Won't Someone Think of the Children? UK Moves to Protect Kids from Loot Boxes

Needs to happen, glad to see it starting. Hopefully happens more world-wide, because this is straight gambling and particularly in mobile games it is ruining the games.

Like with most things in this area, informed consent from adults seems like the way forward. I don’t entirely agree with the outright banning other countries have done (banning things like gambling and alcohol never ends well, literally look at the way the Mafia ran gambling rings and prohibition era moonshine) but there are some true horror stories due to the way that it’s not given the same scrutiny that traditional gambling is. That’s all it is at the end of the day, gambling with a shiny skin. The way it’s marketed to kids is the real problem here. Regulation through PEGI is all well and good but that just results in sports games having 18+ ratings, so possibly they could go the old route of adding those modes in as DLC like the PS3 days? I dunno if you can have DLC that’s a higher age rating than the base game though so someone more informed let me know.

There are already protections in place. Very robust ones. All that was required was to classify loot boxes as gambling, which they clearly are. This means absolutely nothing. Kids will get around so called technological restrictions, and probability measures will remain to decimal place levels that make them meaningless. I’m sure the industry will be delighted about this turn of events when compared to what should have been done.

Is this going to get rid of loot boxes in game or just prevent kids from accessing it?

I'm hoping they get rid of lootboxes. All these gacha and wishes stuff too. They should just let us buy with in game currency what we want, not what we might get.

Well its a start but i think that parents have to shoulder a certain amount of responsibility towards protecting their kids as well. Parental controls are there for a reason. Use them for f**ks sake.

Parents should not be putting their credit card details on any console. Use giftcards and actually monitor what their children are spending it on.

Great move. If this doesn't lead to cancelation of loot boxes they should at least tax it. About 80% tax and problem solved.

Yeah we can put on the box/download page that there are lootboxes but for years I've seem parents willfully ignore the 18+ and detailed PEGI ratings on boxes, so that feels more to cover the industry's back than protect the kids. Point 8 is a weird one. If I bought the lootbox and it's contents, is it not mine to sell? Perhaps I am misunderstanding?

That aside this seems sensible. I actually miss loot boxes now that everything is a battle pass, which feels worse to me, so I'm glad it's not just a ban. Yeah I know what's in a battle pass so I'm not taking a gamble at the contents, but now I'm bound to a FOMO grind to actually get what I paid for. A grind that is often exploited with further microtransactions to speed it up.

The scrutiny loot boxes received has definitely had a positive impact. I don't even remember the last game I played that had them or at least had them in a big way. It's good to see.

Of all the ways to try and make more money in the industry, loot boxes always felt the most icky to me so the more they go away the better.

@nessisonett I know The Evil Within had a heavily-censored CERO D release in Japan, with an uncensored CERO Z DLC being available to allow Japanese players to get an uncensored release.

Something similar can be done for lootboxes. But publishers would see an even bigger hit to their reputation if they sell you paid DLC that only gives you the ability to spend even more for lootboxes.

This law, despite being made to regulate lootboxes, may just end up killing lootboxes altogether. And I am happy with that.

Number 4 could prove interesting:

4. Disclose the presence of Loot Boxes prior to purchase

That's a really good one that may go someway in stopping developers having their games reviewed, then releasing them with tons of loot boxes and other microtransactions that may have seen their game reviewed with a lower score. I might be wrong, but I think Gran Turismo did that, but I'm sure there was a more recent example, though for the life of me, I cannot think what it was... 🤔

step 12. get parents to ... parent and take some responsibility

So my kids use my PlayStation ID because I found the kids profiles to be an absolute nightmare, so I assume PlayStation would see that as job done, an adult knows that kids are making purchases?

The disclosure of loot boxes before purchase is an interesting rule for those products that like to add them in later.

@popey1980 my kids are responsible and wouldn’t spend the money, but doesn’t mean they’ve never asked, micro transactions and loot boxes in kids games is pretty predatory.

@Ogbert battle passes to me make a game feel like a job. Soon makes them old to me.

I hope they expand this to RNG in games also. Being denied loot after you have spent an hr playing is a real time waster. Looking at you Bungie.

Any particular reason why the hotly debated topic of gambling mechanics in games has a headline based on a meme often used to exaggerate irrational concerns (as well as the term 'Big Brother' for government legislation)?

Is the topic of gambling mechanics in lootboxes not a real one?

