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UK soon to ban Loot Boxes for minors?

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  • annemarie30annemarie30 Member Posts: 2,593 Arc User
    the thing is, loot boxes are NOT gambling. Gambling implies that you can lose. you cannot ever lose with a lloot box. you are guaranteed to get lobi and other stuff.
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  • mustrumridcully0mustrumridcully0 Member Posts: 12,963 Arc User
    edited November 2019
    the thing is, loot boxes are NOT gambling. Gambling implies that you can lose. you cannot ever lose with a lloot box. you are guaranteed to get lobi and other stuff.

    That isn't really the only definition of gambling, and it is probably not the one that is legally relevant. And psychologically, if you are hoping for a Tier 6 Connie, 6 Lobi and a Kit Frame does not feel like "winning". And neither would spending 5 $ to get 1 $ count as "winning". In fact, from an economical definition it's more like you can't win "gambling" on lockboxes, because no matter the content of the box, you cannot turn it into money (especially not more than you put in).

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  • legendarylycan#5411 legendarylycan Member Posts: 37,275 Arc User
    being able to see what's in the box you're about to open is definitely an interesting idea, but i don't see PWE ever going for it

    this page kicked off a necro, btw​​
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  • thunderfoot#5163 thunderfoot Member Posts: 4,540 Arc User
    I don't think STO players in the UK have to worry too much about the Gov't there doing anything about STO's LockBoxes.
    Look at how long that Brexit thing has been going on, lol.

    Kidding aside, the idea of knowing the contents prior to opening a loot box is a good one. I think anytime consumers can make informed choices about product purchases or use, both consumers and businesses benefit. Consumers get to purchase or use what they really want to. Businesses stop wasting resources on products and services people do not want.

    Something which does not get mentioned enough when this topic comes up is this: A business will always take the least expensive/intrusive path to comply with whatever regulations a government imposes. If it becomes more profitable, or registers as a smaller loss, then PWE deciding not to operate in countries where LockBoxes are subject to some of the proposed legislation becomes a strong possibility.
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  • mirrorchaosmirrorchaos Member Posts: 9,844 Arc User
    The Government has been disbanded due to an election over Brexit. The country is going to the polls on the 12th of December, and a new government will be decided on the 13th, probably early morning, around 9am or something like that.

    It will be either Conservatives who remain in power and get their brexit bill sorted, so these microtransactions can be dealt with after that. or the labour party gets in there and who knows what Corbyn will do with these mocrotransactions. Frankly with the way things have been sabotaged within parliment recently, i wouldn't expect a lot of cooperation no matter which of the two parties are elected.
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  • mirrorchaosmirrorchaos Member Posts: 9,844 Arc User
    Okay the Conservatives have won the election, it just needs confirming now. However that lockbox issue will be back on the table from here on. Just FYI.
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  • tigerariestigeraries Member Posts: 3,492 Arc User
    Okay the Conservatives have won the election, it just needs confirming now. However that lockbox issue will be back on the table from here on. Just FYI.

    They havent won by this many seats since the 80s under Thatcher. Working class en mass dropped Labour for Boris.
  • nrobbiecnrobbiec Member Posts: 959 Arc User
    Democracy has spoken. Now we wait to see if there will be a country left.

    > @annemarie30 said:
    > the thing is, loot boxes are NOT gambling. Gambling implies that you can lose. you cannot ever lose with a lloot box. you are guaranteed to get lobi and other stuff.

    That is very close to EA's "surprise mechanics" claim.
  • starkaosstarkaos Member Posts: 11,556 Arc User
    azrael605 wrote: »
    > tigeraries said:
    > (Quote)
    >
    > They havent won by this many seats since the 80s under Thatcher. Working class en mass dropped Labour for Boris.

    Stupid people, Boris only cares about Boris.

    What matters is the perception that people have towards their politicians. Obviously more people trusted Boris over Corbyn for whatever reason. Sometimes people end up voting for who they believe to be the lesser of two evils while other times it is supporting some of the policies that one politician supports over the other.

    I wish Canadians and Britains would adopt the US system of voting for their leader rather than voting for the party. If I thought the Liberal candidate running in my district would be great in representing my interests, but I am absolutely disgusted by Trudeau, then I either have to indirectly vote for Trudeau or vote for another candidate that I don't think would do a great job.

