NHS Wants Devs to Think of the Children as Loot Boxes Prep Kids for Gambling Addiction

I think 2K’s literal casino mechanics definitely drew attention to just how close to gambling loot boxes are. Whether it’s Fifa packs or the Star Wars debacle, it’s all just a glossy face put on insidious business practices. They’re not all that different from a Simpsons slot machine.

For most old skool gamers it was the escapism, challenge, imagination and stories you built up in your own mind which drew us into gaming as our main hobby.

Dopamine hits and psychological tricks have replaced our simple needs with stuff we never asked for and only wanted after we had our first hit. It's time to get rid.

It’s such a tricky issue. There’s ‘surprise’ mechanics in more than just games. I see it in kids toys, the little quarter toy machines at stores. Trading cards, etc.

I never thought I’d ever have an issue until I spent hundred on magic the gathering cards when I was in high school and had a job and no expenses. As an adult, I’d love to have that money back hahaha.

Personally I think the stress of a live service game is even worse. I can’t even enjoy some games anymore because it stresses me out if I can’t play it enough to fulfill the ‘seasonal event’ requirements. Games are meant to be an escape. Not an added stress if I can’t play it for 20 hours a week.

Gaming company is immoral compared to others entertainment industry, I don't think I ever see movie, books, or music company inserting gambling mechanics on their product, the law should be updated for this kind of things. The root is on free to play market on mobile.

@Stragen8 The difference between card company and gaming is card company can't use your personal information to change the games variant (like not giving you one set you really search in lootbox or matching you with people that have said items so you spend more on lootbox to get that item), and since card is physical things, you can trade or sell it if you don't get the card you want. It still suck but at least you can get some of your money back by selling the card.

@m8e3point1415 Most of parent is working, they can't watch over their kids 24 hours a day, I think gaming company shouldn't be selling gambling related games for kids, like fifa or nba. At least make them rated for M because of gambling.

@nessisonett Yeah, the only reason they're not gambling is because the law isn't equipped to tackle the digital age yet so gaming company can run around adding gambling mechanics in their games that's marketed for kids (sport games usually rated E for everyone), it's pretty evil I think

The only gambling and surprise mechanics in my gaming is console mods for Skyrim on Xbox. Only idiots buy loot boxes.

@m8e3point1415 or alternatively parents should control their credit cards...

Also agree with controlling media usage, but when my kids were young i would never let them use my credit card for crap like this.

The never ending story! Woohhooooo!!

And you know who I want to think of the children? The parents who bring a human being into the world and society under the impression that raising a child is a tamagochi game.🙄

Kids shouldn't even have ACCESS to IAPs. Account systems, parental controls and the like take care of it on most fronts but the platform currency paycards like PS Store and eShop ones, and the latter still go through the filter of respective legal guardians keeping track of the child's spendings and purch- oh, right, silly me, THAT'S the problematic part here. Too many damns required to give.

And of course, politicians (who naturally don't give a damn about children either) will continue to plough this field because it appeals to the aforesaid attitudes and generates the potential of extra votes next election. No part of this situation is about "dealing with the issues of modern game publishing" as many gamers naively believe.

Ah yes, the very lucrative business practice of exploiting children by teaching them to gamble.
How absolutely vile.

NHS Wants Devs to Think of Children as Loot Boxes Prep Kids for Gambling Addiction

I read the title like this, and so I sat there wondering what ''loot box prep kids'' were for a good minute or so.

Ah “let’s blame the parents” brigade is in.

Why does anyone actually want loot boxes and these models that mean games can have an infinite spend??? I mean why do you want to defend that? I honestly don’t understand. Sooner they ban the practise the better for all gamers.

It’s shady and lazy and leads to poorer games as people attempt to milk gamers. Also it means people are spending more money on a couple of games rather than more games which leads to production of less games.

If FIFA UT and Fortnite money went on other titles more games would be produced.

I think add on earnings on games should be capped. I’m happy for less multi year support on multiplayer games and instead more first person epics but that’s because I like them.

More games like uncharted please

@Stocksy Additionally, any game that contains loot boxes, or even micro-transactions, will also have incentives for you to buy them. Otherwise, what's the point? Be it a little more grindy, just enough to entice you to buy that XP boost, weapon skin or whatnot that would otherwise take an absurd amount of time.

@Octane Crash team racing - we are looking At you. A great great game. Ruined by the additional monetisation that created such a grind to unlock stuff. I like a little grind by some just go crazy and when I say grind I don’t mean grind I mean unlockables... they didn’t used to be a grind. More a reward for doing stuff. Not doing stuff over over and over

@nessisonett I know nice publicity a ban for a year that will make headlines.

@m8e3point1415 Yeah the bigger issue is that most kids know more things then the parents on the Phone or internet.

@JON22 As kid you never did anything wrong ofcourse and addict should know better.... 😩

@Stragen8 Pokemon cards i spend so much money on that as a kid. Soccer tradingcards where fun go too friends too trade your double cards. Good memories. 😉

@nhSnork My own parents said it best now both parents have too work most of the time. I had the luxury of a mom who worked at home thats not the case most of the time anymore. Mom and dad have work now.

