Re: Just Another Necessary Reminder That Valve Promotes Underage Gambling

JAB <noway@nochance.com> looked up from reading the entrails of the porn
spammer to utter  "The Augury is good, the signs say:

On 04/01/2025 00:36, Zaghadka wrote:

On Thu, 02 Jan 2025 17:18:45 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Xocyll wrote:
 

Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com> looked up from reading the entrails of
the porn spammer to utter  "The Augury is good, the signs say:

So it's literally designed to look like one, which is why people are
making the connection.

>
How can you make the connection to something you've never experienced
cause you are too young to get in a casino?
>
Does not matter to a kid what it's designed to look like when they have
no frame of reference.
>

You missed the point. The graphic action style is designed to trigger
known psychological weaknesses and exploit people with them. That the
kids have no frame of reference actually makes the situation much, much
worse.
 
So the connection is being made by adults, and it's problematic.
 
I see little difference between adults and kids in this matter, tbh. I
don't think psychology of this kind should be used to exploit people with
certain personality problems, and that's exactly what it does.
 
Casinos make their money by exploiting actual mental illnesses. It's a
shame. Some percentage of the population, including kids, have these
problems.
 
There is persuasiveness and there is exploitation. This has always been
the latter. Like loansharking is.
 

>
I very much agree, the whole opening style of opening the lootboxes
works on certain people and games companies do it anyway but heh, gotta
make money somehow.
>
As for the kids part, a lot of what is said is just a red herring. So
you get the but the games asks how old you are as if that makes any real
difference - why not just a spy are they a spy. That will work; but it's
the parents fault, really please tell me how often you need to sit down
with your fourteen year old child and do an audit of their gaming and
online activity - would once a week be sufficient; are child fair game
if their parents aren't responsible enough. Indeed, little Johnny is
just playing a game, it wouldn't have gambling in it would it otherwise
he wouldn't be allowed to play it.

1. little Johnny had to lie about his age to install the game - that's
not Valve's fault, no matter how much the nanny state cultists want to
blame them.

Not really that far off that whack job lawyer Jack Thompson who blamed
GTA for everything.  Never mind that for every criminal who played GTA
there were a couple million other players who didn't commit a crime
after playing.  
There's a reason he got disbarred in several states.

2. oh I dunno, once a week.
14 yr old Johnny is playing CS:GO, a game about killing other people and
rated 18+, little Johnny gets no allowance.
Johnny either stops playing it, or he gets no allowance ever again,
which means he's not gambling, cause he's fucking broke - problem
solved.

He's either not playing and not gambling on skins, or he's broke and not
gambling on skins.   WIN:WIN

But lazy parents are using computers and games exactly the way their
parents used the television, as a babysitter while they remain unengaged
and uninformed about what their kids are doing.

For the difference between adults and children, in many ways I think
it's even worse for adults as they have access to more money. The amount
of money some of the players spent who were on the World of Tanks forum
was quite eye watering. But, but, they can afford it, well no as studies
have concluded the correlation between whales and disposable income is
weak. Where there is a correlation is between those with problem
gambling traits.
>
The part I really don't get is what argument is there against
classifying those aspects as gambling and being regulated as required?

Gambling is legal most places and is regulated. 

You can't tell adults what to do with their money, unless you want a
totalitarian nanny state to "save" people from making bad decisions.

I'd suggest they start with crypto currency, not gaming.

Xocyll