Incline The Death of Freemium? Microtransactions Under Global Scrutiny

[Santander02]

The politicos in Hawaii are indeed sugesting for higher ratings in games that include lootboxes rather than an outright ban.

State Rep to Video Game Industry: Regulate Loot Boxes Before We Are Forced to Legislate

State Rep says he may legislate if industry doesn't regulate

Brian Crecente
24 hours ago
The Attorney General of Hawaii is weighing the legal issues potentially surrounding Electronic Arts’ Star Wars Battlefront II and its use of what politicians there describe as predatory practices and the dangers of encouraging children to gamble. At least one of the two state lawmakers who raised the issue a week ago is also considering introducing a bill that could ban the sale of the game in Hawaii to minors.


How Loot Boxes Led to Never-Ending Games (And Always-Paying Players)
“The fear when you introduce government legislation into private enterprise is that we are going to overreach,” Hawaii State Rep. Sean Quinlan tells Glixel in a phone interview. “That is my fear. Ultimately, it’s best for the industry to self-police.”


In Quinlan’s view, a better outcome would be for the Entertainment Software Ratings Board to address the use of loot boxes and microtransactions in video games with higher ratings and warning labels.

“The ideal solution would be for the game industry to stop having gambling or gambling-like mechanics in games that are marketed to kids,” he says. He doesn’t put a lot of faith in publisher Electronic Arts doing something like that on its own.


“I know they have a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders, but I think they have a responsibility to customers too,” he says. “So the ESRB could say that if a game has loot crates, it gets a 21-plus rating. I wouldn’t want it to be a federal law. I think that could be a very slippery slope.”

While Star Wars Battlefront II, which sells as a full-priced retail game, was set to have a microtransaction system that asked players to invest extra time or money to unlock major playable heroes, that system was temporarily pulled by EA prior to the game's launch. It remains unclear what form those transactions will take when they return to the game. The inclusion of those loot boxes in the game led to universal outcry among gamers and turned the topic into one of the most discussed on website Reddit.

That’s where Quinlan, who says he grew up gaming and spends his free time playing video games, first spotted the issue.

“Reddit. It’s the front page of the Internet right?” Quinlan says when I ask him where he first heard about the issues in the game. “I was on Reddit one morning, and every single post on the front page was about Battlefront. I realized just how bad it has gotten. We’ve been on this path for 15 years with day-one DLC, subscription passes, pay-to-win. We as consumers kept accepting that, kept buying those games. Now we’re at a place where we need to consider, do we need to legislate? Does the ESRB have to consider a new rating that could deal with gambling and addictive mechanics?”


Quinlan said that fellow state legislator Chris Lee, who also has long played video games, also came across the issue on Reddit and contacted Quinlan to discuss what they should and could do.

“Full credit to Representative Chris Lee,” he says. “It didn’t register that we could make a difference.”

The two discussed their plan of attack and then released a video-taped press conference a bit more than a week ago to discuss their concerns about the game and how it might impact children. In particular, the concern that the game’s loot boxes were essentially a form of dressed up gambling.

Last week, the Entertainment Software Association told Glixel that loot boxes are not a form of gambling.


“Loot boxes are a voluntary feature in certain video games that provide players with another way to obtain virtual items that can be used to enhance their in-game experiences. They are not gambling. Depending on the game design, some loot boxes are earned and others can be purchased. In some games, they have elements that help a player progress through the video game. In others, they are optional features and are not required to progress or succeed in the game. In both cases, the gamer makes the decision."

While Quinlan acknowledged today that the interactions in the game might not constitute traditional gambling, but said so with a caveat.

“I think the mechanism is so close to gambling, when we talk about psychology and the way addiction and reward works, I think whether or not it means the strict definition of gambling, it’s close enough and the impact is close enough,” he says.

He also addressed the reasoning behind going after this particular game now, when many games before Battlefront 2 have uses similar systems.


“This is the straw that broke the camel’s back,” he says. “EA and Disney are two of the largest companies not just in America, but the world and Star Wars is such a beloved property. That it is being used for evil is especially upsetting.”

Quinlan and Lee passed information on about the game to Hawaii State Attorney General Doug Chin for an official opinion about the legal issues surrounding the game’s use of microtransactions and loot boxes, Quinlan says. For now, the two are waiting to hear his opinion.

