Australian investigation finds lootboxes "psychologically akin to gambling" - Sensationalist Headlines

Public investigation finds loot boxes are "psychologically akin .. A survey of over 7,000 gamers has found "important links between loot box spending and problem gambling". Presented to the Australian Environment and Communications Reference Committee (ECRC), the survey was sparked in response to a academic journal article published in Nature Human Behaviour, titled 'Video game loot boxes are psychologically akin to gambling'. The results were revealed this week during a public hearing by the ECRC, led by Dr David Zendle and Dr Paul Cairns of York St. John University and University of York respectively. Zendle and Cairns' investigation found the more severe an individual's gambling addiction, the more they typically spent on loot boxes, suggesting the results support claims that loot boxes are "psychologically akin to gambling". The report added that "these results also suggest that there is a serious risk for loot boxes to cause gambling-related harm". In particular, the report suggested, loot boxes could act as a gateway to problem gambling among gamers, and provide gaming companies with an unregulated way of "exploiting gambling disorders among their customers".

All the triple A companies with lootboxes "Wha? Wha nooo, surely not!"

good thing we legalized gambling! (in most of the US)

I think it's a great thing that this lootbox shit is finally getting regulated. But I'm a little worried this will open the doors for out of touch committees to try and regulate gaming beyond lootboxes.

All of gaming's eyes descend glaringly upon EA.

I'm glad it was EA that managed to fuck everything up with what should've been the easiest fucking thing in the world to make. So very fitting

Will the game industry adapt? Nah of course not, it'll just block every player from any country that has outlawed lootboxes.

blocks ea's CEO (Australian)

Canada next please.

There was a set of bills actually proposed in Hawaii State legislature for this exact reason but they all died before getting anywhere. ‘Loot box’ bills fail to advance Hopefully future attempts will survive as more people realize that lootbox-induced gambling addiction is a real thing.

Of course it will. But the gaming industry had its self-regulating infrastructure and failed to make proper use of it, so it's entirely on them.

So I thought it was just me when I moved here and thought the ads were obnoxious. I tried watching an episode and it had like a 15 minute commercial break filled with casino ads in a 20 minute episode. Is Sweden unique in this?

Gambling produces the same effect as gambling? What a shock.

How exactly would they regulate it beyond lootboxes? What other elements of games could be associated with gambling?

I mean some already are, they're just copying Fortnite instead

We gotta make sure that monetization remains the focus and not actual content.

In-game gambling that doesn't use real monies. Or, to a more extreme extend, random loots. But the poster's worry could be them trying to regulate other shit such as gore and censorship.

Gambling regulators can't really regulate anything beyond activities that could reasonably be associated with, well, gambling. The other typical angles of attack that videogames face are mostly pushed by niche private interests rather than government agencies, at least in Europe. I wouldn't rule it out completely but right now I'm struggling to think of any particular aspect of modern videogames that would interest regulatory bodies aside from gambling.

They'll do what Valve did and find a loophole

Unfortunately Australia is already doing exactly that.

I feel like an overzealous lawmaker could go after games for utilizing skinner box techniques

a bill to ban all RNG elements from video games as RNG is used in gambling

Finally random crits in TF2 will be no more

On the balance this would probably also be a good thing.

I wonder if theyll get banned outright or if games with lootboxes will just be 18+.

either way it will kill lootboxes as its mainly to siphon parents wallets

Mystery boxes are fun, but I don't wanna spend real money on them and I don't want them to be the only way to access items in-game. Why can't companies just make Mystery Boxes optional?

Fun and content are commodies, and there's no free lunches.

You may not remember but it used to happen before the DLC days. Devs would release new maps and updates because they were actually proud of their game and wanted people to continue playing. Back when gaming wasn't seen as an opportunity to swindle children and child minded adults into buying potential pink dresses for their big breasted avatars. I mean these instances were rare and basically PC exclusive but there was a time, long ago.

Except it's in full price games now. Hey here's your lunch you ordered and paid for, now if you pay me $100 more I might take some of the worms out of it.