    The only stupid people are people that knowingly vote for someone that is against their best interests. Of course, there are lots of ignorant people that don't spend the time to figure out each parties' policies and vote accordingly and ignorant people are likely the majority of voters.

  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 5,459 Arc User
    Boris does seem to be a rather nasty, self-centered piece of work from what I have read about him.
  • sthe91sthe91 Member Posts: 5,403 Arc User
    Can we please return to the topic of this thread instead of getting this thread derailed by the politics of that country? Thanks. :)
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  • sthe91sthe91 Member Posts: 5,403 Arc User
    azrael605 wrote: »
    > @sthe91 said:
    > Can we please return to the topic of this thread instead of getting this thread derailed by the politics of that country? Thanks. :)

    The topic of this thread IS the politics of the UK, nothing else was ever discussed.

    What I mean is the politics if the lockbox will be banned and not a character study on the current political situation with Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn in the UK. That is what I mean. As in back to the original topic.
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  • starkaosstarkaos Member Posts: 11,556 Arc User
    azrael605 wrote: »
    That last paragraph is why they are stupid. Boris only cares about Boris, he doesn't give a TRIBBLE about the UK and never has, this is the jackass whose response to an environmental report on the severity of polution in London was to suggest building an airport on the Thames estuary and making the situation 1000 times worse.

    As for the US system, it isn't any better and never has been.

    And it can be easily explained by voting for who they think is the lesser of two evils. The people of Britain probably believed that Corbyn was worse than Boris. It is similar to the situation in the US 2016 elections. If people thought that both of the main candidates were bad, then why not for a third party candidate.
  • nrobbiecnrobbiec Member Posts: 959 Arc User
    The right and far right were able to unify under the tories but the opposition was more fractured.

    Sadly xenophobia is far too prevelant in this day and age. A lot of us are in risk of suffering becuase of it, ironically including a large number of those who voted tory.
  • mirrorchaosmirrorchaos Member Posts: 9,844 Arc User
    edited December 2019
    starkaos wrote: »
    I wish Canadians and Britains would adopt the US system of voting for their leader rather than voting for the party.

    And have the electorate overrule the candidate voted by the people? No thank you.
    nrobbiec wrote: »
    The right and far right were able to unify under the tories but the opposition was more fractured.

    Sadly xenophobia is far too prevelant in this day and age. A lot of us are in risk of suffering becuase of it, ironically including a large number of those who voted tory.

    Corbyn lost because he was more on the left than people would of liked and he has as much charisma as a brick smashing through a window, and also because labour supporters didn't trust his vision of giving everything with no way to pay for any of it, it was infact a lesser of two evils, not because of the issues you described.

    It also didn't help that he and his supporters sabotaged efforts and called the election in the first place. He did it to himself and got punished for it, and now Labour are looking for a new leader.
    azrael605 wrote: »
    > @sthe91 said:
    > Can we please return to the topic of this thread instead of getting this thread derailed by the politics of that country? Thanks. :)

    The topic of this thread IS the politics of the UK, nothing else was ever discussed.

    This topic is about lockboxes and how the uk government will react to it. unless the first page and the thread title are lies?
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  • starkaosstarkaos Member Posts: 11,556 Arc User
    edited December 2019
    starkaos wrote: »
    I wish Canadians and Britains would adopt the US system of voting for their leader rather than voting for the party.

    And have the electorate overrule the candidate voted by the people? No thank you.

    In Canada, it only matters what Ontario and Quebec think who should be the political party in charge since they have 60% of the total number of MPs in Canada. With the US, it requires the 11 largest States to pass the Electoral College threshold. Therefore, Western Canada has no say in who becomes the Prime Minister. If Eastern Canada votes for an idiot as leader of a political party and Western Canada votes for a better candidate, then Western Canada has to suffer from an idiotic Prime Minister. Also, less than 50,000 Canadians voted for Justin Trudeau in 2019 since only the people of his district are able to vote for the current Prime Minister of Canada not the entire country. So Trudeau wasn't voted by the people, but only about 0.14% of the people of Canada voted for him just like Boris Johnson had only about 0.04% of the UK voted for him. So either Canadians and people from UK indirectly vote for the leader of the party by voted for a candidate that you might not like and ignore the better representative or they vote for the better candidate. At least, Americans are able to vote for who they think is the best candidate and for the President.