And while EA has paused the use of that mechanic in this game, Quinlan says he isn’t convinced the company won’t return to the practice.

“For this particular game, I think EA is between a rock and a hard place, but we as consumers have a short memory,” he says. “I’m sure they will try something like this very soon. As someone who has watched EA develop over the years and consume some of my favorite studios and destroy so many franchises, I don’t think this is going away. And I’m definitely going to stick to this. It’s an important issue for me.”


Electronic Arts has remained mostly silent since releasing a statement saying it was putting the use of loot boxes in the game on hold. We’ve emailed the company for comment and will update this story when they respond. We’ve also reached out to the ESRB and ESA for comment.

And some more details into the UK's Gambling commition's ruling, looks like they aren't quite done with the matter yet

The British Gambling Commission Is "Concerned" About Loot Boxes Aimed At Children

The British Gambling Commission has released a statement regarding the current loot box controversy and say that they are “concerned” with the situation but currently most loot boxes are not classed as gambling under British law, so there is little they can do. However they do say they can advise of “any changes to that definition need to be made by Parliament.”

“A key factor in deciding if that line has been crossed is whether in-game items acquired ‘via a game of chance’ can be considered money or money’s worth,” reads the statement, “In practical terms this means that where in-game items obtained via loot boxes are confined for use within the game and cannot be cashed out it is unlikely to be caught as a licensable gambling activity. In those cases our legal powers would not allow us to step in.”

However it does sound the Commission is fully aware of the current controversy. “Many parents are not interested in whether an activity meets a legal definition of ‘gambling’. Their main concern is whether there is a product out there that could present a risk to their children,” they state. “We are concerned with the growth in examples where the line between video gaming and gambling is becoming increasingly blurred.”

“Where a product does not meet that test to be classed as gambling but could potentially cause harm to children, parents will undoubtedly expect proper protections to be put in place by those that create, sell and regulate those products,” they add.

Games do have age ratings and consoles do have parental locks, if these were used then then there would be no risk to young kids, for example, Star Wars Battlefront II has a PEGI rating of 16 or older.

As said before, looks like regulation via increased age ratings will be the most likely outcome, if anything at all.

 

[Lahey]

Already posted that UK update, though Quinlan's clarifications reinforce both his and their seemingly shared position regarding the psychology behind microtransaction design and implementation. It'll be interesting to hear what Chin thinks, but unless they open an official investigation the "American front" seems rather meek.

Also: http://archive.is/JGFSE

The 'National Committee For Games Policy' Was Created By A Self-Proclaimed Troll
Erik Kain

For those who don’t know, I’m a prolific internet troll," writes Kenneth Tran, the man behind the new video game think tank the National Committee for Games Policy. That's in a blog post on Medium written in September, where Tran details his various trolling activities and mentions registering the ncgp.ga website. That ".ga" web address is the first red flag that the National Committee for Games Policy is likely a fake. It's exceedingly unlikely for a serious organization to use a free domain like this rather than ".org" or similar domain name. The ESRB, for instance, can be found at www.esrb.org.

So that's one red flag. There are many others.

For instance, the NCGP statement claims that the group aims to be "the video game industry’s first, and de facto, self regulatory organization" but this ignores the fact that the ESRB is already the first and de facto self-regulatory organization for the video game industry. What a peculiar claim to make. At this point, the NCGP appears to be nothing more than a bizarre attempt to hoodwink the gaming press. Already articles about the National Committee for Game Policy have popped up at PC Gamer and VentureBeat, as well as wccftech.com and pcgamesn.com. Fake news spreads just like the real thing.

"I never thought I’d be able to build a public policy think tank, but I just did it. So stoked about it. It’s up at www.ncgp.ga," Tran writes. As of this writing, the website is down, though another of Tran's websites, gamemanagement.us is up with a version of the NCGP site, a list of the organization's members and the incredibly fishy press release that's been making the rounds in gaming publications. The site's error page points to 2asociety.com, a domain registered by Tran.

