It is an unfortunate time to be a fan of video gaming.
In the past 24 hours, I've been reading headline after headline, all saying the same thing. The ESRB is to enact a new labeled restriction for games, in particular, games that sell loot boxes through the business practice of microtransactions. The thing is, I should be happy about this news, and yet I can't help but shake my head in disappointment. This is the most barebones solution to a problem I had ever heard. And the cruel irony is this solution will probably have no real effect on the issue at hand. To ignore rules and restrictions is a part of human nature, we may not want to admit it, but it is a part of our modern day society. People will just find ways to circumvent this new restriction and business would continue as usual. But what really worries me is that without a tangible solution to prevent, say, little Jimmy from down the street from racking up a massive debt on his mother's credit card through the act of buying god knows how many loot boxes for Overwatch or Star Wars: Battlefront 2 on his Xbox, or, that one percentage of gambling addicts from scratching their itch for RNG loot at the cost of thousands of dollars, if there isn't a real solution put in place soon, the same thing that almost happened with ultra violent video games back in the 90s, will happen with loot boxes today. That being, our government will be forced to intervene and place their own regulations on video game microtransactions, and if history has taught us anything, almost nothing good has ever come from a government coming in and imposing their own regulations on something as mundane as an entertainment industry. With all that said, what could we do to fix this problem? Personally, I have one or two solutions that would probably have a real effect on the causes of this situation. Either the ESRB can regulate the loot box craze with harsher rules and regulations, or if it will shut up game publishers about their desire for more profit, raise the MSRP for physical copies of games and digital releases by 5 or 10 dollars if it's a solid 70 dollar game price versus multiple transactions of 5 or 10 dollars here and there for loot boxes, just to get access to everything a game has to offer, I'd much rather prefer the former.
Of course, this is just my own opinion. I'd like to hear what you guys think about the situation at hand, so feel free to comment below to let your own voices be heard.
Yours truly,
mastergsg