    It is far better for Canada and the UK to have everyone vote for their Prime Minister and their Member of Parliament rather than only being able to vote for their Member of Parliament and have everything determined by a few cities. Everyone votes for their own interests which means that less populated areas will suffer at the hands of densely populated areas.
  • evilmark444evilmark444 Member Posts: 6,950 Arc User
    starkaos wrote: »
    At least, Americans are able to vote for who they think is the best candidate

    Not always. In the primaries my state votes so late in the season that there's usually one viable candidate left for my party. Early states like Iowa and New Hampshire get to decide who's representing my party in the general election, I pretty much don't have a say at all. This is something that has always bothered me, and I really wish every state in the nation had their primary or caucus on the same day.

    For example, my state votes on April 28th next year, and by then thirty-four other states will have already voted. If I was a democrat (I'm not going to say either way to keep the conversation away from actual politics) it would be entirely possible that my prefered candidate had already dropped out of the race by the time I had a chance to cast my vote. It's absolutely ridiculous imo.
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  • starkaosstarkaos Member Posts: 11,556 Arc User
    starkaos wrote: »
    At least, Americans are able to vote for who they think is the best candidate

    Not always. In the primaries my state votes so late in the season that there's usually one viable candidate left for my party. Early states like Iowa and New Hampshire get to decide who's representing my party in the general election, I pretty much don't have a say at all. This is something that has always bothered me, and I really wish every state in the nation had their primary or caucus on the same day.

    For example, my state votes on April 28th next year, and by then thirty-four other states will have already voted. If I was a democrat (I'm not going to say either way to keep the conversation away from actual politics) it would be entirely possible that my prefered candidate had already dropped out of the race by the time I had a chance to cast my vote. It's absolutely ridiculous imo.

    In that quote, I meant their representative and President. For some States, most of the people always vote Democrat or Republican, but that is an issue with the State and not even have the meaningless choice.
  • mirrorchaosmirrorchaos Member Posts: 9,844 Arc User
    edited December 2019
    azrael605 wrote: »
    How the government will react or not is inextricably tied to the political situation. Discussing one without the other is nonsensical in the extreme. How this situation would have gone under Theresa May is very different than how things will go under Boris Johnson.

    Political parties have different goals and reasons for what they do, it matters not one jot in which country, one will destroy what the other built up and vice versa. Of course it is tied to the polical situation, it has always been tied to the political situation and will always remain tied to the situation.

    Politicians don't do what you or i or anyone else would consider to be the most rational choices. I'm not gonna go into the whole thing chapter and verse. But sufficed to say that the conservatives and labour parties would have different ideas what they would do with the lockbox debate. Your guess in the end is as good as mine, but you can be sure that whatever they would of chosen, it would be in their own best interests for it and not ours.
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  • evilmark444evilmark444 Member Posts: 6,950 Arc User
    But sufficed to say that the conservatives and labour parties would have different ideas what they would do with the lockbox debate. Your guess in the end is as good as mine, but you can be sure that whatever they would of chosen, it would be in their own best interests for it and not ours.

    All politicians, regardless of party, base 90% of their decisions on what they think is more likely to get them votes, either now or later down the line when they run for a higher office.
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  • tigerariestigeraries Member Posts: 3,492 Arc User
    UK's NHS posted a article on their site... pushing for outright ban games with loot boxes. Pushing for extra funding 2.3 Bil for mental health to help deal with gaming addiction or both children and adults.

    https://www.england.nhs.uk/2020/01/countrys-top-mental-health-nurse-warns-video-games-pushing-young-people-into-under-the-radar-gambling/

    wonder how Boris and the other Tories stand on this... granted it's not as urgent as the scandal on grooming gangs.
  • edrickvellorinedrickvellorin Member Posts: 346 Arc User
    Aside from the UK, there is a bill in the US Senate (Senate Bill 1629) that would make it against the law to have loot boxes in games targeted at minors or in games where the developer/publisher knows that there are minors playing the game. No idea what kind of support it's getting or if anything will ever come of it, but it shows that concern about loot boxes isn't limited to just the UK.
  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 5,459 Arc User
    I have not read the text of Senate Bill 1629, but it is probably another toothless "appease the yokels, but business as usual" one like the last one. Technically there are no "known" minors in games like STO because the terms of service say that you must be at least 18 or older to play and they have the "enter your birth date" thing on the site before you can download the game.
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