Leaderboard

Hi guys, episode 6 is now available! We actually made our Monday release schedule this week, and now that video is implemented we're hoping to be able to stick to it as much as possible! (We're planning to implement webcam footage soon.) This week Jacob and I discuss the latest Apex Legends news, a new bill aiming to ban microtransactions and lootboxes, the God of War documentary, and more! As always, if you have any questions or topics you'd like us to discuss, please do comment here or below the video!

I think all of you have made some excellent points. @Matt Morgans What you said both here and in the podcast about framing the issue around the children bothers me as well, for the exact reason you mention about the “moral panics” of the 80s and 90s. I remember those panics concerning not just video games, but RPGs, quite clearly. They were quite destructive, and ended up scapegoating entirely innocuous content and communities. @The BlackangelI totally agree that ideally, parents should be the ones putting their foots down. When I was a kid I didn’t have a credit card. My parents were absurdly over-the-top about a lot of things, but on that point I don’t have any issue with what they did. I didn’t need a credit card. @SpaceExplorer I don’t mind cosmetic microtransactions either. I despise those that give an edge though. It’s also tiring when devs release games that don’t provide “finished” value, and then keep charging for content. I’m not big on government regulation of private activities in general, but in the case of gambling, I’d prefer regulation over an outright ban. Even taking all of this into account, I do wish that non-cosmetic microtransactions would go away.

Well the only one I cant think of is Zork 😆 I did played some choose Your Own Adventure Books in High school like the Lone Wolf series. You had to use a dice and math to win battles , kinda like Dungeons and Dragons.

Sounds like quite a journey! Nice for you! xD

As long as the microtransactions don't give you an edge against another player and are purely cosmetic, I don't mind them. They should still be regulated, though, as a lot of companies are exposing people's gambling addictions or are building them.

I personally don't see a big problem with loot boxes. I get a box from skullsunlimited.com every month. But I'm also 37, so that's a moot point. Children need to be monitored by responsible, loving parents, who have their children's best interest at heart when it comes to things like this. I don't mean helicopter parents, but rather aware parents. When the child hits adulthood, the rules change a bit. But until then, they need their parents to keep them safe.

Great work! Love the video footage and discussion!

I probably don’t have any funny stories about online gaming. Plenty of weird stories though, back from my days playing MUDs. The craziest online gaming story I have is about a friend who was trapped in her house during a natural disaster together with her husband. There was a lull in the storm and food available down the street, and they had only a tiny window in which to get out, grab it, and rush back home, but he wouldn’t go. He just had to capture that last objective in his game.

As Jacob and I discussed, we felt that lootboxes probably should be banned. Banning microtransactions, on the other hand, is probably unnecessary, but there should certainly be more regulation of predatory practices involving them. The problem with this bill in particular is really the framing of it and the approach that it's taking in confronting the issue; by framing it as protecting children rather than addressing specific practices it calls to mind the moral panics in the US during the late 80s and 90s around violence in video games and so on, and it suggests that the senator doesn't understand the issue well enough to make a reasoned argument (admittedly, a common problem in US politics when it comes to technology, the internet, and games). I suspect that the bill probably won't get enough attention to progress, but if it does, I think this angle of approach makes it easy for publishers to make some small concessions and put up a facade of making changes while not really changing anything fundamental. There needs to be a serious governmental debate around lootboxes and microtransactions, but I don't think that this bill is the right way to start it.

We had a bloody war in an MMORPG for 3 days over a piece of land (12Sky). Epic days of MMORPG gaming. Eventually we realized our guild masters concluded peace long ago prior to it. Lol.

Back in the day, when I was still a young twat, grinding at Silkroad Online for tens of hours consecutively day by day, I had this friend, comrade, guildie. He was from an upper-middle-class family, and while we've had quite a few memorable moments in SRO, paying for silks was not really an option back then (since we were all very young kids). And so, that guy stole his parents' credit card and bought silks (the in-game currency that you buy with real money) for every member of the guild, the total amount was around 10k EU or so. After that, the guy disappeared into a thin air. I will never forget his sacrifice. Months later (once we've spent all of the gifted silks) our guild quit SRO and we've entered the WoW scene. =D