Steering Committee
The list of members included in the group's steering committee is also quite interesting. Tran lists himself as "cofounder of Incuvation Games, known as the publisher of Nemexia" though from what I can tell, the browser-based game Nemexia is actually published by Bulgarian software company XS Software JSCo. The Incuvation website itself has almost no information and doesn't even show up in an ICANN WhoIs search. Its Nemexia page is under what appears to be permanent maintenance. Tran isn't listed on the Incuvation Labs LinkedIn page either, though two other members of the NCGP steering committee list Incuvation as an employer or former employer. Jack Wegrich, whose LinkedIn profile states that he was "born in 2000 and began work in 2012" lists Incuvation as a former employer. The 17-year-old "real person" proudly sports "Vice Chair of the NCGP" on his profile. Jonathan Perez is also listed as a former Incuvation employee, as well as the Vice President of Multiverse Games, though his is the only Linked profile associated with that company. (Or "company" perhaps.) Another member of the NCGP is Tion "VAGABOND" Bruton, whose LinkedIn profile lists her as a video game translator and localization expert based in Hong Kong and Japan. An odd choice for a member of a prestigious think tank, though Bruton does not list the NCGP on her profile. Neither does Paralux co-founder Michael Bruxion. Black Shell Media founder, Daniel Doan, is also listed as a member. I've reached out to Doan to find out what, if any, his affiliation is with the NCGP. His LinkedIn profile does not list involvement with the organization. Nor does the LinkedIn profile of financial consultant Riley Worcester, who seems to have no affiliation with the video game industry whatsoever. Bryan Haskell, an employee at eSports company ESL-Turtle Entertainment is also listed as a member, though his LinkedIn Profile makes no mention of any association with a new and prestigious think tank.

This hardly reads like a list you'd expect to form a steering committee for a major new video game think tank, no matter how you spin it.

Fake News
The NCGP describes itself on its website as "a 527 political organization affiliated with Game Management US an industry trade group under the NCGP umbrella." This is another red flag, as most similar organizations are registered as 501(c)3 Groups, especially organizations that promote themselves as non-partisan. I've also been unable to locate any filings with the IRS under Game Management US or the NCGP, which raises yet another red flag.

That's a lot of red flags.
If nothing else, this is a good reminder to do your homework before eating up whatever new story shows up on your social media timelines. And even if, miraculously, it turns out that the NCGP is a real organization, I'd treat it with every ounce of skepticism you can muster. I've reached out to Kenneth Tran and have not received a response. I've also reached out to others listed on the steering community, including Daniel Doan, and have yet to receive a response. I'll update this post when and if I hear back.

Update:
After publishing this post, the NCGP Twitter account responded by claiming this is, in fact, a real think tank:

Without a great deal more information and corroboration, we can't simply take a Twitter account at its word. Even if we do discover this is a real think tank, its steering committee, general presentation, and the admission of trolling from its founder leave us with little confidence in its purported mission. I'll update with further information as it surfaces.

Explains alot. That tweet about working for Kushner over the summer.

 

[Murk]

Erik Kain continues to fight the good fight.

 

[Cool name]

State Rep to Video Game Industry: Regulate Loot Boxes Before We Are Forced to Legislate
...
“For this particular game, I think EA is between a rock and a hard place, but we as consumers have a short memory,” he says. “I’m sure they will try something like this very soon. As someone who has watched EA develop over the years and consume some of my favorite studios and destroy so many franchises, I don’t think this is going away. And I’m definitely going to stick to this. It’s an important issue for me.”

he's not doing it for the children, he's doing it to get vengeance for bullfrog, origin, and westwood

 

[mondblut]

State Rep to Video Game Industry: Regulate Loot Boxes Before We Are Forced to Legislate
...
“For this particular game, I think EA is between a rock and a hard place, but we as consumers have a short memory,” he says. “I’m sure they will try something like this very soon. As someone who has watched EA develop over the years and consume some of my favorite studios and destroy so many franchises, I don’t think this is going away. And I’m definitely going to stick to this. It’s an important issue for me.”

he's not doing it for the children, he's doing it to get vengeance for bullfrog, origin, and westwood

Revenge of the Nerd!

 

[Clockwork Knight]

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.

That reddit thread is pretty hard to understand if you haven't played the game, but this is interesting because there is a similar timer on chests that is a lot easier to observe, so players knew this mechanic existed in some form already. These have money and tokens (can be traded for random items from NPCs) and randomly spawn in the overworld. If the game thinks you're collecting them too quickly, they will gradually give less stuff until you're opening empty chests. Like with XP, you can refresh the timer by moving to another area or waiting a little, but it's still inane since you can customize your radar (the "ghost" mentioned in the article) to mark them so the game both encourages and discourages you from exploring for chests and you're constantly wondering if it's worth walking to that chest in the distance or fighting the wandering tough mobs that drop a chest.

