Loot Boxes In Video Games
2021年11月14日Register here: http://gg.gg/wv9su
*In Game Loot And More
*What Is Loot Boxes In Video Games
*Games With Loot Boxes
*Loot Boxes In Video Games Call For Evidence
The number of children with gambling problems has “quadrupled to more than 50,000 in just two years”, according to recent reports. The alarming figures come from the UK Gambling Commission’s latest annual statistics, which showed that the prevalence of problem gambling among children had risen to 1.7%, compared with 0.4% in 2016 and 0.9% in 2017.
The debate over gambling content in video games intensified in the UK this week, as a study released Wednesday argued that the practice goes far beyond loot boxes and into other gaming activities. Loot boxes, rates, cases, chests, bundles and card packs are, in essence, virtual games of chance which can be purchased in video games. Players use real money to buy these virtual items, which.
To put these figures into context, problem gambling among teenagers overall has actually been declining in the UK over the past 20 years. A review of research revealed that in 2000, roughly 5% of teenagers met the criteria for problem gambling – by 2016, it was less than a tenth of that. The Gambling Commission’s report also suggests that the significant increase recorded in 2018 could be due to changes in the way survey data were collected – though the increase between 2016 and 2017 would not have been affected by this issue.
But as someone who has been researching teenage gambling for more than 30 years, there is still cause for concern. If there has been a genuine increase in problem gambling among teenagers over the past couple of years, I think one of the main factors will have been the growing presence of simulated gambling in video games. Loot box lottery
Loot boxes, rates, cases, chests, bundles and card packs are, in essence, virtual games of chance which can be purchased in video games. Players use real money to buy these virtual items, which contain a chance selection of rewards. The likelihood of winning rare or powerful items is slim, so players are encouraged to spend more to increase their chances of success.
Many popular video games – including Overwatch, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Star Wars Battlefront 2, FIFA Ultimate Team – now feature loot boxes or the like. The Gambling Commission’s report noted that 13% of teenagers aged 11 to 16 had played gambling-style games online, and that 31% had accessed loot boxes in a video game or app, to try to acquire in-game items.
Some might argue that buying loot boxes isn’t gambling, because the rewards only have value within the game. But this is not always the case: there are many independent websites (such as loot.farm and skins.cash), which allow players to trade in-game items or virtual currency, in exchange for real money.
What’s more, I have argued that the “prizes” won are – in financial terms – often a lot less valuable than the prices paid. In effect, it is a lottery as to which items might be won. Indeed, loot boxes have already been outlawed in Belgium, on the grounds that they breach gambling rules. In Game Loot And MoreWhat Is Loot Boxes In Video GamesTaking a risk
A recent study found evidence for a link between the amount that video game players spent on loot boxes and the severity of problem gambling. In a large survey of 7,422 gamers, the more money a person spent buying loot boxes, the more likely they were to be a problem gambler. The paper concluded that the gambling-like features of loot boxes could be responsible for problem gambling severity, because the buying of other in-game items had no relationship with the level of problem gambling.
This evidence does not prove that loot boxes cause problem gambling – but it does suggest there is an association that needs to be explored further. It may be that problem gamblers are more attracted to buying loot boxes within video games. But there’s further evidence that simulated gambling – that is, gambling for free – within video games is a risk factor which increases the likelihood of teenagers gambling with real money and developing gambling problems.
For this reason, I argue that children should be banned from playing gambling simulations in video games. For example, in games such as Candy Crush and Runescape there are “wheel of fortune” games, which strongly resemble blackjack, where players have to pay to spin the wheel for a chance reward.
So it seems that problem gambling among young people has increased over the last couple of years – but not at the rate claimed in many recent news stories. However, the research suggests that loot boxes within video games could be a prime contributing factor to the increase in problem gambling among teenagers.CATrendsEditor’s Note: This article highlights a trend in class-action litigation as identified by our Class-Action Tracker (CAT). Thus the name of this feature, CATrends.
Is this what EA Sports means by “It’s in the game”?
The maker of the Madden NFL and FIFA soccer video game franchises is among those on a growing list of companies facing class-action lawsuits over their use and disclosures of “loot boxes,” which are randomized virtual items that players often purchase using real money. Specifically, a lawsuit against EA Sports filed in California alleges that the company fails to disclose that the Ultimate Team Packs in video games such as Madden and FIFA are loot boxes and that purchasing the packs is a form of gambling in violation of the state’s gambling laws.
EA’s Ultimate Team Packs are Loot Boxes. Buying the Packs are nothing more than a gambling bet. Purchased using real money, the Ultimate Team Packs are simply wagers on completely randomized chances within the game to win valuable professional players and other items for the EA gamer’s virtual sports team.
Billionaire casino free coins. While packs can also be obtained through gameplay without having to spend any money, going that route to score valuable items like star players can take a long time, according to the lawsuit.
Thus, it becomes increasingly attractive to spend money to purchase Ultimate Team Packs instead of “earning” them through gameplay.
However, the packs are not a sure bet.
