Incline The Death of Freemium? Microtransactions Under Global Scrutiny

[mondblut]

an artform?

 

[Santander02]

Here's a a video that leaves the morality of it all aside for the most part and explains why lootboxes make a game shittier even if you never even think of shelling out the shekels for them



Basically, even you are a nihilist/edgelord and don't care about the ethics of lootbox gambling and even if so far only modern AAA games use the model (in the west at least), the practice WILL spread until every game short of low budget pretentious indie crap has gameplay that that actively tries to make players feel frustration and tedium if they refuse to buy the damned things. And I don't want to play only low budget pretentious indie crap for the rest of my gaming life. Do you?

I might actually just swear off games entirely if this shitty business models become the industry standard, and I'm getting there, I haven't been playing any recent high profile game for a good year or so due to crap like this.

 

[Average Manatee]

A thought I had was that this outrage is comparable to the outrage over Diablo 3's real money item trading.

The interesting thing is that Diablo 3's system was tried and immediately despised and reviled in 2012, but the lootbox crap has existed all the way until basically 2018 without any real pushback. This is despite the fact that D3's system is way better for players than BF2's system. BF2's system relies on a bloated list of thousands of items of crap that are there to pretend you got something for your cash when you never actually get what you want. In D3's system, you'd be able to trade what you don't want for what you do want. Unlocking anything but the most desired characters would probably cost 1/10th to 1/100th the average price to "roll" them in a lootbox drop, and even the best characters (Darth Vader/Han/whatever) would still sell at around the same price or better (even if 90% of players want to play Han, the 10% left over still sit around to drive the price down).

The only explanation I can come up with is that we're effectively seeing a video game example of people preferring a socialist economy (everyone gets just a drip feed of non-lootbox crap and can't trade anything, paying 100% to the developer) rather than a free market one (players getting most of the items themselves and the dev merely taxing a few % on transactions). Even when the former is far inferior for players the latter is more inherently despised because of the idea that paying other players, or good players making money off bad players, is somehow "wrong".

 

[Santander02]

"Uncucked" Britain is a pile of horeshit.



It's all up to the Belgians now, as far as Europe goes, harrumph...

 

[Cael]

No. They never were LEGALLY gambling. I have been through that in the other thread (where ignoramuses decided that I was posting crap simply because they didn't agree with what I said). That is the problem, which I have also iterated in the other thread. Technology has moved on and the gambling laws are behind the times. They need to be modified to take into account the new media of the Internet and online virtual gambling.

If all the politicos are doing is to look at whether lootboxes constitutes gambling as far as the law is concerned right now as is, then there is no hope. If they are looking at the whole idea of lootboxes with the open mind of changing/updating laws if such changes are required, then we have a chance to have lootboxes made illegal.

 

[Lahey]

This youtuber can't even go 20 seconds without bungling the facts. To reiterate, Australia/France/America haven't opened any official investigations as of yet; A single Australian regulator shared his opinion informally via email, There has been correspondence on the matter between a French senator and his country's online gambling regulators, and the statements from Chris Lee -- who is not a member of the U.S. house of representatives, he's a Hawaiian state representative -- are thus far purely rhetorical. The UK Gambling Commission position paper from march was quite clear, if anything their recent update created more ambiguity.

 

[Freddie]

Here's a a video that leaves the morality of it all aside for the most part and explains why lootboxes make a game shittier even if you never even think of shelling out the shekels for them



Basically, even you are a nihilist/edgelord and don't care about the ethics of lootbox gambling and even if so far only modern AAA games use the model (in the west at least), the practice WILL spread until every game short of low budget pretentious indie crap has gameplay that that actively tries to make players feel frustration and tedium if they refuse to buy the damned things. And I don't want to play only low budget pretentious indie crap for the rest of my gaming life. Do you?

I might actually just swear off games entirely if this shitty business models become the industry standard, and I'm getting there, I haven't been playing any recent high profile game for a good year or so due to crap like this.

While not related to gambling, AFAIK, I don't play Destiny 2, this influence of decline, I happened to see link to following post regarding XP in Destiny 2 today. It's 3 days old but I didn't see this covered in Codex yet. And it's solid, Bungie outright admitted it.

The thing is, Bungie is selling XP booster which may actually be counter productive for the players, I didn't dig more about it, but I think it's quite obvious what Bungies interest there might be.

