Not sure if I'd call this "peril..." Call me a boomer, but if killing deliberately addicting feedback loops spells peril for the industry, then the industry has lost the plot.
Nothing inside a video game should cost real money.
The entire business model is an abuse. Only legislation will stop it. You were never going to shop your way out of it - it is the dominant strategy. If we allow it to continue, there will be nothing else.
I'm still not going to glibly endorse the actions of a dictatorship doing the right thing for all the wrong reasons. It is horrific that this human-rights black hole has such an influence on global industries, simply by dictating what its people are allowed to enjoy.
Horseshit. You are guided to value whatever worthless crap the game sells. If that's the only way a game makes money - funneling you toward that is the only reason the game exists. That is what all systems exist for, and that is what the full might of developers' manipulative rhetoric steers you toward.
All video games make you value arbitrary nonsense. That is what makes them games.
Every form of 'it's only X, it's not as bad as Y' is just willful ignorance toward how Y served the purpose of separating you from as much actual money as possible, and X has the exact same goal but a sharper razor.
Honestly, I think it's a good tool for parents (that cares) teach good financial habits from early age. It might even teach parents themselves better financial habits cause a lot of our economics are based on impulse buying behavior. (whether the impulse is generated by superficial, seasonal, compare to Jones, sales and promotions, government rebates, etc. )
If we follow the train of thoughts and going backwards, any "feel good" purchases should not exist and it's an abuse to the consumer. ie. why should you buy a game the torture you for hours with difficult bosses, put you through lots of stress, agony, twisted plots that might make you cry or angry and then you get absolutely nothing you can hold on to except for those "experience" itself. Your console breaks, disk scratched, save file lost, etc and everything would be gone except whatever that's left in your memory.
Why do you buy [insert brand name] shirts, tie, shoes, jacket, blah? This literally extends everywhere.
Let those gacha, impossibly time limited events, all be life lessons. You simply can't get everything, your time and resource are limited, it take special kind of people and dedication(both mentally, physically and financially) to get what they can do. You can't be lucky enough to be a billionaire heir or oil princess? well, too bad, learn to accept reality, just like learning not everyone can make the cut to sports pro-league even if they dedicated their life training for it, genetics decides a lot of factors for that, same for e-sports.
If you can't even bother to teach your children those, well, maybe it's also hard to ask you to review your life decisions.
Once my son is old enough to do basic financial decisions with allowance, I will just let him decide if he wants to use that to buy snacks he liked or whatever in-game currency he wanted. Just like we can't all afford a Ferrari or [insert expensive car], we compromise and make decisions to make us survive and then be happy enough to keep going.
Fuck them kids. This is a problem for everybody, adults especially. Kids are not the "whales" these bastards hunt.
Let those gacha, impossibly time limited events, all be life lessons.
Fuck that. Entertainment does not need to be a nightmarish morality tale about capitalism, let alone one that somehow costs real money! That's not a lesson. That's abuse with an added finger-wag. 'Tut tut, how dare you give us your money, like we tricked you into doing. Bet you won't do it another dozen times!'
Teach your kids to buy good games. Not to throw money at fake shit the game makes them value.
And stop shitting on strangers' hypothetical child-rearing skills in ways that highlight the failure of enforced civility. 'Can't teach your kids not to fall for scams? You must suck at life! Tut tut.' Infer vicious rebuke here.
It is horrific that this human-rights black hole has such an influence on global industries, simply by dictating what its people are allowed to enjoy
Why? You clearly have no issues with any other government denying people their rights and exerting massive influence over media. Just pissy that it isn't your own?
I have not really seen any reports or studies that show the harm of loose gaming policies. Yes, some are addicted and it is an issue, but is this worthy of government intervention in the context of all other issues? I am unsure. Love to see the data which seems to be absent here.
A lot of these microtransactions are designed to prey on vulnerable individuals, at the expense of making the games worse for those who don't pay. It's an exploitative business model that should be outlawed.
Microtransactions are just an even more inbred cousin of nft's where there was never even a theoretical possibility of real value. Dailies and such are cancer if you have to work or do literally anything in real life. This would be a welcome change.