Hawaiian Bill Targets Games with Loot Boxes & Limiting Sales to Minors - General News

SBFord · February 2018

Hawaiian Bill Targets Games with Loot Boxes & Limiting Sales to Minors - General News

The Hawaii Tribune is reporting that four bills are moving through the state legislature that take direct and specific aim at games featuring loot boxes. Two of them would prohibit the sale of games with loot boxes costing real world money to anyone under 21. Two other bills would require

Read the full story here

Wellspring · February 2018

Nice to see Chris Lee following through on his promise a few months ago. Hopefully they pass and spread to other states.

Slapshot1188 · February 2018

Seems reasonable. Don’t sell to minors, accurately list that it’s a gambling game and show the odds.
Nothing there seems out of line.
If you are an adult and want to make an informed decision you still could buy them without restrictions.
Seems like reasonable steps.

Edit to add- I guess the only debate would be whether the age should be 18 or 21. I think 21 is better but if it was 18 that would be OK too.

Kabulozo · February 2018

It's the parents that need to put order at home instead of letting their children do whatever they want with their credit cards.

Slapshot1188 · February 2018

Kabulozo said:

It's the parents that need to put order at home instead of letting their children do whatever they want with their credit cards.

And this gives them the tools to do so. Which part do you find objectionable?

KalebGrayson · February 2018

Glad to see this happening. As mentioned above, hope this spreads.

Coolit · February 2018

Great news, hopefully one day the focus will return to great games and not a quick buck.

Horusra · February 2018

Good luck enforcing this.

Kabulozo · February 2018

Horusra said:

Good luck enforcing this.

Exactly, anybody can fake his age on the internet. otherwise I wouldn't be able to watch porn on the internet when i was 11 years old.

Nightbringe1 · February 2018

Coolit said:

Great news, hopefully one day the focus will return to great games and not a quick buck.

Not going to happen.

The gaming companies will use provided credit card information as proof-of-age and continue current business practices.

The only hit they will take will be the one at gamestop, which is nominal for PC games due to STEAM.

SBFord · February 2018

While in general I appreciate the effort and think some type of legislation is needed to curb the wonton practices of some publishers, I think putting an age requirement on it is a waste of time. Call it the "forbidden fruit" syndrome, but I'm pretty sure that most of us drank if we wanted to while still under whatever the legal drinking age is or was at the time. The other measures to have publishers clearly mark their games and to reveal odds of "winning" are sound and should be the main thrust.

Laws like this also need to step up educational programs for kids to give them the information they need to make smart choices. Let's face it: Many -- TOO many -- kids have parents who don't, can't or won't provide the types of experiences and knowledge to their children to help them make sound choices and to think critically. As a result, it's left to schools to try to step in and at least provide the basics. Add an education component and go after mobile gaming with the same fervor and I'll have a lot more respect for the attempts being made by these legislators.

Lastly, if a kid can be sent to war at 18, telling him or her that they can't buy a game with loot boxes is rather silly.

Slapshot1188 · February 2018

SBFord said:

While in general I appreciate the effort and think some type of legislation is needed to curb the wonton practices of some publishers, I think putting an age requirement on it is a waste of time. Call it the "forbidden fruit" syndrome, but I'm pretty sure that most of us drank if we wanted to while still under whatever the legal drinking age is or was at the time.

The other measures to have publishers clearly mark their games and to reveal odds of "winning" are sound and should be the main thrust.

Step up educational programs for kids and go after mobile gaming with the same fervor and I'll have a lot more respect for the attempts being made by these legislators.

Lastly, if a kid can be sent to war at 18, telling him or her that they can't buy a game with loot boxes is rather silly.

Suzie... I agree that you can debate 21 or 18 but alcohol is similarly regulated. Not sure about gambling in general but whatever that age is should be the same.

While their will always be ways around the rules, that IMHO is no reason not to have them. Cheating is against school rules too... yet a chunk of kids cheat. We shouldn’t just shrug it off.

btdt · February 2018

No one ever puts a price tag on what it cost to put these bills up for a vote... the assumption is, it was all done for free. It cost the taxpayers a lot of money, diverged the government from addressing the issues they continue to avoid addressing, and often have piggy-back agendas that the public doesn't want pushed through.

There is no win in such legislation, which is why it's not the government's job to even address it. It's alright to buy an gun and kill people with it, but it's not alright to allow a 12 year old to use a credit card to buy a loot box. Just who let them have the credit card in the first place? Responsibility lies with the parents, not the government.

There are far more pressing and urgent matters to be dealt with than these petty little things and it highlights just why nothing of substance ever gets done in government without taking a decade or more. We're paying them to waste our money each and every day they avoid the real issues.

SBFord · February 2018

I'm not saying shrug it off @Slapshot1188 -- I'm saying that we need to do more and better than simply slapping an age gate on it. Those restrictions almost never work and it's simply lazy legislation.

SBFord · February 2018

DMKano said:

A bill with no teeth that will rake in publicity and get the politicians lots of spotlight?

Yep working as intended in present day US

Probably setting Lee up for a run at a national congressional spot.

