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[Column] General: Two Recent Questions
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
What role should governments have in the online game industry? This question was brought back to mind recently by news about a bill in Singapore that may have substantial potential to impact how the free to play revenue model can operate there. I also had renewed reason to wonder about the future of World of Warcraft in our planet's largest market, China.
Read more of Richard Aihoshi's The Free Zone: Two Recent Questions.
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Comments
Richard.
Just a FYI. The "broad wording" in the Singapore legislation is not unique. In fact they stated that they had taken this language from similar laws from other countries. If you research down to the actual law, then search for the key phrases, you will find them in the laws of other countries. One such example is Australia. The new law (and its wording) are not anything of note... except as hyped by the press with a lack of undstanding of the actual meaning of the law.
Facepalm, sigh.
Short answer-- NO!
Long answer-- In the end it's all about the money.
Right, and the US should also pass a law stating that casinos should allow gamblers to win 50% of the time.
The only one getting fleeced is you... you allow yourself to be fleeced... but you need some government oversight committee to serve as your judgement for you... to protect you from yourself. What do you want, a padded room for your own protection?
People need to learn that if they spend $150 for early early early access to a game, they just gave away $150 and live with it. No one held a gun to their head. They did this of their own free will. You would have the government step in and tell them, NO, you are not allowed to spend your money that way. In fact, you have exceeded your allowable gaming time for the month and are banned from ANY server for the next 6 months.
Learn to use that little thing up in that skull... it can be mush if you let it, but if you work at it, it does make some mighty fine decisions.
I just take a simple look at how the developers have implemented the gamble boxes.
Is it to add RNG to improve the gameplay, or to simply add more cost to the player?
I have yet to see gamble boxes implemented to add more for fun for the player.
You can only expect responsibility when 1) you have accurate knowledge of the situation and 2) you have control over your actions in that situation. If a business lies to you and you base your decision on faulty information, then you're not really responsible for the result. The problem is businesses like to deceive their customers with fine print and vague language. Some businesses will go so far as to censor people who say things the business doesn't like. For example some businesses are suing people who post bad (though accurate) reviews on Yelp. Another example is how one game company required any reviewers to only say good things about the game and they had to submit anything they said about the game to the company to be reviewed and approved.
How can a person make a responsible decision with bad information? How far should a person have to go to find accurate information? Why should businesses be allowed to withhold necessary information from the consumer? That's the questions we should be asking.
Last time I looked the only legal gambling was that regulated by the government. Personally I am in favor of completely banning any game that has any form of gambling unless it is adult only. Of course that is a rather drastic view, but it should definitely be approved and overseen by someone other than the producers.
How many times do we have to read about kids draining a parent's or guardian's credit cards getting special item out of a random item box? There was just an incident this week in our area. The parent challenged the charges and the state attorney general is looking into the problem. This is a big problem and not going away.
There should be regulation on games that include RNG gambling boxes. They don't even tell you the chance of 'winning'. Not to mention what you get can never be used to get more, unlike real gambling. Any game that allows cash to be spent based on random results should be 18+.
I expect there will be differences of opinion here depending on nations - in Europe there's likely to be stronger support for regulation.
Lockboxes - Well, we haven't regulated CrackerJacks yet. Although that isn't exactly a strong argument, I tend to feel they are closer to gambling than not. I guess the definition would depend on if the prize were monetary or not. Vegas doesn't exactly hand out "minions" or "XP Upgrades" - they hand out cash.
The government should have no interest in gaming beyond the legal, and legal should only be extended to those things that threaten persons, taxes, and existing laws. I don't think lockboxes need to be regulated so long as -something- of value is obtained from within, even if its value is much less than what a 'winners' lockbox would contain. In that way it's already superior to gambling and is more like what you might find at Chuck E. Cheese, where you get tickets no matter what.
The government (read: your fellow citizens) have no business in determining anything else regarding online games, and there is enough Social Tyranny already present in the West that it behooves us to keep its presence out of yet another genre as much as we possibly can (again, present laws and actual, legitimate threats notwithstanding).
As for WoW, i can't imagine the Chinese continuing to play that game at a higher cost, but those who do are probably still more than enough to justify the publishes. So I think drop another million or so and the publisher stays the same.
