1 in 10 young gamers in debt due to lootboxes

FruitOfTheVale

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I've never spent money on a microtransaction or battlepass in my entire life.

That being said, I did do the greenmangaming lootboxes back in the day where you spent $3-10 for a chance to win some AAA title codes but 80% of the time it would be glorified freeware. I capped my spending at $50 and managed to win Battlefield 4, Alien Isolation and a couple other AAAs :ehh: there were definitely times that the boxes were 100% freeware bullshyt though.

As long as you're able to cap your spending then there isn't really a problem... the problem is most of these kids are being exposed to the loudest 10% of peers who either don't have to cap their spending because their parents are loaded, or because they're legitimately addicted and won't cap their spending. Ironically it's like these kids are just completely unaware of the modding community where you've been able to reskin your characters, create new maps, etc. for the F for literally forever. How the industry managed to monetize modding... :francis:

I really don't understand how these phone games rake in so much $$$$$ either. Then again, I never looked at a phone as a serious gaming device anyway so I never bothered with phone games outside of the Temple Runner/Solitaire/word game variety.
 

Amestafuu (Emeritus)

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I blame consumers. pay to play schemes are for the financially irresponsible

you can't divorce the world of every possible danger a person might encounter just educate them to move smarter. Now if I had a child buying fake money with real money they might need a new home...

stop playing anything with that setup asap.

i remember when smart phones started evolving and I was super exited about mobile gaming going away from stand alone devices with this new tech advancement. Only for that whole arena to turn into a cash grab fest. It completely nuked the potential of mobile gaming on phones. So many people got turned off including myself almost permanently. I haven't had a phone game in many years.
 

NZA

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Over 1 in 10 young gamers get into debt by buying loot boxes
  • Almost one in six (15%) young gamers had taken money from their parents without their permission to buy loots boxes;
  • One in ten (11%) had used their parents’ credit or debit card to fund their loot box purchases;
  • One in ten (9%) had borrowed money they couldn’t repay to spend on loot boxes;
  • Three young gamers’ loot box buying habits resulted in their families having to re-mortgage their homes to cover the costs.
:gucci: i knew i hated these modern game business models but i didnt know it was actually ruining people
 

5n0man

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This is almost as bad as candy and fruit flavored vape juice. Hey kid, you like candy? Well try this vape pen :demonic:

Hey kid you need this awesome new item for your game. You can have a chance of getting it with every new loot box purchase. Don’t have your own money? Take it from your parents :demonic:
Not the same thing

Vaping is an adult activity, something kids shouldn't be around or doing regardless of the flavor of the juices. That's like complaining about kids drinking a candy or fruit flavored alcoholic beverage like Mike's hard lemonade. That's a failure of the parents for not keeping up with the things their kids get into.

Gaming is largely looked at and marketed as a family friendly activity aimed towards children. These games are not advertised as adult products so parents have no idea about the addictive gambling mechanics in products they expect to be safe for children.
 
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