Here is What is Really Going on with XP in Destiny 2 (self.DestinyTheGame)

submitted 3 days ago * by EnergiserXx3

Thanks for listening Bungie

TLDR – If you earn XP slow, the ingame display is correct. If you play normally, the game drops some XP (~ 50%). If you power-grind XP the game will drop most of your XP (in testing, I managed to lose ~95% of the XP during an ‘enemies moving against each other’ event)

Recently there have been a few threads here discussing a supposed ‘XP cap’ or XP scaling. I saw posts from a few people who had looked at what happened across a couple of public events, or screenshots showing a large “+12345 XP” number, with a miniscule amount of progress in the bar. Seeing as grinding for Season 1 exclusive items from bright engrams was my only real motivator to play Destiny 2 anymore, I decided to do my own investigation.

Method

I went about my testing by recording all of the gameplay on my Hunter for last week. Periodically, I would also record the current amount of ‘XP to a bright engram’ using DIM. Afterwards I would watch through the gameplay, and record every chain of XP I earned into a spreadsheet, along with the timestamp of when it was banked (when the text disappeared from the screen ingame), and how many pixels it contributed to the ingame XP progress bar.

I then created some graphs to overlay what I earned ingame with what DIM showed. Since the XP bar ingame is 360 pixels long, I calculated that 80000 XP/360 pixels= 222.8 (rounded to 225) XP per pixel could be used to estimate how much XP was being recorded in the backend, at a higher frequency than I could get data from DIM.

Many of my values (especially the pixels of progress in the XP bar) have a decent margin of error associated with them, I accept that, but they should be able to be compared among themselves to show trends. Or as a ballpark figure to show that the progress bar does correspond to the XP as shown by the Bungie API via DIM.

All data was recorded during the clarion call.

Test 1 - First 10 minutes of the week - See graph

Initially I decided to just play the game how I normally would. Go into patrol on the Flashpoint destination for the week, and do some patrols while hitting up public events. Well Rested buff was active, and I had a +10% ghost.

Where all the XP graphs are flat, or at low gradient, they’re all roughly parallel, meaning that almost no XP is being lost.

Where there’s a sudden jump between 9:22 and 10:48 is when I completed a patrol mission. Note that the Estimated Recorded XP jumps by only half as much – 6000 XP : 3375 XP (56% recorded)

When the public event ended at roughly 13:41, again the yellow Estimated Recorded XP only rises by half the value that was displayed ingame -19800 XP : 9450 XP (48% recorded)

Note that the DIM XP went up by slightly more than my estimation, meaning that my pixel measurements were on average smaller than they should be, but not by much.

It’s also worth noticing that the orange XP per Pixel line stayed between 200 and 500 XP/pixel.

Test 2 – Lots of XP during Public Events? - See Graph

Later on in my playtime I was doing a Glimmer Drill public event, immediately followed by an ‘Enemies Moving Against Each Other’ event. This was the period where I was consistently earning lots of XP, and banked two of my largest chains back-to-back. During this period I had Well Rested, but no ghost.

The biggest thing to take from this is that the Estimated Recorded XP was roughly flat for the duration of both events, while the Ingame XP skyrocketed. Across the two events I earned nearly 7.5x more XP ingame than was recorded in DIM – 53832 XP : 7200 XP (13.4% recorded)

For the Public Event completion XP and the chain of almost every enemy I killed during the ‘moving against each other’ the ratios were – 17070 XP : 1125 XP (6.5% recorded) and 17046 XP : 675 XP (4% recorded) respectively

The XP per pixel measure peaks at 5682, compared to <500 for Test 1, then drops back to <500 as soon as the events finish, and I stop earning XP at the high rates. The scaling rate dropped back to ~50% across 60 to 90 seconds, during which I died, and then banked a couple of smaller XP chains.

After it dropped back, I earned more real progress with those 3 small chains in 2 minutes than I had throughout the preceding 6 minutes of public events and crazy killing.

Test 3 – Earn it slow. Get what you deserve? - See graph

After seeing the above cases I was wondering… what happens if I intentionally earn XP at a really slow rate… will DIM still show less earned than ingame?

This time I killed one enemy at a time. Waited for the chain to bank, then moved on to the next enemy.

No estimations required this time. Across a 9 minute period the ingame tally and DIM lined up EXACTLY – 4149 XP : 4149 XP (100% recorded)

So the XP ingame is correct, and at the same scale as in the API and backend… until you start earning it too fast.

Conclusions

The XP displayed ingame is at the same scale as in the API and 3rd party apps.

There is a hidden scaling factor that ramps up as you earn XP more quickly.

