Hawaii to video games: regulate loot boxes or we’ll make you
Star Wars Battlefront II suffered from player backlash, low sales and plenty of loot box controversy. Could it soon also suffer from a complete ban?
Amazingly enough, the woes that have plagued EA’s Star Wars Battlefront II may not be over yet. According to Glixel, the Attorney General of Hawaii is considering legislation that could prevent the game from being sold in the state to minors. The reason? Those very same microtransactions that caused rage among players when they realized just how disproportionately they favored those who were willing to pay extra for better skills and heroes.
The backlash to this pay-to-play model has caused EA to hastily trip over itself in an attempt to right the ship and make the game’s recent release a success. In addition to drastically lowering the amount of gameplay required to unlock in-game elements, EA has also temporarily suspended microtransactions entirely, with no clear indication as to when they will resume.
Hawaiian legislatives feel that this pay-to-play loot box model verges dangerously close to gambling, and allowing children to participate in it is essentially encouraging them to gamble.
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No formal bill has been brought to the floor yet, as lawmakers are hoping that the video game industry steps forward to regulate the issue of its own according. They are specifically looking to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board to come up with a solution around games with microstransactions or loot box mechanics.
“The fear when you introduce government legislation into private enterprise is that we are going to overreach,” Hawaii State Rep. Sean Quinlan told Glixel. “Ultimately, it’s best for the industry to self-police.” He went on to share his ideal outcome — that microtransactions which rely on gambling mechanics are completely banned from games. But Quinlan is also realistic in that he knows that will never happen.
“I know they have a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders, but I think they have a responsibility to customers too. So the ESRB could say that if a game has loot crates, it gets a 21-plus rating,” he suggested.
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Quinlan himself is a gamer, and started to seriously consider the issue of gambling mechanics in games after he spoke to a fellow state legislator who is also a gamer. Because loot boxes are becoming an increasingly popular way for publishers to continue to make money after a game’s initial sell, Quinlan feels that it’s a big enough part of the industry to necessitate potential legal control.
It’s pretty safe to say that all gamers dislike disruptive microtransactions, especially now that it’s transparently seen as a way for publishers to make more money off a game. But is the situation dangerous enough to require an official law to control it? The jury is still out on that.