Make it so that gambling leads to a higher age rating for the game, and then let parents manage that the same way they would violence or language in a game. I think (hope) this would lead to a huge drop in lootboxes, rather than changes to ratings, but either way works for me.
Comment on Steam :: About the New York Attorney General lawsuit against Valve
PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Honest question I’m curious to hear peoples opinions on: Gambling is obviously dangerous, and I think we can all agree that exposing kids to it easly is bad. At the same time, for any form of virtual gambling, how do you ensure that kids can’t access it without putting a significant limit on adults’ freedoms? Like, Lemmy is very pro-privacy, but would this be a case where the (few) merits of ID based verification would be justified, or should we be just be banning all gambling outside of designated casinos, or…
ajoebyanyothername@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 day ago
“Gambling” is one of the tags the ESRB labels games with already. A higher letter rating won’t really help when parents aren’t parenting and don’t pay any attention to what their kids are doing. Hella little kids are already in most M rated games, squeaking out racial slurs over the mic.
ajoebyanyothername@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I guess what I meant, but didn’t go as far as saying, is that lootboxes should be categorised as gambling, as they currently show up in games like Fifa, rated for children, which parents likely wouldn’t think twice about until they see their next credit card statement.
Ultimately parents need to do more to safeguard their kids, but the sneaky and insidious way lootboxes are used makes it significantly harder, and I would argue goes beyond what the average parent would reasonably be able to look out for.
Gathorall@lemmy.world 1 day ago
There’s only so much to do about bad parenting. But all gambling games like this aren’t 18+ like they should be so parents aren’t getting an accurate representation of risks they take bending the rules, if they even are.
Goretantath@lemmy.world 1 day ago
We need punishments for parents neglecting their kids like this, letting them gamble and play things rated above their age rating is not good parenting.
ajoebyanyothername@lemmy.world 1 day ago
But part of the problem is that they’re not above the age rating, often things like Fifa are rated as suitable for children. And ultimately, the ratings are guidance, they’re not rules or law. There should definitely be a push for parents to actually look into it properly though, I do think that’s a big part of the issue, and leads to legislation such as age verification, which just makes things more difficult for everyone.
PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
I mean, currently Counter Strike already has (had?) an ESRB M rating, as did TF2. Dota isn’t rated, but would clearly also be M, given abilites like Rupture. Do you think we just need to reduce the normalization of it?
ajoebyanyothername@lemmy.world 1 day ago
But how many children are playing those games and buying lootboxes without their parents’ knowledge?
I am absolutely in favour of less lootboxes in games though. They are an unfortunate natural progression of microtransactions, and the fact that they make so much money means they’re unlikely to go anywhere without any systemic measures being put in place.
I_Jedi@lemmy.today 1 day ago
Oh, that’s easy. Find some kids who gambled and make an example out of them on national TV. Problem solved!
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I don’t really partake, so I’m always hesitant to have a really firm line in the sand, but we’ve seen a ton of harm come from the constant access to gambling that we’ve got now via sports betting that we didn’t have before deregulation in the wake of Draft Kings, so I’m inclined to lean toward it only being in designated locations. The problem here is similar in that you can access it everywhere and definitely exacerbated by not even doing the bare minimum amount of countermeasures against underage gambling, because they want to pretend that it isn’t gambling.