The scaling factor will increase at least to the point where you’re only really earning 4% of what you should.

Public Events will only ever earn you 50% of what they say, as the end of event XP alone is enough to trigger a 50% scaling factor.

To get one thing clear: There is no cap to XP. You can keep earning XP as fast as you want, and you will always be making progress towards that next bright engram. You will just face dramatically diminishing returns the faster you go.

This final graph covers my XP earnings across nearly 3 hours of playtime

Total Playtime Graph

Note the “Adjusted Ingame XP Cumulative” is what I would have earned if the Well Rested buff expired when I actually earned 240,000XP, instead of when Bungie’s scaled XP finally reached 240,000. The Calculated Lost XP is then based on that number.

Over the 3 hours I should have earned ~1.5 more bright engrams than I did (129,825 XP).

At the best conversion rates of AUD$76.20/5000 silver and 800 silver for 5 bright engrams, that is the equivalent of AUD$3.96 lost across 3 hours of gameplay.

Spreadsheet with all the data is here if people want to look… no I’m not going to make it clean, I already spent enough time on this (even though I will admit I enjoyed getting stuck into some ‘science’)

Also many thanks to my clan-mates for sticking around to give me the Clarion Call double XP... made this process go MUCH quicker than it would have.

 

[mondblut]

And I don't want to play only low budget pretentious indie crap for the rest of my gaming life. Do you?

If the likes of Grimoire and Dominions qualify as "low budget pretentious indie crap", a resounding YES, SIR.

I might actually just swear off games entirely

Long overdue.

I haven't been playing any recent high profile game for a good year or so

Oh wow. A tremendous sacrifice. Don't forget to sign some online petition promising all those bethsofts and biowares that they "lost a customer" or whatever.

 

[Average Manatee]

While not related to gambling, AFAIK, I don't play Destiny 2, this influence of decline, I happened to see link to following post regarding XP in Destiny 2 today. It's 3 days old but I didn't see this covered in Codex yet. And it's solid, Bungie outright admitted it.

The thing is, Bungie is selling XP booster which may actually be counter productive for the players, I didn't dig more about it, but I think it's quite obvious what Bungies interest there might be.

That's interesting. If you are selling something that gives +10% XP for real money, but buying it actually only gives +8% XP, this would seem to constitute actual business fraud that the FBI would love to hear about.

 

[Freddie]

While not related to gambling, AFAIK, I don't play Destiny 2, this influence of decline, I happened to see link to following post regarding XP in Destiny 2 today. It's 3 days old but I didn't see this covered in Codex yet. And it's solid, Bungie outright admitted it.

The thing is, Bungie is selling XP booster which may actually be counter productive for the players, I didn't dig more about it, but I think it's quite obvious what Bungies interest there might be.

That's interesting. If you are selling something that gives +10% XP for real money, but buying it actually only gives +8% XP, this would seem to constitute actual business fraud that the FBI would love to hear about.

The question is if boost item triggers scaling, because player earns more XP. Like it's in the post:

To get one thing clear: There is no cap to XP. You can keep earning XP as fast as you want, and you will always be making progress towards that next bright engram. You will just face dramatically diminishing returns the faster you go.

I can't comment legal position of Bungie in the US regarding this. As gamer however, I think this sort of practices are cancer. I don't think it's a small box, like some games do this. I think for any that are successful rise more demands from the investors to bring more this sort of schemes into games. At the same time focus of game development will shift more and more towards building these schemes and hooks for those, rather than actual game, be that adventure or something else, where player skill is what is supposed to matter.

So industry follows the money of course, instead of actual game devs we start seeing more people who are good at creating gambling mechanics and psychological hooks to pay to win and as evident from this and the Battlefront 2 case, it isn't just that freemium titles that are affected. In the end we are getting more and more products that are tailored to be good experiences to the certain point, and then terrible experience onwards, just to build players incentive to buy that extra item, or take a chance with loot crate. Games designed overall to be bad.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

 

[Cael]

As gamer however, I think this sort of practices are cancer. I don't think it's a small box, like some games do this. I think for any that are successful rise more demands from the investors to bring more this sort of schemes into games. At the same time focus of game development will shift more and more towards building these schemes and hooks for those, rather than actual game, be that adventure or something else, where player skill is what is supposed to matter.

This is a result of MMOs and the like, and is not about to stop. Merchants have been selling crap products for inflated prices since the year dot. Historically, it is when they start being fraudulent about it that something needs to be done about it. That is why we have laws against those kinds of practices.

