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Ted Cruz open to talk with Asmongold about lootboxes, gambling and how it affects kids

killatopak

Gold Member
Mod note:
Any political dick measuring will be delt with on the ban list. Only warning.

There's a topic to discuss without unrelated radicalized agendas.

Basically what happened was Asmongold reached out to Ted Cruz to talk about regulating lootboxes but apparently haven’t had a response. During the Verdict podcast with Ted Cruz, a user mentioned Asmongold reaching out to the Senator. Ted Cruz discussed about the issue briefly and said he was open to have a discussion with Asmongold about it.




I hope this means something good for the gaming community. With government regulations, you can never know or the restrictions may be benign or can easily be leapfrogged via loophole in the law. In any case, I’ll definitely watch it whenever it happens as it affects my hobby a lot.
 
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Kuranghi

Member
Lootboxes are a pile of shite, ultimately its down to parents to manage their childrens lives of course but its still some bullshit they hire people to make it as addictive as possible and put it in games played mostly by the chillens. It feeds into the whole fomo society so even if the kid has a good head on their shoulders and the parents are keeping an eye out they will get shit from other kids about it and get left out. The answer is of course, "Be friends with other kids who aren't little cunts who would do that" but try telling your kids that and see how it goes, kids are little bastards to each other haha.

Its just like anything else we got shit/fomo from other kids when we were in school in the 80s and 90s, but when its tied to the online social media world it amplifys the issue ten-fold.
 
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I'm always hesitant to invite the government into my hobbies, even Congress Critters I generally like.

OTOH shit like Diablo Immortal is absolutely reprehensible with its monetization. I'm thankful I don't have a gambling problem, and simply avoid scams like gatcha and lootboxes, but some people have a serious problem with this.

I would prefer the platforms voluntary implement a 'Gambling Addiction' mode that would disable the ability to make purchases like these on a platform-level. The problem is you're asking for-profit corporations to cut off a revenue source out of the goodness of their hearts, which is laughable. So perhaps the threat of regulation is needed.
 

killatopak

Gold Member
There is no topic.
Maybe?

I just feel like it’s nice to see that the government or at least this person in politics is aware of the issue regarding gambling and lootboxes.

Not an American so I’m not familiar with Ted Cruz. All I know is that he can make things happen due to his position.
 
I see this as a good thing, not because I even want regulation, but because people in government don't even understand what they'd be regulating. Our politicians need to get educated on things like loot boxes and social media before they go making laws and regulations related to them.

You guys know if you keep talking about the individuals involved vs. the topic at hand this thread will be locked before it hits page 2, right?

Good point. If any moderators are reading this, can we please just remove people from the thread who are doing this, so the rest of us can talk about the topic of Asmongold talking to a politician about loot boxes? It's kind of an important topic to gaming.
 

Kilau

Gold Member
Loot boxes are super shit and they are effecting game design in the worst way but I don’t ever expect government regulation to make things better.

How are the loot box regulations working out in the countries that have them? Would be a good place to start.
 
My biggest problem with monetization is paying real money for the 'chance' of something I want. Real money for a la cart cosmetics, or random lootboxes as a gameplay reward are 100% kosher IMO.

Take Sea of Thieves as an example (because I have direct experience with it). It has a direct cash store, a season pass for special cosmetics, and in-game purchases with game currency. If Rare implemented a 'lootbox chest' that gave people a randomized group of cosmetics as a quest reward I wouldn't think twice, even if I had most of what was in the box already unlocked. I didn't spend any money on it, and I always have fun actually playing SoT.

If they charged for a lootbox chest, I'd look at Rare differently than I do now.
 

Saber

Gold Member
I would like the radical approach of literally banning them, like some countries do.
It's not about self control, as most simply spam every time this topic comes to discussion. Is about manipulative tatics and predatory behaviour engraved deeply into game mechanics to the point that without them the game doesn't even works properly. They have people who knows exactly how to prey people with weak will and small children.
 

Fuz

Banned
Take Sea of Thieves as an example (because I have direct experience with it). It has a direct cash store, a season pass for special cosmetics, and in-game purchases with game currency. If Rare implemented a 'lootbox chest' that gave people a randomized group of cosmetics as a quest reward I wouldn't think twice, even if I had most of what was in the box already unlocked. I didn't spend any money on it, and I always have fun actually playing SoT.
Isn't SoT a paid game, toh? It's not F2P afaik.

