These laws will ban rewards for spending money within a game for the first time, ban rewards for buying consecutive microtransactions, and ban rewards for daily log-ins.
I would’ve expected to see something like thus out of the EU rather than China, but at least somebody’s making the first move against the predatory monetisation of apps
If only those “think of the children” politicians would do this instead of attempting to ban encryption.
What’s predatory about this? This seems like the least forced purchase in the world – absolutely nobody needs the things they’re selling. They are like a definition of a luxury item.
Predatory as in they literally employ psychologists to help design them to be as addictive as they can be, then they market it towards kids or at the very least don’t really do anything to prevent kids from gambling in them (yeah it’s also partially a parenting issue but can’t really expect all parents to be tech savvy enough to understand all everything about gaming).
Then there’s the other sucky, but just not sucky enough for it to be an illegal side of things: games that these mechanics suck ass and we are getting less and less objectively good games because more and more games seek to make some quick buck by making their games casinos of sorts.
It’s only as luxurious as being addicted to cocaine in hopes that the next line will hit like the first one, or in game terms, hoping that the next loot box gets you the skin/character/whatever you wanted and releases that quick dopamine rush. Rinse and repeat.
The Chinese government has started it‘s witch hunt against video games years ago and we have yet to see any of their draconic laws being enforced. It looks like they made them just so they can cherry pick and suppress whoever disagrees with them one way or another. This will be no exception. Gambling, prostitution and porn are all illegal in mainland China but it has always been a huge and open business in every part of the country.
It’s so destructive that even China doesn’t like it
It’s so destructive that even China doesn’t like it
They probably love that it’s hurting competing nations, though.
Tencent is a Chinese company
Yes and the new rules apply to the Chinese domestic market. Tencent is free to do harm western teens.
Very rare China W.
Seriously seeing this come from China is
Mildly confusing, very unexpected but very much a cool move.
Yeah im sad China is so far ahead of curbing predative monetization than my own country is, now.
But think about the CEO’s freedom of abusing gambling addicts outside of a safe environment with virtually no regulation and that can be used by kids and teens!
I actually wouldn’t have anything against gacha games if they all were marked as Adult-only, even the most dumbass parents would think twice about buying EA FC if it had the AO rating.
Well China doesn’t like companies having power so this is a way to neuter them, especially in response to trying to limit online game consumption already.
Edit: Tencent is apparently the most profitable company in china right now so this is a direct attack at their profits most likely, not just China doing good
Edit2: This video goes into it a bit https://youtu.be/uieLEIVlQgc?si=mNiOlXPn9k7V6XX-
Didn’t China also recently introduce a limit of hours adolescents can game?
The world would be a better place without those transactions in my opinion. It might sound extreme but in my view this is the first step towards gambling addiction.
We as humanity are becoming really obsessed with everything digital instead of spending more time physically interacting with our peers. And unfortunately I am no exception.
Part of the problem is that there’s no incentive for game companies to ensure that players are of an appropriate age and are gambling responsibly. It’s a Pandora’s box of capitalism in the same way fossil fuels, cigarettes, and big pharma are. Their customers have a demand for their product which is driven by a physiological/psychological/socioeconomic need, so they aren’t subject to normal market mechanics.