Let's be clear here: There is really no issue with pay2win in MMO style games, SO LONG as they are advertised as such so that the consumer is informed of what they are getting into. It is when they advertise as free to play but never mentions you MUST pay2win, that is when there is fraud. There is a reason the phrase "lying by omission" exists.

The OTHER issue, which EA fall afoul of is this: Purchases that give you a CHANCE of getting something, which must be repurchased after EACH ATTEMPT. That is basically taking a pull on a slot machine (although it may not be as defined by the law, the mechanism is identical): put money in, pull lever (or tap button these days), hope for the jackpot. This should be regulated just like any other gambling establishment.

The THIRD issue is one that many Flash MMOs have: "Encouragement" to spend, specifically targeted at the weak-willed and the young. As I have said before, that game I linked to is OPEN about the fact they insert company funded trolls into their servers with the specific purpose to goad real players into buying things. That is fraud in all but name, but it exists and needs to be clamped down on and policed. Also all those "just one more step, you can make it, just pay for that last step, you got the previous 4 for free!" transactions. Even more insidious, as used by the game I linked to, is the fact that that last "step" is a dice roll. Sure, you can complete the run if you roll a 6, but if you didn't guess what? You have to pay for ANOTHER dice roll, and since you have paid for one, you are more likely to pay for the second. And they have spots where you are sent BACKWARDS, necessitating even MORE dice rolls. As I said, very insidious and need to be terminated.

EA really only fell afoul of the second issue. But it shone a light on the whole industry and I hope to hell people start waking up to 1 and 3 because they are far more eregious. 1 is outright fraud by any other name. 3 is gambling writ large.

I have said before, anyone who has NOT played the game I linked to does NOT know the true extent of how bad things are and can get. They think that Battlefront II is the worst it can be. WRONG! "You ain't seen sheee-it, man!"

 

[Santander02]

And I don't want to play only low budget pretentious indie crap for the rest of my gaming life. Do you?

If the likes of Grimoire and Dominions qualify as "low budget pretentious indie crap", a resounding YES, SIR.

I might actually just swear off games entirely

Long overdue.

I haven't been playing any recent high profile game for a good year or so

Oh wow. A tremendous sacrifice. Don't forget to sign some online petition promising all those bethsofts and biowares that they "lost a customer" or whatever.

I'll admit there's some gems among budget indie games, but those just come allong once or twice every few years, if at all.

"Sacrifice" implies that I actually wanted to play those games, but they never caught my interest to begin with. As for Bioware and Beth, I've stopped caring about them since way more than one year, but freemium's influence extends beyond rpgs.

 

[Freddie]

As gamer however, I think this sort of practices are cancer. I don't think it's a small box, like some games do this. I think for any that are successful rise more demands from the investors to bring more this sort of schemes into games. At the same time focus of game development will shift more and more towards building these schemes and hooks for those, rather than actual game, be that adventure or something else, where player skill is what is supposed to matter.

This is a result of MMOs and the like, and is not about to stop. Merchants have been selling crap products for inflated prices since the year dot. Historically, it is when they start being fraudulent about it that something needs to be done about it. That is why we have laws against those kinds of practices.

Let's be clear here: There is really no issue with pay2win in MMO style games, SO LONG as they are advertised as such so that the consumer is informed of what they are getting into. It is when they advertise as free to play but never mentions you MUST pay2win, that is when there is fraud. There is a reason the phrase "lying by omission" exists.

The OTHER issue, which EA fall afoul of is this: Purchases that give you a CHANCE of getting something, which must be repurchased after EACH ATTEMPT. That is basically taking a pull on a slot machine (although it may not be as defined by the law, the mechanism is identical): put money in, pull lever (or tap button these days), hope for the jackpot. This should be regulated just like any other gambling establishment.

The THIRD issue is one that many Flash MMOs have: "Encouragement" to spend, specifically targeted at the weak-willed and the young. As I have said before, that game I linked to is OPEN about the fact they insert company funded trolls into their servers with the specific purpose to goad real players into buying things. That is fraud in all but name, but it exists and needs to be clamped down on and policed. Also all those "just one more step, you can make it, just pay for that last step, you got the previous 4 for free!" transactions. Even more insidious, as used by the game I linked to, is the fact that that last "step" is a dice roll. Sure, you can complete the run if you roll a 6, but if you didn't guess what? You have to pay for ANOTHER dice roll, and since you have paid for one, you are more likely to pay for the second. And they have spots where you are sent BACKWARDS, necessitating even MORE dice rolls. As I said, very insidious and need to be terminated.

