Nothing inside a video game should cost real money. Ban the entire business model. If we allow this to continue, there will be nothing else.

Where was this article when candy crush became big? This article is literally 10+ years way too late. Mobile games to me are basically just one giant scam that forces you to pay or have a horrible time in comparison.

That would also ban online gambling like poker

If you see a difference between two things, so can the law.

That's already banned in quite a lot of countries.

Yeah, no. I like a bunch of games that do this. I've liked games that do this for 40 years. I mean, technically you just banned all arcade games that ever existed. I liked a bunch of those. And I like a bunch of free to play games. I spent a bunch of time playing Hearthstone. I'm gonna say that at least some of the millions of people in LoL would like to keep playing what they're playing. I am looking forward to a bunch of new characters in Street Fighter 6. I kinda don't want to go back to the days where I had to buy a second full price copy of Street Fighter 2 just to get access to 4 new characters. I get that it sounds good to say this when thinking about the worst parts of the industry, but... yeah, no.

> Mobile games to me are basically just one giant scam that forces you to pay or have a horrible time in comparison. So they're the modern arcade games?

This is primarily why I don't bother discussing game balance in live service games. They will never balance the game *to have a level field between the items and characters.* They will always balance the game *to keep you playing* and spending money on mtx. Most players thinking of quitting a game, generally are losing often. The game will notice this, and then give you a win. It's always been noticeable, but some games, like The Finals, are super egregious with it because it shows everyone's MMR right off the bat and you will be able to tell if you will win or lose a match right as it starts when you see that your team is 5 times higher ranked than the other 3 teams, or vice versa.

'But arcades!' Are renting someone else's hardware. Different thing. This did abuse not exist fifteen years ago. 'But free games!' Can just *be free.* Or pay-what-you-want. Or cheap. Or something you already own. How's your back catalog on Steam? This Skinner-box horseshit where a game is \"\"\"free\"\"\" but somehow makes a billion dollars is weaponized frustration. The *handful* of games that were re-released with tiny updates at full price are now the entire industry's goal, thanks to this specific abuse. (And they still got you chumps to buy three 3D versions of Street Fighter.) You can pay the price of a whole-ass game for a *hat.* Lesser versions of that aren't better, just lesser. The opportunity to spend one hundred dollars right the hell now is shoved in your face between rounds. Or dangled each time a lootbox animation juuust misses. Or crammed into your inventory, as a *gift,* mmyes, if only you bought a key. If LoL wants to keep making money they can charge a subscription or sell expansions. Y'know - rational consumer purchasing decisions. Not playing keep-away and then tickling people's balls in a controlled environment where fireworks go off each time you click Confirm Purchase.

https://www.darkpattern.games/

Wait, in what world is a subscription a "rational consumer purchasing decision" where buying characters for a fighting game if you want them as they come out is not? I would prefer to pay for in-game content of any kind, cosmetics included, over paying a subscription for a game. Any day. Especially if the content is characters, as is the case in LoL or Street Fighter. And yeah, I bought three 3D Street Fighter games. And a bunch of characters for each. Even a costume or two. I am extremely on board with that. Money extremely well spent, as far as I'm concerned. Hell, the SF6 community at the moment is *begging* for more cosmetics. They just announced a handful of horny-ass swimsuit costumes and people went *ballistic*. It's not my bag, but if people like them and they know what they're buying who the hell are you to tell them they're wrong, let alone that it should be illegal? I mean, it's a straightforward enough transaction. You think bikini Cammy with tan lines is hot and will pay some money for that skin. I get subsidized by your teenage hormones and keep playing the game I like. Win/win in my book. That's the problem with this train of thought. There's some stuff where you and I agree there are bad practices and we can probably agree on some common sense regulation for them. But if you're going to come at me with a maximalist approach that boils down to "games I don't like shouldn't exist" we're going to disagree. Which, if nothing else, is a good reason for regulation of creative products to be relatively loose whenever possible. I was not on board with Hillary wanting to ban Mortal Kombat in the 90s because she didn't like hearts being ripped off and I'm not on board with people wanting to ban free to play games now. It made sense to have age ratings in the 90s and it makes sense to have that and other common sense regulations now.

> “games I don’t like shouldn’t exist”

This site is fake, it doesn't have Dead By Daylight at the absolute top of dark pattern design, and says DBD Mobile (now shut down) is only -1.43? Also, why would anyone need an account for this? Isn't this just a database? What, does it have a linked forum?

Except the arcade games were at least upfront about it and didn't DELIBERATELY turn up the exploitation a few notches when a potentially EXTRA profitable player was detected by an algorithm made specifically for that purpose. Maximizing corporate profiteering has become the best funded and least regulated scientific discipline in the world and it's not even close.

There are 14,000 games released on Steam every year. What percentage do you believe contain in-game purchases? It's quite literally just the giant AAA venture capitalist backed studios that do this. Just don't buy them. It's like saying if we allow AI art to continue soon there will be no more humans making art. People will always make art. People will always make games. If all the art you see is corporate slop that's a you problem.

If you want to say that certain types of business models, like paying for RNG where you don't know what you're buying, are predatory, I would be with you on that. But your extreme hardline stance of "nothing should cost money ever" is not a reasonable place to draw the line. At least some of what you're railing against should be perfectly fine.

I don't "delight in their exploitation", I am one of the people who buy this stuff. I am not a victim just because you decide I am. I have some say in this. So hell yeah, bait me, daddy. To this day, Dragon Ball FighterZ is probably the best gaming experience I've ever had. I was there at ground floor, bought every character, watched every tournament, got competitive. I ended up with three copies of the game, all 100%-ed and with hundreds of hours of play. And the only thing that bums me out is that they had to bail out of it early, presumably to go make Marvel Tokon. I will be on ground floor for Tokon, and I will be funding that mouse engine with a bunch of piecemeal cash, I'm sure. And I need you to listen to me when I tell you that it's going to be on purpose, that I'm not a victim, that I hope that treadmill lasts for a good long while and that the game is good enough to support it. So please spare me the benevolent outrage. I don't need your protection from my own taste. I would very much appreciate an offline-playable version of the game I can buy with all the DLC down the line, like I did for Marvel vs Capcom 3 or Street Fighter IV, and thanks to the weirdly wholesome interaction between developers and the FGC I may actually get that at some point to support tournament play. But otherwise? Nobody is complaining. You can go save somebody else. And hey, I say this being a big fan of single player games, and a big supporter of physical media and game preservation. But you come here to tell me that some of my favourite games —and I'm talking game-changing experiences I cherish deeply— should have been illegal and I just don't know better? Yeah, not gonna fly, Hillary.

>> I get subsidized by your teenage hormones and keep playing the game I like. Uh huh. > So hell yeah, bait me, daddy. Nope, pulling the chute on this conversation.

Half the industry by revenue and growing. 'But indies!' means nothing, when you count two games with $43 in revenue between them, like that's twice as many games as Fortnite. > People will always make art. People will always make games. If all the art you see is corporate slop that’s a you problem.