CrazKanuk · February 2018

While this "solves" some problems, I think that the biggest item here would be showing odds. Honestly, I have 4 kids ranging from 10 to 16 and they are all "over the age of 18". Also, I know that most of my kids' friends are also "over the age of 18". The reason for this, among the couple parents that I have talked to about it, is that, specifically, Sony was restricting gameplay based on age, on some games, at some point in time. So 'in order to circumvent this, we simply created accounts for our kids that are over 18.

Now! I don't know if Sony has solved this issue yet, but if you give people a Family Management system, which they do, don't take control out of the hands of the parent and start blocking my kids from playing games that I tell them they are allowed to play. I can appreciate the attempt to restrict access, but the ultimate choice should be mine alone.

So, yeah, that's the problem I see with the major item of selling to minors. The main issue is that you won't be able to tell who a minor is. Also, minors playing most of these games probably shouldn't be playing these games anyway, based on the age restrictions. Most of the loot boxes we're talking about are in T-M rated games, so minors shouldn't REALLY be playing them anyway, but they are. So, again, it's a nice gesture, but unless I'm showing my ID when I log in, I don't know how the enforcement of this works.

Alexander.B · February 2018

A step in the right direction.

Slapshot1188 · February 2018

It would work the same way that alcohol regulation does today. You would have to show proof of age at purchase. Just like you can go home after buying 12 bottles of rum and leave the liquor cabinet open you can do the same thing here. But at least parents are given the ability to make an informed decision

There is a big difference between letting a kid play a teen game and one 18 and over.

Also remember who the target audience was for things like the original Star Wars. George Lucas has said it was 12-year-olds. Nobody is talking about banning adults from buying what they want. It’s all about giving people the information to make informed decisions.

moshra · February 2018

I know Hawaiian Bill. Good guy.

GraySeal · February 2018

This is an example of where the United States has gone off the rails. Not every problems needs the state to come in a legislate and declare what the morals of society are. We do not need state force, yet again.

Loot boxes is a problem for some and can be handled locally...by parents if they are the ones discovering having the problem. There is no need for the state to come in, as if they are necessary, for parents to parent.

This legislation is a horrendous idea because of the mindset behind it.

We as a people have to get away from this mindset that government needs to declare morals and values for us and use force to make it so.

There are very few problems that should involved the state. Chiefly, it should be defending our freedoms instead of limiting them.

GraySeal · February 2018

Exactly. Why do some so easily fall in line?

We do not need government stinking involvement in our lives. Lootboxes? Really?

We toe the line and government sucks up the spoils.

Wizardry · February 2018

I say kudos to that legislature for seeing the derogative nature this crap has on gaming and gamer's.

I just wish they would take it even further into ALL realms of selling and buying BLIND,like card packs and keys to open chests or any other way devs have to get around actual loot boxes.

cjmarsh · February 2018

This is not a surprise at all, in Hawaii virtually all kinds of gambling are illegal, the only exception being certain instances of home poker games. The only reason this is news is because loot boxes are the new hotness when it comes to complaining about monetization in games.

Hashbrick · February 2018

I don't think this will do a lot, but I can appreciate the effort. Not really the regulation as I can't see that being very effective, however if it starts to make these companies think and back track maybe just maybe the exploitation of loot crates can stop and they can focus back on just making good games. Cash shops is one thing, you know what you are buying there is no odds. Loot crates are formulated to make the players spend as much cash as possible to possibly get an item of value. CSGO skins are the absolute worst odds against the player. To release the odds will at least give awareness on how little chance you have, much like the lottery does.

To put it simply it is the Wild Wild West for loot boxes right now and something needs to change.

cjmarsh · February 2018

Hashbrick said:

I don't think this will do a lot, but I can appreciate the effort. Not really the regulation as I can't see that being very effective, however if it starts to make these companies think and back track maybe just maybe the exploitation of loot crates can stop and they can focus back on just making good games. Cash shops is one thing, you know what you are buying there is no odds. Loot crates are formulated to make the players spend as much cash as possible to possibly get an item of value. CSGO skins are the absolute worst odds against the player. To release the odds will at least give awareness on how little chance you have, much like the lottery does.

To put it simply it is the Wild Wild West for loot boxes right now and something needs to change.

I agree that this won't do a lot but I think loot boxes aren't that big of a deal. They're just a symptom of players not being willing to pay the subscription fees so developers move to the F2P and cash shop model to fund the game from the rich few. The truth is that people always want more for less so there will always be some new monetization technique that is the cool thing to hate as a result.

Panther2103 · February 2018

While it's a step in the right direction, there is no real way to verify with an age gate unless it's a real person verifying it (which would require way too much resources to do). I can set up an account that says I'm 18, which I did when I was 13 with steam when it launched. The same thing with any adult content sites, you literally just push a button saying YES IM 18, and it waves their liability if anything happens.

How about we just remove this aspect from games, and stop making them into a predatory practice if it's this big of a deal. Personally it doesn't effect me, I don't tend to buy loot boxes, I think I've bought a couple in rocket league at one point but nothing other than that. I don't mind earning them and opening them if it isn't pay to win. But my gaming life will go on if they remove them completely.

Howdy, Stranger!

Hawaiian Bill Targets Games with Loot Boxes & Limiting Sales to Minors - General News

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Comments

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

Hawaiian Bill Targets Games with Loot Boxes & Limiting Sales to Minors - General News

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Comments

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

¯\_(ツ)_/¯