EA really only fell afoul of the second issue. But it shone a light on the whole industry and I hope to hell people start waking up to 1 and 3 because they are far more eregious. 1 is outright fraud by any other name. 3 is gambling writ large.

I have said before, anyone who has NOT played the game I linked to does NOT know the true extent of how bad things are and can get. They think that Battlefront II is the worst it can be. WRONG! "You ain't seen sheee-it, man!"

Oh, I know this. Then there are things I think are practically impossible to prove, like if Warframe is tailored for people on autism spectre. For legal sides of things, I think it's obvious and covered in this and Battlefront topic already. But I disagree that this sort of thing is only influencing retards or Warframe or freemium (as evident).

Time, resources... or money to hire those teams of gambling specialist and crooked psychologist must come from somewhere, then those teams needs leads too, and what they come up with must be implemented to game, so it might be reason to additional coding, perhaps something needs to be rewritten, etc. It's that additional cost AND cost of additional entropy in process of shift of focus, what publishers consider as 'good' product on gaming market.

I don't know, I wouldn't mind buying some AAA title if something good some day materialised. I wouldn't mind finding fun MP game either, but for now for all I can say is that Codexers may want to take a good look if EA's Anthem is going to be disaster perhaps for different reasons than ME: Andromeda. That said, based on what was posted on Andromeda topic, funny how gimped the weapons in ME: Andromeda MP were? Sure not ruining the game for building incentive to buy cards which may or may not give you a weapon upgrade.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

And I don't want to play only low budget pretentious indie crap for the rest of my gaming life. Do you?

If the likes of Grimoire and Dominions qualify as "low budget pretentious indie crap", a resounding YES, SIR.

I might actually just swear off games entirely

Long overdue.

I haven't been playing any recent high profile game for a good year or so

Oh wow. A tremendous sacrifice. Don't forget to sign some online petition promising all those bethsofts and biowares that they "lost a customer" or whatever.

I'll admit there's some gems among budget indie games, but those just come allong once or twice every few years, if at all.

"Sacrifice" implies that I actually wanted to play those games, but they never caught my interest to begin with. As for Bioware and Beth, I've stopped caring about them since way more than one year, but freemium's influence extends beyond rpgs.

I’ve got 30+ years of gaming history to plow through, a constant trickle of new indie, Kickstarter whatever games and my limited amount of gaming time is probably not going to increase until I’m hanging out at the retirement home. My backlog is so big that there is no realistic chance of me actually playing through all of these games in my fucking lifetime.

Just recently I decided to get into serious flight sims. This alone has the potential to occupy the next years of my life, gaming wise.

Why the hell would anyone care about modern AAA games and their shenanigans?

 

[Santander02]

If you don't care about modern games nor about the fact that publishers want to incentivate adictions in children, then fine, there's nothing more about to talk about with you nihilistic edgelords, but I personally do not like the way the industry is going and I very much care about the ethical implications of these practices like I said on the very first page of this thread. I'll continue this conversation with people that do care though.

 

[Cael]

Oh, I know this. Then there are things I think are practically impossible to prove, like if Warframe is tailored for people on autism spectre. For legal sides of things, I think it's obvious and covered in this and Battlefront topic already. But I disagree that this sort of thing is only influencing retards or Warframe or freemium (as evident).

Time, resources... or money to hire those teams of gambling specialist and crooked psychologist must come from somewhere, then those teams needs leads too, and what they come up with must be implemented to game, so it might be reason to additional coding, perhaps something needs to be rewritten, etc. It's that additional cost AND cost of additional entropy in process of shift of focus, what publishers consider as 'good' product on gaming market.

No one who is seriously debating this topic says they are only influencing retards. Only those idiot trolls are. Pay attention.

I don't give a damn what the companies are paying. Drug lords pay their pushers, too. Shall we make taking drugs legal?

 

[mondblut]

Shall we make taking drugs legal?

Absolutely. How is that even a point of contention?

 

[Dexter]

https://archive.fo/9YSpC

The video games industry forms a coalition to fight the lootcrate gambling crisis.
11/27/2017
[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource GamesPress.]

As a result of the increasing external pressure for reform and regulation on the games industry, a group of industry leaders and experts has agreed to come together in a more permanent way, forming the National Committee for Games Policy (NCGP). We made this decision in response to the current crisis regarding the expansion of loot crate economies and concerns about unregulated online gambling, but also as an acceptance of a long in coming decision that we knew would eventually become necessary. Games are not represented or understood in the modern political and judicial world, and that needs to change.

