Microtransactions, loot boxes, and legislation (Destiny)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Wednesday, November 22, 2017, 18:54 (2640 days ago) @ Avateur

I absolutely do not want legislation, but I DO want the ESRB ratings to reflect loot boxes. If it is indeed gambling, then you can make a game with them, but you just get an AO rating.

This will either do two things:

It will either destigmatize the AO rating and allow more creative freedom. Currently AO games aren't stocked in many retailers and both Sony and Microsoft will not put AO games on their stores. It's kind of like NC-17; it's a death sentence for your game.

Or it will just prevent loot boxes entirely in order to not get an AO rating.

Either way, it's a win.

I'm down with that. My kneejerk reaction was not to legislate gaming, but what if the legislation was some sort of mandate for the ESRB regarding something along the lines of what you described? I'm not sure they'd ever go the AO route, though.

It's an awful idea to legislate the ratings boards. The whole point of them is to work without government interference. And I am pretty sure that legislating ratings is de facto censorship and a violation of amendment 1. We take free speech very seriously in the United States for good reason.