I don’t know if any of us really know that. It’s a risk for sure.
I think the main challenge with digital version vs physical is if I buy a Pokemon, Baseball or Magic card, the only part the creator, the publisher is really involved in is the first one. I paid my 3.99 and their hands off on anything after that. Now because they determine what the print and can add and remove rules about specific cards they can still influence value but they can’t take it from me, can’t alter it and they an’t force me to participate in any set market they control. I think most the physical games also give clear outlines about what you’re buying… x amount of cards, y rares, z whatever else.
The online ones are different, easier to access for adults and children and their not clear or consistent with what they buy. I am not sure they really allow, officially, a means to exchange outside of their markets either. That last piece is still true right? You can’t just buy cards for Hearthstone, Magic Online or one of the others and just exchange them whenever or however you want right?
It would be trivial to add this info to digital loot boxes, in fact EA already did this for FIFA.
For years, Wizards of the Coast denied that you could buy or sell their cards on a secondary market precisely because this would make MTG more like gambling. It was always an awkward situation for them.
The moment a secondary market gives digital publishers more freedom from regulation, they will be sanctioned and even encouraged.
This bill may or may not stick, but it’s going to happen, and game devs/publishers have only themselves to blame. They could have taken their own steps, along with the ESRB, to prevent a ham-fisted response from legislatures, but the short-term dollar drove their agenda instead.
Yeah, like I said, this specific bill might die, but it’s coming. There are just too many direct parallels to gambling in games specifically marketed to kids.
Specifically loot boxes, which are just little slot machines. And the fact that some games make them purchaseable for real currency, or through a quick exchange with in-game coins, just makes it more egregious.
The industry could have self regulated. Introduce a new rating descriptor or require the publisher to list the odds of certain items, and mandate parental controls on spending.
Jim Sterling snark aside, I wouldn’t dismiss this bill so quickly. This is about our kids, and if it’s one thing our government does, is over-protect them whenever possible. We have armed guards in schools now for example.
This is the type of bill that may not generate much merit on it’s own, but would surely get wrapped up and included with another bigger bill about something else entirely.
Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Ed Markey (D-MA) have paired up with the bill’s originator Josh Hawley (R-MO) to make it a bipartisan effort.
I get what you’re saying but Kinder Eggs aren’t banned in the US any longer. In The US they sell a version with the toy in a separate package compartment, thus it’s no longer a choking hazard.
I’m sorry, but the original Kinder Eggs are still banned in the US. We can’t get them. We can get Kinder Joy, but that’s because the product was changed, not because the laws were changed.
“has partially or completely imbedded therein any nonnutritive object, except that this subparagraph shall not apply in the case of any nonnutritive object if, in the judgment of the Secretary as provided by regulations, such object is of practical functional value to the confectionery product and would not render the product injurious or hazardous to health;”
So, I think the point still stands. Now, if he had said Kinder Joy, maybe he would have a leg to stand on, but he did say Kinder Egg. Anyway, Toys or anything that is fully encased in food is still banned.
Yes, I said the product changed to accommodate the choking hazard ban. As for Joy versus Egg, got me there I guess. No one calls them Joy though. Everyone just says Egg because that’s the original product.
Regardless, comparing Kinder whatever to Loot Boxes is dumb.