Unlike the IGDA, we are not an association of game developers. We are a coalition of high level industry experts and influencers. Membership in the NCGP is by invite only. We will work on the behalf of games industry professionals of all political leanings. In order to do this, the NCGP has appointed a steering committee with significant political experience on both ends of the spectrum. Where video games, politics, and law intersect, you will be sure to find the NCGP.

The first action of the NCGP is its creation; a privately funded think tank known as the ITK. The work of the NCGP ITK is to represent itself as a group of consummate professionals from every part of the video game community. We seek to represent the entire industry, and as such will not release opinions on differences within the industry except as they relate to public policy. Members names will only be released if they give permission, and their writing reflects their own opinions. The NCGP will never take a position on policy; we will give policy makers the information the information they need to make informed decision. Our political connections will get this information to them.

The second and much more important arm of the NCGP is our establishment of the video game industry's first, and de facto, self regulatory organization. Independent of the think tank is the NCGP SRO. As an SRO, our purpose is to protect consumers from unscrupulous video game companies by investigating and bringing legal action against those companies that have damaged the public consciousness in some way, whether mental or physical. To do this we’ve enlisted the aid of game developer’s employees as well. By establishing the first video game industry whistleblower center, we’re able to help the video game industry fight things such as overtime pay.

As part of our work as an SRO, we will release a quarterly list of companies who we have cited and the reason for citation. While we do hope to help as many people as possible, a complaint doesn’t become a citation without further investigation and action by the NCGP.

Contact: www.ncgp.ga

 

[Cael]

https://archive.fo/9YSpC

The video games industry forms a coalition to fight the lootcrate gambling crisis.
11/27/2017
[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource GamesPress.]

As a result of the increasing external pressure for reform and regulation on the games industry, a group of industry leaders and experts has agreed to come together in a more permanent way, forming the National Committee for Games Policy (NCGP). We made this decision in response to the current crisis regarding the expansion of loot crate economies and concerns about unregulated online gambling, but also as an acceptance of a long in coming decision that we knew would eventually become necessary. Games are not represented or understood in the modern political and judicial world, and that needs to change.

Unlike the IGDA, we are not an association of game developers. We are a coalition of high level industry experts and influencers. Membership in the NCGP is by invite only. We will work on the behalf of games industry professionals of all political leanings. In order to do this, the NCGP has appointed a steering committee with significant political experience on both ends of the spectrum. Where video games, politics, and law intersect, you will be sure to find the NCGP.

The first action of the NCGP is its creation; a privately funded think tank known as the ITK. The work of the NCGP ITK is to represent itself as a group of consummate professionals from every part of the video game community. We seek to represent the entire industry, and as such will not release opinions on differences within the industry except as they relate to public policy. Members names will only be released if they give permission, and their writing reflects their own opinions. The NCGP will never take a position on policy; we will give policy makers the information the information they need to make informed decision. Our political connections will get this information to them.

The second and much more important arm of the NCGP is our establishment of the video game industry's first, and de facto, self regulatory organization. Independent of the think tank is the NCGP SRO. As an SRO, our purpose is to protect consumers from unscrupulous video game companies by investigating and bringing legal action against those companies that have damaged the public consciousness in some way, whether mental or physical. To do this we’ve enlisted the aid of game developer’s employees as well. By establishing the first video game industry whistleblower center, we’re able to help the video game industry fight things such as overtime pay.

As part of our work as an SRO, we will release a quarterly list of companies who we have cited and the reason for citation. While we do hope to help as many people as possible, a complaint doesn’t become a citation without further investigation and action by the NCGP.

Contact: www.ncgp.ga

The phrase "...a coalition of high level industry experts and influencers..." sets off all sorts of alarm bells as it is typical SJW-speak. Add to that, they are already setting up "think tanks" and committees and are already trying to represent the WHOLE industry (without ever asking the industry permission to do so). All these are very SJW-esque powergrab tactics.

It would end up like the Media Watch over here, which rubberstamps anything the SJWs say no matter how vile but condemns others for using words like "man".

 

[fantadomat]

https://archive.fo/9YSpC

The video games industry forms a coalition to fight the lootcrate gambling crisis.
11/27/2017
[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource GamesPress.]