Yeah, loot boxes and other "surprise mechanics" should have extra restrictions. The current model is very exploitative.

the “let’s blame the parents” brigade is either gambling addicts or dont have children of their own. because anyone with comon sense that play video games know our games would be much better without these mtx and lootboxes. there is no reason whatever to defend having this bs in our games.

I accept parental control for games like gta online and COD, where kids shouldn't be playing anyway due to the age rating but for fifa, nba et al there is no excuse. Yes this is normalising gambling tendencies in our kids and monetizing it. They should be illegal in games for under 18 yr olds. I dont particularly want them in adult games either but I'm big and bad enough to make my own decisions. Practices for FUT and other similar modes are scummy and poorly understood out of gaming circles. Legislate and get rid!

Parents should take a leaf out of my book. I control my kids media usage entirely.

For example, I don't let them make brainless comments on gaming sites blaming the parents for nefarious business practices.

So we shouldnt expect parents to be able to control what their kids are exposed to? Yeah lootboxes are very crappy and i think they should be done away with entirely, but until that day comes its up to parents to moniter what their kids are doing online.

@ellsworth004 why don't we take that line with everything then? Yeah crack dealers giving kids free samples during their lunch break is crappy but until we get around to banning that practice it's up to parents to keep their kids in line.
This whole discussion should be framed as why haven't the UK government banned this yet? In FIFA they give away free card drops to entice people to buy the ability to open more cards, whole I strongly think that parents have some responsibility- eg don't top your kids accounts up and actively explain to them what gambling is and why it's a mugs game simply being exposed to the excitement of the free drop can be enough to start rewiring a young brain to look for this kind of dopamine hit in the future.
It needs to be banned at once,it's a disgusting practice which is an incredibly bad deal for players, that's enough of a reason to dislike it. The fact it's targeted at children is plenty of reason to ban it.

@Stragen8 i have two young kids 101 things do. live service games are out window. I just play single player games and been some great ones this generation.

I appreciate the discussion on this topic. I see a lot of talk here that being against banning loot boxes and for parental responsibility is “blaming the parents”. I think that argument misses a big part of the issue. I am a parent, I think loot boxes are horrid, but I am against government banning them because I am against undue government infringement on freedom generally.

The problem is that western democracies tend to use a “think of the children” mentality to restrict a lot of freedom and to intrude on daily life and child raising responsibility. Proposed toy bans, soda bans, movie bans, happy meal bans-where does it end? It is a slippery slope I don’t like.

Of course, society can’t have a compete absence of laws to protect kids-they are vulnerable and certain restrictions on freedom are necessary across the board. It is necessary that we don’t let ten year olds buy alcohol for example-laws like that protecting the physical safety of minors should be strict and abundant.

But I draw a line when it comes to what media and ideas my kids are exposed to. I got this, without government interference. I don’t want my kids to play Fortnite or use my credit card to purchase loot boxes, so I will make sure they don’t.

I am not trying to minimize this issue-protecting our kids is a necessity, and loot box practice really is slimy. I am just wary of government involvement in something that is completely my responsibility as a parent. Freedom is a beautiful thing, but the scary flip side about a democracy is that every kid is going to be exposed to negative ideas and business practices no matter how involved their parents and support system is. The key is for that support system to instill values that allow children to react appropriately to those situations, not for governments to ban things and ideas they judge to be harmful. Because again: where does that end?

@YozenFroghurt You make a great point, and address something I didn’t in my rambling post. I don’t believe that it is the proper role of a government to be quick to ban things like this. But I do think government has a big role educating the public about what companies are doing here. Governments with resources are great at getting essential information to the public.

I would love to see governments do PSA campaigns about gaming practices to give parents the information they need to make good decisions for their kids.

Life is a Lottery................sad thing is gambling can lead to suicide.

@Westernwolf4 You have the internet now, stop leaning on the government for education.

Should shame kids into how economically stupid it is to gamble away your coins to those who are more set...

@Westernwolf4 soda bans is wierd here in Britain the Sugar (plant) in soda has been replaced with sweetners (laboratory)and they still have on the Soda can no artificial flavours right next to the scratch cards as Mommy buys religiously the weekly family Lottery.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccharin

No denying loot boxes And gotcha games prep a young mind to gamble

@Liberty____1st you ar right Sir Excellently put.

@m8e3point1415 When you will have your own kids, than you will understand that your point is bullsh*t.

@youreyesonly00

1. You know that important information can reach more people if it comes from more than one source, right?

2. You know that not every parent has easy access to the internet, right?

I never really got why players buy random loot boxes in games? Why not just charge a bit more for whatever thing it is that the player wants, instead of charging less (x however many boxes) for a 'chance' of getting it? There is no doubt that it's gambling. Not a good thing for adults let alone kids imo.

What audience is the game based for, also if it isn't for kids then it's their responsibility to track what their kids play and not the fault of the devs

If you remove the morality question and just focus on the games, it is clear that game design is being written with monetization in mind. Changing games core loop to encourage spending, investing in those modes of play have become synonymous with a wealth of big AAA games, especially in the sports genre. As gamers, we are seeing our games change to support a monetization scheme that is not reinvested back into the games we love but into profits and schemes. It is really sad.

Then of course, yes, these exploits are designed to snare those who are susceptible to them.