@Rudy_Manchego It is unusually catty in reference to a topic that’s resulted in people getting into heaps of debt due to addiction.

I have worked in retail, and there's little that you can do to prevent the purchase of a game or other age rated items without proof it is for the use of a child. You can say "I heard your kid saying they want this, so I'm going to refuse the sale" but not "I think you're going to buy this for your unusually silent kid".

The onus is of course on the parents, but if you're allowing your kid to play games completely unfettered, then you are probably not going to be parenting them over gambling mechanics in the first place.

The biggest issue in a lot of this is parents link their cards in the first place to a child's account in the first place and leave them there so the child can start make impulse purchases and the touch of a button. All well and good putting these things in place but if they didn't have access to the money so easily to begin with it wouldn't be as much of an issue. Gift cards exist for a reason. Yes its not exactly good that children are constantly advertised digital stuff that unless bought then and there will be gone forever but limiting their ability to simply press by a button to buy also helps.

@nessisonett Yeah just seems out of place for the site.

As an addition, going to play the I'm a parent card but my daughter loves Fortnite and a few other games that have cosmetics etc. So are her friends. I agree with all sentiments that parents need to put up parental controls (although I do feel that for non gamer parents, the need to do so may not be apparent - when setting up a new online account it takes card details first then worries about parental control later).

My main concern is that establishment of dopamine hits in kids related to gambling mechanics. A good game gives its own hit when players do well in it. Tying those vibes to a gambling mechnanic, regardless of whether parents are paying or gift cards etc, become addictive and cause problems.

Next, get rid of them altogether to protect everyone else too 👊

@nessisonett I don’t agree with your examples of banning alcohol and gambling. Those activities went underground after prohibitions were in place because people liked those activities, and they couldn’t be easily replaced with other ones.

Loot boxes could be taken out of video games and no one would miss them for one second. There may be some streamers that make their living giving people the second-hand dopamine rush of getting an epic loot drop (after spending hundreds of dollars, that is).

But if they took loot boxes out of games and replaced them with cosmetic DLC that you could buy separately — knowing what you’re buying at a fixed cost without randomness — very few people would notice or care, and a lot of people would be quite pleased to see them go. The few “whales” out there might grumble about losing the ability to show how big their e-peen is, but for the people that are neurodivergent or have addiction issues, it would be a welcome relief.

And there would be no way to set up illegal versions of loot box mechanics, at least not in official games like FIFA or NBA2K. You’d still have Counter-Strike gambling and NFT scams (which are another subject altogether), but banning loot boxes from the major games that still use them would effectively eradicate them for good.

“Protecting the children” is great and all, but this affects more people than parents that are dumb enough to link their credit card to their child’s account. The aforementioned mental health issues need to be considered as well.

@Impossibilium You’re being naive if you think that nobody would miss lootboxes considering that FIFA Ultimate Team is one of the most popular modes in video game history. It entirely relies on the trading card based system, the mode would have to be cut completely. It’s true that there’s no way to create an underground equivalent of these games but they’re already creating NFT fantasy football things that are very similar and marketed the same flashy way, which would be easy enough to target the same market. Besides, going cold turkey doesn’t always work and strangling the lootbox problem slowly would ease the addicts off instead of cutting their dopamine supply off at the source.

@nessisonett All fair points. I do admit to having a bit of naïveté. Comes with my autism 😉. You’re right that there would be people that miss Ultimate Team if was removed altogether.

But I believe they could keep a mode like Ultimate Team if you paid for the loot boxes with in-game currency. That would keep the thrill of getting a random pull without fleecing their audience.

But I also know that EA and 2K would probably not develop those modes if they couldn’t make more money from it. The modes were only invented to gather infinite revenue by bringing the physical card collecting model to video games, by getting people to overspend using psychological manipulation.

But I also don’t think losing Ultimate Team would cut into the sales of those games. The games would still be profitable, based on initial sales alone. Loot box mechanics are pure corporate greed, taking free-to-play mobile game monetization strategies and putting them into a full-price games.

The “marks” of scam artists don’t always realize that they’re marks. It’s not an excuse to keep the scam going because a lot of people have fallen for it. Victims of psychological manipulation deserve better than to let these monetization methods stay the way they are.

@nessisonett Full ban as fast as possible im sick and tired of the amount of gambling rammed through your throat with sports and games. It's also quite shocking how much trouble people get into because of this nonsense. And add the real percentages of getting something good in there like the real ones.