this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2024
135 points (97.2% liked)

Games

16390 readers
1203 users here now

Video game news oriented community. No NanoUFO is not a bot :)

Posts.

  1. News oriented content (general reviews, previews or retrospectives allowed).
  2. Broad discussion posts (preferably not only about a specific game).
  3. No humor/memes etc..
  4. No affiliate links
  5. No advertising.
  6. No clickbait, editorialized, sensational titles. State the game in question in the title. No all caps.
  7. No self promotion.
  8. No duplicate posts, newer post will be deleted unless there is more discussion in one of the posts.
  9. No politics.

Comments.

  1. No personal attacks.
  2. Obey instance rules.
  3. No low effort comments(one or two words, emoji etc..)
  4. Please use spoiler tags for spoilers.

My goal is just to have a community where people can go and see what new game news is out for the day and comment on it.

Other communities:

Beehaw.org gaming

Lemmy.ml gaming

lemmy.ca pcgaming

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] sylver_dragon -3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This all sounds a lot like the moral panic around alcohol, which led to Prohibition in the 1920's. And that turned out so well...for organized crime.,
This is also the same type of panic which showed up around dancing, comic books, movies, TV and a whole host of other forms of entertainment down through the years. At some point, we need to accept that entertainment can be addictive, and too much can be bad, but that's not a legal (or tort) problem, but a social one. We don't need to give credibility to the [Jack Thompsons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_(activist)) of the world with their pearl clutching and attempts to control everyone. Instead, we need to be offering help and treatment to those who have trouble self-regulating.

At the same time, I'm all for taxing the hell out of microtransactions, much like many nations do with alcohol. Put it on a sliding scale. Directly buying cosmetics which do not affect gameplay can be on the lower bound with a marginal tax. Anything which has an effect on gameplay gets taxed at a higher rate. Anything which involves a random chance is either directly outlawed or taxed at a crippling rate. And "points/coins/gems/widgets" as a required currency to buy anything is flat our outlawed and the people who came up with the idea get fed feet first into a chipper shredder.

[–] CaptainSpaceman 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You've got a controversial stance, but I agree with you along the lines of personal responsibility with sensible regulation.

IMO any game with these casino mechanics need to be labeled as gambling and age limit to 16+ or so.

[–] sylver_dragon 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Ya, I tend towards the libertarian side of the political compass. That doesn't always play well on Auth-Left dominated Lemmy. But, I never was one to care about imaginary internet points.

While I'm with you on the age restrictions, I suspect it wouldn't have that much of an impact. Kids lie all the time about their age online, and I really hate the ideas of age verification which often gets floated with these things. There's enough problems around tracking people already without laws mandating that tracking. And sadly, may of the kids who are currently enabled to play these games by their parents would still be enabled to play these games by their parents. Not too many 13 years olds are getting credit cards. Those kids' parents are often the ones buying stuff. Though this is another place where "points" and the like are a problem. As kids can circumvent the restrictions by buying points cards with cash and then using them online. Still, no point letting "perfect" be the enemy of "good enough".

[–] CaptainSpaceman 1 points 5 months ago

The gift card racket for FN, Blizz, Roblox, etc is NUTSO! They dont even need CCs when they ask for only one thing each holiday.

But yea, fair point on the age restrictions. Somethings gotta give though.