The EA Sports lawsuit alleges that the highest rated players are the least likely to be included in a pack, while players that “tend to be common or undesirable to the gamer” are the most prevalent. The lawsuit provides a screenshot of “pack probability” for four different tiers of FIFA players rated on a scale of 0 to 100. According to this breakdown (which consumers only see if they click “more info” in the top right corner of the screen, the lawsuit says), the probability that a pack contains a FIFA player with an 80+ rating is less than 3 percent.
Yet consumers — who are spending more time playing video games during the pandemic — pay upwards of hundreds of dollars for the packs. The named plaintiff in the EA Sports case claims he spent “in excess of $600 on in-game loot boxes in exchange for the random-chance possibility of winning valuable players.”Games With Loot Boxes
EA Sports did not respond to a TINA.org request for comment.
Monetizing gamers
Loot boxes bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for top titles like EA Sports’ Madden and FIFA, as well as Epic Games’ Fortnite, another video game caught up in loot box-related class-action litigation. (Other titles under scrutiny include Supercell’s Clash Royale and Brawl Stars and Nintendo’s Mario Kart Tour.) But for players who may find themselves in endless gameplay loops or at a competitive disadvantage, the EA Sports lawsuit calls buying loot boxes to advance in a game or to get on a level playing field “demand through inconvenience.”
EA and other developers intentionally design games this way to increase the gamers’ frustration with the game’s free or earned aspects and profit off the ensuing “demand through inconvenience.”
Regulators have taken notice.
In August, the FTC released a report on a 2019 workshop on loot boxes. The report highlights various consumer protection issues, including, among other things, the use of techniques to mask costs and to manipulate and confuse players and the impact loot boxes may have on children, including those with access to mom and dad’s credit card.Loot Boxes In Video Games Call For Evidence
A new label
Following the workshop, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRP), which age-rates games according to language, violence and other criteria, announced a new video game rating element to disclose when a game includes in-app purchases that are “random,” such as loot boxes.
“By including more specificity about the randomized nature of the in-game purchases, consumers can make more informed decisions when purchasing or downloading a game, instead of finding out after the fact,” the ESRP said in an April 2020 blog on its website.
However, this new label — In-Game Purchases (Includes Random Items) — has yet to make it to the covers of video games that use loot boxes or to places like the Apple App Store where the games are sold, according to the lawsuits.
Find more of our coverage on video games here.
Related PostsThe Hundred Thousand Dollar Puzzle by David Dobrik →
Register here: http://gg.gg/wv9su
https://diarynote.indered.space
*In Game Loot And More
*What Is Loot Boxes In Video Games
*Games With Loot Boxes
*Loot Boxes In Video Games Call For Evidence
The number of children with gambling problems has “quadrupled to more than 50,000 in just two years”, according to recent reports. The alarming figures come from the UK Gambling Commission’s latest annual statistics, which showed that the prevalence of problem gambling among children had risen to 1.7%, compared with 0.4% in 2016 and 0.9% in 2017.
The debate over gambling content in video games intensified in the UK this week, as a study released Wednesday argued that the practice goes far beyond loot boxes and into other gaming activities. Loot boxes, rates, cases, chests, bundles and card packs are, in essence, virtual games of chance which can be purchased in video games. Players use real money to buy these virtual items, which.
To put these figures into context, problem gambling among teenagers overall has actually been declining in the UK over the past 20 years. A review of research revealed that in 2000, roughly 5% of teenagers met the criteria for problem gambling – by 2016, it was less than a tenth of that. The Gambling Commission’s report also suggests that the significant increase recorded in 2018 could be due to changes in the way survey data were collected – though the increase between 2016 and 2017 would not have been affected by this issue.
But as someone who has been researching teenage gambling for more than 30 years, there is still cause for concern. If there has been a genuine increase in problem gambling among teenagers over the past couple of years, I think one of the main factors will have been the growing presence of simulated gambling in video games. Loot box lottery
Loot boxes, rates, cases, chests, bundles and card packs are, in essence, virtual games of chance which can be purchased in video games. Players use real money to buy these virtual items, which contain a chance selection of rewards. The likelihood of winning rare or powerful items is slim, so players are encouraged to spend more to increase their chances of success.
Many popular video games – including Overwatch, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Star Wars Battlefront 2, FIFA Ultimate Team – now feature loot boxes or the like. The Gambling Commission’s report noted that 13% of teenagers aged 11 to 16 had played gambling-style games online, and that 31% had accessed loot boxes in a video game or app, to try to acquire in-game items.
Some might argue that buying loot boxes isn’t gambling, because the rewards only have value within the game. But this is not always the case: there are many independent websites (such as loot.farm and skins.cash), which allow players to trade in-game items or virtual currency, in exchange for real money.