So no, shops shouldn't be tolerated on paid/subscription games.
I would like the radical approach of literally banning them, like some countries do.
It's not about self control, as most simply spam every time this topic comes to discussion. Is about manipulative tatics and predatory behaviour engraved deeply into game mechanics to the point that without them the game doesn't even works properly. They have people who knows exactly how to prey people with weak will and small children.
And they ruin game design for people with strong will.
 
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Isn't SoT a paid game, toh? It's not F2P afaik.

So no, shops shouldn't be tolerated on paid/subscription games.
I understand where you're coming from, but that ship sailed (no pun intended) years ago. Things that affect gameplay I agree with you wholeheartedly, but a Gucci'd out pirate in SoT has zero advantage over somebody rocking the starting rags.

Hell I'm hesitant to start shit with people rocking the default cosmetics, they're either noobs or people who will solo a few galleons in a sloop.

I dunno, I got dozens of hours of entertainment in the game for the cost of a GP sub, I don't have any problem kicking them a fiver here or there for a funny pet to shoot out of a cannon.
 

Fuz

Banned
I understand where you're coming from, but that ship sailed (no pun intended) years ago.
Sorry, but this is a mentality I do not accept. We need to keep fighting, not wave a white flag, bend down and open our buttholes wide.
They won't stop pushing.

Hell I'm hesitant to start shit with people rocking the default cosmetics, they're either noobs or people who will solo a few galleons in a sloop.
You understand how this is another layer of problems, right?

But I'll give a little leeway on this - there's no sub and it's an ongoing game, so it's better than most (*cough* WoW *cough*).
 
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hemo memo

Gold Member
I would perfer outright banning game with loot boxes as this practice only made gaming worse. If not then at least make it required by law to have stats easily accessible from the pause menu and clearly represented.
 
I want to add that monetization is always going to be present in F2P games. The difference is where it goes from generating a steady profit with reasonable practices vs preying on people's gambling addictions.

Fallout Shelter was a fun 5-10 hour experience for me that I didn't have a problem kicking $5 to Bethesda for a starter kit. I also understand how somebody with a serious problem can spend an unhealthy amount of money on the exact same (relatively benign) mechanics. I've heard plenty of horror stories though about unwell people dumping thousands of dollars into these games.

I'll concede that regulatory threats are probably necessary, but I really don't want Uncle Sam poking its nose into things I enjoy.
 
Games that have gambling mechanics that cost real world money, 18+ just like real world gambling and lottery.

Not to be confused with DLC and MTX content.
Government mandates for platform holders to implement robust child accounts which completely eliminate the ability to purchase anything without explicit parent account approval are perfectly fine IMO.

Require a verified adult Sony, MS, or Nintendo account upon setup. Have an annoying amount of splash screens at every step in the process to inform people of their options. If parents can't be bothered to monitor their children's activities after being forcibly reminded half a dozen times then they deserve it if their kids drop $500 of their money on V Bucks.
 

dorkimoe

Member
Just curious what others think, but isnt baseball cards and basketball cards IRL lootboxes too? Youre gambling youre gonna get one of the rare cards they put in there.
 
Just curious what others think, but isnt baseball cards and basketball cards IRL lootboxes too? Youre gambling youre gonna get one of the rare cards they put in there.
A big thing here is that I can always sell rare cards in the aftermarket.

I had a buddy of mine who used to work for Toys R Us who could literally feel the difference in Yu Gi Oh card packs that had foil cards vs the ones that didn't with about 90% accuracy. This menace to society used to comb through the open boxes of card packs everywhere we went, buy the ones that had foil cards, and sell the individual rare cards on Ebay.

This little bastard made more money on that than he did his job, and I always resented/respected the hell out of him for it.
 

jaysius

Banned
I don't think Asmongold is the ideal person to bring forth this issue. He's not radical smart enough.
FTFY

The discussion needs to be had, but this guy isn’t the brightest bulb in the box to do it, he makes some good content for streaming, but when he tries to say “smart” things…

It’d be great if this conversation happened,it needs to start somewhere, but if the wrong rep for the gamer side starts this they’ll be attached to it, this streamer has a pretty low ceiling for deep politics.

This entire thread is click bait though as the talk hasn’t happened, and a politician being “open” to talking and doing the thing their open to do, are 2 totally different things.
 

jaysius

Banned
Just curious what others think, but isnt baseball cards and basketball cards IRL lootboxes too? Youre gambling youre gonna get one of the rare cards they put in there.
Sports cards are a thing onto themselves, what you’re talking about is the good of them, the risk and reward. The issue with loot boxes in gaming is that the gamble isn’t the entire thing or isn’t supposed to be, so a kid in this case could ”innocently” play a game and then get sucked into the gamble of the loot boxes. There is a difference here.
 
