales to boost profits to jerk off their shareholders.

Basically all the common-sense ideas about capitalism and more profit = better products falls apart once a company goes public.

Lootboxes are shit but calling them gambling is fucking retarded

who fuckin' cares about japan?

I'm sure that money goes all over the fucking place.
Marketing, salaries, servers, development of new games, new content for existing games, some crazy plan to make a league, marketing, some assholes unnecessarily large bonus.

The cost of games today is stupidly low, so if you want a one-time expense for a game with continued content support, I don't know what to tell you.

So a arcade version of a slot machine?

You must be 18 to post here faggot