My opinion is that it should be "as little as possible". I think it's going to be unavoidable that there will be fallout from things that are not directly related to playing video games, like online gambling, but I would be "strongly opposed" to legislation related directly to playing video games online.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Even peace may be purchased at too high a price, and the only time you are completely safe is when you lie in the grave.
Are the content of lockboxes known and constant? No. Then they are a form of gambling.
How much should governments intervene the online gaming industry? How much control should a government exert over a threat to public safety? Gambling leads to crimes such as theft and murder. Gambling favors the house. When the player finds himself in a hole, they can resort to theft and murder to get out of it. In this country the government is expect to control things that are a threat to public safety, be it terrorism, industrial waste, or crime.
If the strongest economy on earth(China) can’t supports its gamers’ MMO expenses then no expansion will hold gamers in this economy. I expect WoW’s numbers to jump from 6.8 mil to 8.8 mill, then drop off at 0.2 mil per back down to 6.8 and continue to fall. As more gamers continue to leave the spending population.
WoW will change publishers in China.Boy: Why can't I talk to Him?
Mom: We don't talk to Priests.
As if it could exist, without being payed for.
F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing.
Even telemarketers wouldn't think that.
It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
Those rich businessmen who got you to say that are laughing at you all the way to the bank as they avoid prison. The State protects us from enemies both foreign and Domestic. You may get a laugh out of giving aid and comfort to this counties enemies. But it wont last for ever. Eventually they will turn on you, they are this countries enemies.
Boy: Why can't I talk to Him?
Mom: We don't talk to Priests.
As if it could exist, without being payed for.
F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing.
Even telemarketers wouldn't think that.
It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
We used to discuss if a cash shop was an exploitative revenue system and against the ethos of good gameplay. Now we are discussing if gambling is alright in a MMO.
if you can't see the direction of travel by now you never will. But no matter what we say they will continue with the gambling and come up with something else down the line to rake in even more money with dubious practices. Unless players vote with their feet it does not matter, unless the law stops them it does not matter.
See you in a few years time when Richard will be asking us if it is OK to gamble with real money in a MMO, or some such.
I agree with you. Gambling plays on its addictive nature of always getting the next win, no matter what. RNG lootboxes are identical. At least with normal gambling there is regulation, and it's possible to work out the odds of winning. With these boxes it could be 0.01%, it could be artificially limited so no more than 1 a day is won, etc. It's absolutely not transparent and plays on addiction to exploit people. The fact that what you get has no material value makes it even worse in my view. The company cannot lose - if you win, the company wins, if you lose, the company wins.
Lockboxes are a form of gambling, very particular as it doesn't happen in our world, but in other man-created one, but no doubt is gambling as the excitement and the mind-numbing effect of the chance is there. One can be chained to this kind of play games and I think is not very good for mind sanity to play that way too much.
Blizzard will change their operations in China to get more revenue: i guess it will be done after a huge amount of preparation and strong marketing.
Governments shall only control gaming when it could be a problem of Public Sanity(some games could produce adictive behaviours that become problems for a society, so taking into account that big countries can face some misanthropic guys that only play games other countries must act, as they are way more little and can't take it easy... in the West MMORPG's are legislated, gambling is not allowed, but in Gambling Games that are under a strong legislation).
China will become most of the half of the WoW population or more in 2015. China Government will not legislate against this.
It is a question of fangs.
IMHO the kids that spend daddy into massive credit debt are not usually idiot 7 year old noobs. These kids buy in mass, then sell in mass the items they get on the AH. If they don't buy boxes, then they would just buy something else to sell. You don't buy enough boxes to make daddy cry if all u r doing is looking for that one item drop. These kids are playing the market and making daddy pay in RL.
Sure the boxes have the chance to have that one rare item you can get no other way, but even without the boxes.... as said... they would buy something else to sell with daddy's credit bill on the rise.
Killing the boxes will not change squat.
As said by several others. You are not rolling dice to make CASH. You are playing a game for virtual rewards.
NOW, that said. If the GAME Companies make a system to sell said items for RL CASH from Player to Player, that would have to be regulated.
Papa needs to control his own card and his little S##T brat.