As a result of the increasing external pressure for reform and regulation on the games industry, a group of industry leaders and experts has agreed to come together in a more permanent way, forming the National Committee for Games Policy (NCGP). We made this decision in response to the current crisis regarding the expansion of loot crate economies and concerns about unregulated online gambling, but also as an acceptance of a long in coming decision that we knew would eventually become necessary. Games are not represented or understood in the modern political and judicial world, and that needs to change.

Unlike the IGDA, we are not an association of game developers. We are a coalition of high level industry experts and influencers. Membership in the NCGP is by invite only. We will work on the behalf of games industry professionals of all political leanings. In order to do this, the NCGP has appointed a steering committee with significant political experience on both ends of the spectrum. Where video games, politics, and law intersect, you will be sure to find the NCGP.

The first action of the NCGP is its creation; a privately funded think tank known as the ITK. The work of the NCGP ITK is to represent itself as a group of consummate professionals from every part of the video game community. We seek to represent the entire industry, and as such will not release opinions on differences within the industry except as they relate to public policy. Members names will only be released if they give permission, and their writing reflects their own opinions. The NCGP will never take a position on policy; we will give policy makers the information the information they need to make informed decision. Our political connections will get this information to them.

The second and much more important arm of the NCGP is our establishment of the video game industry's first, and de facto, self regulatory organization. Independent of the think tank is the NCGP SRO. As an SRO, our purpose is to protect consumers from unscrupulous video game companies by investigating and bringing legal action against those companies that have damaged the public consciousness in some way, whether mental or physical. To do this we’ve enlisted the aid of game developer’s employees as well. By establishing the first video game industry whistleblower center, we’re able to help the video game industry fight things such as overtime pay.

As part of our work as an SRO, we will release a quarterly list of companies who we have cited and the reason for citation. While we do hope to help as many people as possible, a complaint doesn’t become a citation without further investigation and action by the NCGP.

Contact: www.ncgp.ga

The phrase "...a coalition of high level industry experts and influencers..." sets off all sorts of alarm bells as it is typical SJW-speak. Add to that, they are already setting up "think tanks" and committees and are already trying to represent the WHOLE industry (without ever asking the industry permission to do so). All these are very SJW-esque powergrab tactics.

It would end up like the Media Watch over here, which rubberstamps anything the SJWs say no matter how vile but condemns others for using words like "man".

Makes you curious what their first retardism will be. Maybe every 5% from lootboxes will go toward a good cause like helping homeless trannies,or a free crapuchino once week in starbucks.

 

[Lahey]

One would think they'd make sure their first press release didn't contain so many errors.

Privately funded think-tank whose membership is not publicly available appoints itself as representative of the entire industry, but won't take policy positions despite planning on being "everywhere video games, politics, and law intersect"? Yeah because we all saw how well that went with DiGRA. But wait, there's more!

The second and much more important arm of the NCGP is our establishment of the video game industry's first, and de facto, self regulatory organization. Independent of the think tank is the NCGP SRO. As an SRO, our purpose is to protect consumers from unscrupulous video game companies by investigating and bringing legal action against those companies that have damaged the public consciousness in some way, whether mental or physical. To do this we’ve enlisted the aid of game developer’s employees as well. By establishing the first video game industry whistleblower center, we’re able to help the video game industry fight things such as overtime pay.

And here I thought the ESRB and PEGI were already self-regulatory bodies within the industry. Silly me! "Damaging the public consciousness" raises yet more alarm bells as this is classic PR speak which -- coupled with the lack of transparency -- indicates what one can expect from this "regulator". Establishing itself as a whistleblower magnet is the cherry.

www.ncgp.ga

At least their steering committee is public:

Kenneth Tran

Kenneth is the cofounder of Incuvation Games, known as the publisher of Nemexia. He has worked as a manager for Company of Heroes: Online, CrimeCraft, and GONG! Online. He currently serves on the steering committee of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), business and legal SIG.

Chair. Freemium dev.

Jack Wegrich

Jack is a professional community manager for indie games. He has worked as a community manager for Zozbot, Eco, and Nemexia. Collectively, he has overseen tens of thousands of players across multiple game genres.

