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.

  • Th4tGuyII@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    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

    • redcalcium@lemmy.institute
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      9 months ago

      If only those “think of the children” politicians would do this instead of attempting to ban encryption.

    • fosforus@sopuli.xyz
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      9 months ago

      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.

      • Aasikki@sopuli.xyz
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        9 months ago

        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.

        • fosforus@sopuli.xyz
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          9 months ago

          I think the comparison to cocaine is apt. Therefore I find it increasingly odd how parents purchase their children cocaine-delivery mechanisms, and how society deems all this completely legal.

    • CosmoNova@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      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.

    • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      It’s so destructive that even China doesn’t like it

      They probably love that it’s hurting competing nations, though.

    • cannache@slrpnk.net
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      9 months ago

      Even Big China man no happy with your business Mr Wei-song, what should we do?

      “Tell him to fuck himself”

      • Synthuir@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        To add onto what the others have said, the CCP isn’t shy about enforcing restrictions on digital media domestically. For instance, TikTok in China (Douyin) is quite different from the international version with strictly-enforced time limits, content restrictions, etc.

        • undeffeined@lemmy.ml
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          9 months ago

          If it was only money they wanted they would not do this. The limitations they are imposing will cut revenue to their biggest Game companies. I mean, the laws are not in effect and there was already a big crash on Netease and Tencent stock prices.

        • gataloca@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I think the CCP are just trying to do what they think is best for the welfare of their people.

      • Alsephina@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        China doing a better job regulating corporations than the west is nothing new.

        Even this current one happened while Tencent was barely recovering from another regulation set last year. Kicking megacorps while they’re down lol as they should.

        • yamanii@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          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.

          • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            And not only AO, if it included the same required gambling-warnings other gambling system have to show every time they so much as mention their name.

        • This is fine🔥🐶☕🔥@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Probably because CCP wants other countries’ citizens to be addicted to games but not their own.

          How else would they have 9-9-6 model if Chinese youth started going down the path of Japanese hikikomoris?

      • Ilflish@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        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-

  • filister@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    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.

    • Konraddo@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Not recently, but yes.

      Also, there’s regulation to disclose the probability in getting rewards from opening “chests”, which is actually gambling in nature.

    • EssentialCoffee@midwest.social
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      9 months ago

      In 2019, it was limited to 90 minutes on weekdays and not between the hours of 10 pm to 8 am.

      In 2021, it was changed to 1 hour per day, only on Fridays, weekends, and public holidays.

  • yamanii@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    If there’s a behavior psychologist/researcher involved in the creation of a product, it’s evil, simple as. Those gacha games absolutely use them.

  • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    There’s so much addiction and gambling engineered into micro transactions, it’s crazy. I’m glad China is regulating it.

  • notannpc@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Limiting micro transactions and banning predatory reward schemes in video games is genuinely a good thing. We need this to spread around the world.

  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Assuming it’s a clock that’s capable of being right twice a day, which isn’t every clock.

    • Damage@slrpnk.net
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      9 months ago

      Y’all should temper down the sinophobia and just take a good thing for a good thing

      • ArxCyberwolf@lemmy.ca
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        9 months ago

        Sinophobia? Bullshit. Being critical of the Chinese government is not being hateful towards its people. Find something better to be offended over.

        • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Sinophobia? Bullshit. Being critical of the Chinese government is not being hateful towards its people. Find something better to be offended over.

          Triggered much?

        • Sneezycat@sopuli.xyz
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          9 months ago

          This post is about China, and they obviously mean China when saying “broken clock”. What else would they be talking about??

          But I disagree with it being sinophobia; criticism doesn’t equal hate.

          • MolochAlter@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Calling china a broken clock is not sinophobia, it’d be sinophobia if it were saying the clock is broken by virtue of being chinese.

            Same as if i were to shit on the US because it’s a clown country or because it’s run by white people.

  • kaffiene@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Good. These kinds of transactions are exploitative and prey in the weaknesses of people with addictive personalities

  • Nephalis@discuss.tchncs.de
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    9 months ago

    Do you all expect localization is tied to laws for china? I realy don’t think so. Most games are split into global and asia/chinese versions anyway. Why should they remove these mechanics when it isn’t necessary for the market they operate in?

    • echo64@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      The thought process is that for many games, the majority of their revenue comes from these mechanics and from China. The games themselves will need to change to get revenue flowing. And new games won’t be made with this revenue source in general.

      This is similar to how eu regulations can lead to global changes sometimes, China is a big enough market to affect things globally.

      • yamanii@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Yep, I’m not in the EU but thanks to the GDPR I still see the cookies thing on almost every website I go, sometimes these things have a good ripple effect.

  • xePBMg9@lemmynsfw.com
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    9 months ago

    This will also make for better and more enjoyable games. I wonder if players will want to spend more times with those games then.

  • Tier 1 Build-A-Bear 🧸@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    It’d be nice to see that come to rocket League. You know, the game where they removed crates because of the gambling, then removed trading to get kids to spend more money in the shop. So much better :/