What’s more, I have argued that the “prizes” won are – in financial terms – often a lot less valuable than the prices paid. In effect, it is a lottery as to which items might be won. Indeed, loot boxes have already been outlawed in Belgium, on the grounds that they breach gambling rules. In Game Loot And MoreWhat Is Loot Boxes In Video GamesTaking a risk
A recent study found evidence for a link between the amount that video game players spent on loot boxes and the severity of problem gambling. In a large survey of 7,422 gamers, the more money a person spent buying loot boxes, the more likely they were to be a problem gambler. The paper concluded that the gambling-like features of loot boxes could be responsible for problem gambling severity, because the buying of other in-game items had no relationship with the level of problem gambling.
This evidence does not prove that loot boxes cause problem gambling – but it does suggest there is an association that needs to be explored further. It may be that problem gamblers are more attracted to buying loot boxes within video games. But there’s further evidence that simulated gambling – that is, gambling for free – within video games is a risk factor which increases the likelihood of teenagers gambling with real money and developing gambling problems.
For this reason, I argue that children should be banned from playing gambling simulations in video games. For example, in games such as Candy Crush and Runescape there are “wheel of fortune” games, which strongly resemble blackjack, where players have to pay to spin the wheel for a chance reward.
So it seems that problem gambling among young people has increased over the last couple of years – but not at the rate claimed in many recent news stories. However, the research suggests that loot boxes within video games could be a prime contributing factor to the increase in problem gambling among teenagers.CATrendsEditor’s Note: This article highlights a trend in class-action litigation as identified by our Class-Action Tracker (CAT). Thus the name of this feature, CATrends.
Is this what EA Sports means by “It’s in the game”?
The maker of the Madden NFL and FIFA soccer video game franchises is among those on a growing list of companies facing class-action lawsuits over their use and disclosures of “loot boxes,” which are randomized virtual items that players often purchase using real money. Specifically, a lawsuit against EA Sports filed in California alleges that the company fails to disclose that the Ultimate Team Packs in video games such as Madden and FIFA are loot boxes and that purchasing the packs is a form of gambling in violation of the state’s gambling laws.
EA’s Ultimate Team Packs are Loot Boxes. Buying the Packs are nothing more than a gambling bet. Purchased using real money, the Ultimate Team Packs are simply wagers on completely randomized chances within the game to win valuable professional players and other items for the EA gamer’s virtual sports team.
Billionaire casino free coins. While packs can also be obtained through gameplay without having to spend any money, going that route to score valuable items like star players can take a long time, according to the lawsuit.
Thus, it becomes increasingly attractive to spend money to purchase Ultimate Team Packs instead of “earning” them through gameplay.
However, the packs are not a sure bet.
The EA Sports lawsuit alleges that the highest rated players are the least likely to be included in a pack, while players that “tend to be common or undesirable to the gamer” are the most prevalent. The lawsuit provides a screenshot of “pack probability” for four different tiers of FIFA players rated on a scale of 0 to 100. According to this breakdown (which consumers only see if they click “more info” in the top right corner of the screen, the lawsuit says), the probability that a pack contains a FIFA player with an 80+ rating is less than 3 percent.
Yet consumers — who are spending more time playing video games during the pandemic — pay upwards of hundreds of dollars for the packs. The named plaintiff in the EA Sports case claims he spent “in excess of $600 on in-game loot boxes in exchange for the random-chance possibility of winning valuable players.”Games With Loot Boxes
EA Sports did not respond to a TINA.org request for comment.
Monetizing gamers
Loot boxes bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for top titles like EA Sports’ Madden and FIFA, as well as Epic Games’ Fortnite, another video game caught up in loot box-related class-action litigation. (Other titles under scrutiny include Supercell’s Clash Royale and Brawl Stars and Nintendo’s Mario Kart Tour.) But for players who may find themselves in endless gameplay loops or at a competitive disadvantage, the EA Sports lawsuit calls buying loot boxes to advance in a game or to get on a level playing field “demand through inconvenience.”
EA and other developers intentionally design games this way to increase the gamers’ frustration with the game’s free or earned aspects and profit off the ensuing “demand through inconvenience.”
Regulators have taken notice.
In August, the FTC released a report on a 2019 workshop on loot boxes. The report highlights various consumer protection issues, including, among other things, the use of techniques to mask costs and to manipulate and confuse players and the impact loot boxes may have on children, including those with access to mom and dad’s credit card.Loot Boxes In Video Games Call For Evidence
A new label
Following the workshop, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRP), which age-rates games according to language, violence and other criteria, announced a new video game rating element to disclose when a game includes in-app purchases that are “random,” such as loot boxes.
“By including more specificity about the randomized nature of the in-game purchases, consumers can make more informed decisions when purchasing or downloading a game, instead of finding out after the fact,” the ESRP said in an April 2020 blog on its website.
However, this new label — In-Game Purchases (Includes Random Items) — has yet to make it to the covers of video games that use loot boxes or to places like the Apple App Store where the games are sold, according to the lawsuits.
Find more of our coverage on video games here.
Related PostsThe Hundred Thousand Dollar Puzzle by David Dobrik →
Register here: http://gg.gg/wv9su
https://diarynote.indered.space
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