Vice-chair who was CM for Tran's game and other freemium titles. Also:

https://blackshellmedia.com/2017/02...community-manager-cut-throat-robotics-zozbot/

On the twenty-fourth episode of Indie Insider, host Logan Schultz sits down with Jack Wegrich, the 16-year old full time high school student who also happens to be the Community Manager of multiple projects, including the Silicon Valley start-up, Cut Throat Robotics. The two chat about Cut Throat Robotic’s main endeavor, Zozbot, as well as Jack’s work on the indie game Brutal Nature. Additionally, Logan talks with Jack about working young, the future of the indie video game industry, and his advice for other future Community Managers.

https://angel.co/jack-wegrich

Jack Wegrich - Freelance Community Manager. Currently employed by Cut Throat Robotics as Senior Game Development Manager and CM, as well as Rouge Ruckus as CM

https://www.quora.com/profile/Jack-Wegrich?page_id=4

Jack Wegrich History enthusiast since I was 5, gamer since 6, community manager since 12. [...] I was born in the melenial year.

The companies he currently works for http://cutthroatconsulting.com/Home_Page.html and http://www.rogueruck.us. Considering he misspelt the latter and other things (melenial) and is a CM, I'm willing to bet he wrote that press statement.

Riley Worcester

Riley is an accounting and tax professional who has worked for several large accounting firms. He holds an MBA in taxation and was president of California State Fullerton’s MBA Association.

Can't find much without linkedin/zuccbook etc. but he's an accountant currently with http://www.sfostax.com and formerly of http://rsmus.com.

Michael Luxion

Michael is the founder of Paralux Interactive. Previously he was a games producer for Pokemon the Trading Card Game. Before that, he was a games journalist for e-sports organization Championship Gaming Series.

e-sports journo turned failed shovelware dev. His company's sole attempt at producing a game, Sportball Manager, failed to hit its kickstarter goal back in 2015. His twitter seems to have been created for and abandoned after this time.

Bryan Haskell

Bryan is currently a project manager at ESL, the world’s largest esports company. Before this he was a producer Brandissimo! for title NFL Rush Zone. He also worked for Activision as the live operations lead on Call of Duty Elite.

http://www.brandissimo.com "play is how kids learn and grow, but it is also how they connect to your brand" is fairly self-explanatory, as is ESL. Call of Duty Elite was a failed paid subscription model that managed to milk idiot fans of that shitty franchise for a whole 2 years before shutting down.

Daniel Doan

Daniel is the co-founder of Black Shell Media, LLC and the founder of Black Shell Games. He has shipped over 1.5 million copies of his games with over 65 titles on Steam. He also has amassed over 370,000 followers on social media.

https://blackshellmedia.com/about/

Black Shell Media helps gaming startups grow and engage with their audience. Through community management, audience engagement and marketing strategy consultation, we build brands.As one of the fastest-growing indie game publishers, our portfolio consists of 50+ titles with 1.5M+ players. Black Shell Media has worked with key gaming companies including Razer, Alienware, Twitch, Humble and Discord.

"Indie" as in shovelware: http://store.steampowered.com/search/?publisher=Black Shell Media. His twitter is about what one would expect from a guy who works in marketing.

Jonathan Perez

Jonathan is the vice president of MultiverseGames, Inc. which produces educational mobile games. He is also vice president of Incuvation Games, publisher of Nemexia. He started his career as a QA tester for Activision.

Nice of Tran to bring his VP in addition to the CM! Another shovelware dev who makes """educational""" mobile games. http://multiversegames.net/about. His twitter is protected. Looks like an autist.

Tion Bruton

Tion is a games localization expert currently working for CIRCLE Entertainment LTD on Nintendo and Playstation games. Tion was credited as the translator for Final Re : Quest, and started out as a QA tester for Santa Monica Studio.

http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/CIRCLE_Entertainment Another shovelware dev. Easily the most entertaining twitter, featuring the odd mix of cats, moonspeak weebshit, and negroiddities. She also has a deviantart with a few really shitty drawings such as this:

Spoiler

tl;dr almost entirely composed of marketers and freemium/shovelware devs.

 

[Alienman]

What a joke.

 

[Average Manatee]

How many codex brofists and reddit upboats do I need to be considered an influencer? I'd like to influence the fuck out of microtransactions.

Yeah, it's an obvious deflection tactic. The few government officials who took interest in things for a few days will be able to say something happened and will forget about everything by next week.

 

[fantadomat]

How many codex brofists and reddit upboats do I need to be considered an influencer? I'd like to influence the fuck out of microtransactions.

Yeah, it's an obvious deflection tactic. The few government officials who took interest in things for a few days will be able to say something happened and will forget about everything by next week.

Seven gold ones on the same post!

 

[Murk]

I think the only way that group of shitheads could be less trustworthy is if they were all EA staff. The accounting MBA guy should jump ship now.