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ANDS

King of Gaslighting
There is zero chance lootboxes would be banned outright in the United States, especially if the argument is that "It preys on gambling addicts" given that every state has a lottery system of some kind within its borders (even if regulated).

. . .less than zero if your primary argument is "It's bad for the vidya games. . ."
 

manfestival

Member
I remember Asmongold mentioning this on his stream. Kinda funny to see it being a real thing. Even after his insulting comments that he made after he proposed the idea of talking to Ted Cruz about this stuff.
 
There is zero chance lootboxes would be banned outright in the United States, especially if the argument is that "It preys on gambling addicts" given that every state has a lottery system of some kind within its borders (even if regulated).

. . .less than zero if your primary argument is "It's bad for the vidya games. . ."
There are an ungodly amount of laws concerning gambling in the US, and we need a delicate touch when it comes to explaining real problems in the gaming industry to a government who's 'up and comers' were graduating college when the NES launched.

It's easy to imagine a 65 year old who doesn't know shit about the gaming industry to propose a 'solution' to the problems so broad it virtually breaks the entire industry.
 
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Just curious what others think, but isnt baseball cards and basketball cards IRL lootboxes too? Youre gambling youre gonna get one of the rare cards they put in there.
Add on any card game, magic the gathering, yuhgio (is that still a thing), pokemon, etc..
 

Fuz

Banned
If not then at least make it required by law to have stats easily accessible from the pause menu and clearly represented.
It's already like that.

But anyway, who's gonna check if they're faithful?

I'll concede that regulatory threats are probably necessary, but I really don't want Uncle Sam poking its nose into things I enjoy.
Me and you both, but what's the alternative?
 
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Fuz

Banned
The discussion needs to be had, but this guy isn’t the brightest bulb in the box to do it, he makes some good content for streaming, but when he tries to say “smart” things…
Oh yeah, although I mostly agree with his points of view on gaming, any politician would eat him alive in a debate.
 

Fuz

Banned
It's easy to imagine a 65 year old who doesn't know shit about the gaming industry to propose a 'solution' to the problems so broad it virtually breaks the entire industry.
And they'd only have to blame themselves and their unbridled greed.

Just curious what others think, but isnt baseball cards and basketball cards IRL lootboxes too? Youre gambling youre gonna get one of the rare cards they put in there.
Bit different.
Cards ARE the game itself. And a physical object always has some sort of value. What value does a 1 star gem (or whatever the fuck they have) on Diablo Immoral?


Anyway, football sticker cards were all the rage when I was a kid. I tried once to make an album, but I never got anywhere far... even as a kid, I bloody hated the gambling aspect of the matter.
Although throwing cards against other kids to win their cards/lose mine was kind of a fun game.
 
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CitizenZ

Banned
Sports cards are a thing onto themselves, what you’re talking about is the good of them, the risk and reward. The issue with loot boxes in gaming is that the gamble isn’t the entire thing or isn’t supposed to be, so a kid in this case could ”innocently” play a game and then get sucked into the gamble of the loot boxes. There is a difference here.

You know what is funny how everyone says "kid" like they are the target when in actuality you see its a bunch of 30yr olds who are perfect rep of the education they got from home and school. Also, that cult leader Asmongold being your voice when he has spent over 10k in Lost Ark alone, funny.
 

Fuz

Banned
Also, that cult leader Asmongold being your voice when he has spent over 10k in Lost Ark alone, funny.
This is a good point.
Those stupid streamers spending tons of money on those surprise mechanics "JUST TO SHOW YOU GUYS", then go and criticize it and then spend tons of money in the next gaming scam. "It's their job."
Those pieces of shit are just fueling the fire. And giving free advertising to those games. And then they dare talk against those practics.
 

killatopak

Gold Member
Give it to Josh Strife Hayes then. He recently was in a podcast with Asmon and a few others talking about stuff like monetization and such. He has so many big brain gigachad moments and the best part is he never spends anything on F2P games. $0 all documented and streamed.
 

Fuz

Banned
Give it to Josh Strife Hayes then. He recently was in a podcast with Asmon and a few others talking about stuff like monetization and such. He has so many big brain gigachad moments and the best part is he never spends anything on F2P games. $0 all documented and streamed.
He has this avatar though
AGF-l79U3NfjCm5zaW3LVQWkG1ZW8EM7S7CCvDBaVA=s900-mo-c-c0xffffffff-rj-k-no


No idea at all who he is, I just googled him.
 
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