U.S. Senator Josh Hawley introduces bill to ban loot boxes and pay-to-win microtransactions

Few pointers;

1. Don't link your credit card to your child's gaming account.
2. Teach your children self control.

I said "according to your own logic" (that we should stop "blaming everyone else except for the person"), we should stop blaming the parents and only blame the child. When someone says "according to your own logic", it doesn't mean that's what you actually said, but it means that's the logical conclusion of your argument. Learn to read. The point is that children are influenced by a number of things, not just the parents, but also school, friends, family, and yes, predatory business practices. Yet, for some irrational reason, you choose to single-out the parents and ignore all the other influences.

Venezuela? Are you having a laugh? If comparing America to a third-world country is the best you can do, then that's just weak. Most actual first-world countries have gun restrictions. And guess what? Virtually every first-world country has lower rates of violence than America. Clearly because gun restrictions work. But that's an entirely different topic (in response to your "blame the parents" nonsense).

The point still stands that loot boxes are predatory business practices designed to manipulate, brainwash and entice children into giving extortionate amounts of money to "big corporation". And you clearly have no counter-argument against that, hence why you keep resorting to whataboutism, in an attempt to divert the discussion away from the actual topic itself (loot boxes) towards an entirely different topic (e.g. "blame the parents").

P.S. I don't pay for loot-boxes or micro-transactions. But I'm sure a "big corporation" shill such as yourself does.

Because it is easy to see that parents most of the time are to blame for what their kids are doing. It is pretty damn easy to figure it out. We have an alarming amount of divorce in our country and split families. It is pretty damn obvious this is having an effect on our children today. We also have a record amount of both parents having to work to make ends meet and not paying attention to what their kids are doing at home.

Just because Venezuela is a third world country means absolutely nothing. It shows what happens when government has all the guns and the population has been disarmed. This is why we have a second amendment. Get over it! BTW London which has not guns has a knife issue and it is already becoming more violent then NY city. Guess what now they are looking into taking those away now. ROFL!

We are the reason loot boxes are popular period. That is all the counter argument I need. As the consumer we can easily fix this practice by not purchasing them and not supporting games that have them. We don't need the government to help with this, but since you are from Europe you love the government coming in and saving the day. Hell you want the government to be your parent which is so cute.

P.S. BTW **** boy I don't buy loot boxes and don't support them, but I see no issue with the practice. I don't want government snooping into gaming period. We all control the ability to get rid of loot boxes by not purchasing them. Hell as gamers we have already destroyed some games that support it and the industry is already taking notice.

This place is filled with corporate shills.

This place is filled with corporate shills.

And crybaby millennials that need somebody else to do everything for them. I know life choices are hard, but the government making all of your decisions for you is a little extreme...

Says the bootlicker. Bend over for your ideological superiors.

@calvincfb: A guy laughing at you.

Please engage me.

The point is that it's irrational to single-out a single factor and ignore all the other factors. Bad parenting is part of the equation, not the entire equation. And that's a side-issue, not the main issue, the fact that loot boxes are being targeted towards children. To keep blaming the parents for everything just comes across as whataboutism, to divert attention away from the actual topic.

That's not true. London only surpassed NYC's crime rates for a single month last year, due to a lack of government funding for police and community services. For every other month of the year, NYC had higher crime rates than London. And when comparing entire nations, the UK and virtually every other Western European country has lower crime rates than the US.

You keep ignoring the fact that loot boxes are being targeted towards children. What adults do with loot boxes is entirely their own business. But when you have loot boxes being targeted towards children, that's a whole different issue.

I don't see an issue with loot boxes either from a business point of view. But I also don't have an issue with people being concerned about the morality of loot boxes, and the harmful effects it can have on children. That's a discussion that needs to be had.

And crybaby millennials that need somebody else to do everything for them. I know life choices are hard, but the government making all of your decisions for you is a little extreme...

We will never agree about gun control so I am not saying anything else. You like the government controlling your life so not much else to say on the topic.

Exactly my point and the parents should be watching what their kids are doing period. Also saying no does not hurt a child. If parents dont like the game don't let your children play those games. It really is not that hard. Again for whatever reason you don't like taking responsibility for the actions you take. You just like the government to control it and point the blame to someone else.

P.S. I believe in a free market and you believe in a governmental babysitter that rules your life. Nothing really more to say to you.

Just like how you guys dislike "big government" on your side of the pond, many of us on the other side of the pond dislike "big corporation", which can often be worse than "big government".

Again, I don't have anything personal against loot-boxes. That doesn't change the fact that many find it fundamentally immoral and harmful for big corporations to be targeting young children with loot boxes. The parents are irrelevant.

But sure, we can just agree to disagree. There's no point continuing this debate any further.

Anyone trying to draw an equivalence between coin-op toy machines and lootboxes is seriously next level unobservant. There is a qualitative difference between a button that you push in the comfort of your home for a digital product that costs multiple times the amount of a quarter on demand at digitally-manipulated reward rates, vs a quarter in a machine that is visited when their parents are at the grocery store with them. Don't be foolish.

Technology evolves, and culture is based on that level of technological advancement or the relationship between people and how things are made (and how it is distributed, e.g. digitally distributed content). The discussion must be had.

Smoke the crooks out. Adults can maybe be held accountable for their interactions with these systems. (IMO it's only a matter of time though, when we can no longer claim that.) They are marketing to kids and are using 10 times the amount of psychological tricks that are used to sell those Magic booster packs and Kinder Surprise eggs not to mention the amount of backdoor control they have over the user and their gambling results. IMO they go way too far, crossing at least a dozen ethical lines I'd draw.

We're talking for instance:

• Individual deals/pricing based on user profiling.
• Gambling results manipulated based on user profiling. Therefore no disclosed odds.
• Tons of temporary deals to push people into making bad decisions.
• Calculated levels of frustration by making things 'hard enough' to earn for free.
• Free samplings to get the user into the habit of being an addict.
• A fake currency to take away the initial hesitation of spending real money, even though you are spending real money.
• Bad conversion rates on the fake currency so that you have already invested some money that you'd lose, if you don't buy any gambling boxes with it.
• Integration into another game that people may want to play without interacting with gambling with money.
• Constant exposure to other players who show off their earnings even to those who do not want to participate in gambling.
• The inability to trade (for) the gambling earnings, or otherwise realistically circumvent the gambling to get to the goods.
• The loss of all of its value once the game is done with.

I find that comparing loot boxes (as they are typically implemented into games) to things like physical trading cards, to be like comparing an average shopkeeper trying to get you to do something, to an expert field agent trained to manipulate you to get you to do something. There is such an incredible difference in product control/user control/direct feedback/ease of access/level of funding, expertise and data behind the manipulation effort. It's on a whole different level, IMO.