Very mixed on this. On the one hand, screw EA and not a fan of the loot box system in general. It *is* gambling lite.

My concern is for other game systems to get caught in this. (I love Trading Card Games, like magic, and I'm afraid thy could be caught if the laws are written broad enough.)

Kinder eggs too!

Really? I buy mine for the exceptional quality of the chocolate.

They're already illegal in the US.

I once met a guy in Winnipeg that came up from Minneapolis with the sole purpose of smuggling as many of those eggs as possible back to the states.

BUILD THE CANADA WALL AND MAKE KINDER PAY FOR IT!

Built by German children? That's harsh, man.

They know what they did, those choking hazards are acts of terrorism

Wait... what? I'm clearly behind the curve here, but... bump stocks...sure! Tactical weapons for school kids... sure! Concealed carry in coffee shops... sure! Kinder surprise... fuck no! That's shit's way too dangerous for Uncle Sam?!

Was there a Texas Kinder Surprise massacre in the 80s that somehow escaped my attention?

A FDA rule from the 1930s about "non-nutritive" inclusions in food, that was probably originally written to address things like using wood to make artificial pips in jam or using sawdust as sausage filler, has been interpreted to outlaw the large, unchokeonable capsules Kinder puts inside chocolate.

Why fortune cookies aren't also prohibited is a mystery.

You're better off that way. Even as a child, I remember Kinder Eggs as a huge disappointment.

I was happy about Kinder Eggs coming to the US, until I realized they were just shitty versions of the originals.

The first stage is that you need to admit that you have a problem.

But in seriousness (with the caveat that I don't know much about loot boxes or magic the gathering) don't magic cards at least have some kind of guarantee of x number of common cards and y number of rare ones such that the value of a each pack is roughly equivalent? Seems like less of a gamble if so.

There is also a secondary market where you can buy cards directly, which makes the randomness much less scummy. However, the fact that its secondary may indeed be putting it at risk.

Is it really gambling if you are guaranteed to get more than you paid for? At least that's how the ones I've seen are done.

"The mixing of money and addiction is gambling"

I think it's high time online games were regulated, and ones which are judged to be worst offenders slapped with at least an age restriction, if not outright ban. It's a billion dollar industry, the games companies play psychological hardball to get people to pay, and they knowingly target and manipulate kids.

But why just loot boxes and not games like Candy Crush? I'm not sure why the lines are being drawn where they are.

I think it's because the contents of loot boxes is random. You pay the same every time for them, but you don't know what you're getting. Maybe something bad. Maybe something good. I guess we'll never know because you're going to guard it. You won't touch it, will you?

I think with most games this isn't such a big issue as you either can earn the items with just playing, or it's cosmetics in them loot boxes, besides they don't lean too much on the items in the loot boxes. With Battlefront however it would cost roughly $2100 (or 4500 hours) to unlock all possible loot crates, and most of it pay to win from what I gathered from reviews. You just can't write Steal without EA.

Ren and Stimpy?

At least someone here isn't a philistine.

Make SE great again with SE Karma Krates!

I only found an "I ❤ Matt" iPhone case in mine :-(

Well now I'm wondering if I could raise funds selling myStEry boxes.

https://headgum.com/robot-congress/robot-congress-52-are-loot-boxes-gambling-ft-marc-whipple

Interesting podcast on the issue.