XP is actually irrelevant since you reach the level cap pretty fast (what really matters is the number representing the average power of your gear, only affects PvE though). From that point on, filling the XP bar gives you random cosmetic items (plus the boosting consumable) from the cash shop NPC, so for all purposes the boost item is about getting more items more often. I got one of them as a random reward, here's what the description says.

Fireteam Medallion
Consumable
The strongest Guardians are those who stand together.

Bright Paragon
Increased XP gains and loot for you and members of your fireteam or match from strikes (PvE), Public Events (PvE), and the Crucible (PvP).

Effect lasts for 4 hours (real time, lul).

edit:

New drama, this time with a piece of gear introduced by the expansion released last week, with the helpful description of "Increased loot from public events on all destinations".

https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyThe..._have_played_a_day_of_public_events_with_the/

I have played a day of Public Events with the Electronica Shell equipped and one without it. It does not provide additional loot. It's time to give us transparent numbers on all 'boosts' so the community can track them. (SELF.DESTINYTHEGAME)

submitted 13 hours ago * by iahangir



Starting with the XP throttling mess, I have to say a lot of the 'boosts' are shady and not transparent. Another day, a user claimed the "All XP gains increased by 10%" from the Cosmos Shell, for example, does not for some reason stack with the Fireteam Medallion.

I was lucky to acquire the Exotic Electronica Shell which is supposed to provide "increased loot from public events on all destinations".

This is not working. All Public Events still give me a chance of a blue item and a token. See Edit 5

It's time for Bungie to give us numbers on these stats so we can track them properly. Is this another bugged thing? Remember, those are Eververse items, which means you can pay for them and in no way see the benefit advertised. I enjoy the game and try to keep salt to a minimum, but all these shady 'boosts' and hidden mechanics of what stacks and what doesn't to hinder progression in a way Bungie wants it is just complete and utter bullshit.

Edit: I want to be clear, it's the description of the items that I find bogus and unclear. "Increased loot" to me does not mean a "chance for increased loot" or a "chance for BETTER loot", those are three different things. Secondly, why are the mechanics behind all of these items so shady? Why does the cosmos shell not stack? I agree this "sample" is not a really significant sample size or a statistically relevant outcome. It's about the fact that there are bogus descriptions in items you are being sold that do not work together with other items and also are phrased in a way that give you the feeling of some great perk when in fact you are all probably right and it raises the chance of an exotic from 0.015% to 0.016% which obviously one person can not possibly validate. It is a matter of transparency and fairness, that items behind a loot box sale system are clearly described.

Edit2: Look, I understand that clearly I should not expect an exotic from every public event, I just want you to think about this for a second: There is no way Eververse is not designed in order for you to go in there and think "wow, look at this cool shit, cool, this one even gives increased loot from public events. Ok, I will get some Silver, I want that" - perks like this being in a mtx loot box system is already borderline disgusting, but then they aren't even noticable? So there is two solutions: It's either tiny because the community would be outraged that there are items sold that give a tangible benefit to the experience or it's bugged. I think it's the former, but that makes the placement and the item descriptions in the Eververse just intentionally shady. That's my point.

Edit3: I have done the winding cove event now four times for exp comparisons. Each time, I only rallied to the flag and shot the ship (for heroic). Here are the results:

• No boost: 2000 XP
• Cosmos Shell: 2200 XP
• Fireteam Medallion: 2500 XP
• Cosmos Shell + Fireteam Medallion: 2500 XP

Forgot to take a screenshot for the last two, if people think I'm bullshitting I will oblige.

Edit4: Bungie replied

Hey all,

Working with the Investment team, we've identified an issue where the Public Defender perk provided on the Electronica Ghost Shell is not granting increased loot from Public Events on Mercury. We have verified that the perk functions properly on all other destinations, and a fix for Mercury is being planned for early 2018. Note: Other items, like the newly added Three of Coins consumable, are not impacted by this issue.

In terms of defining "Increased Loot" from the Public Defender perk- this grants increased chances for rewards, typically in the form of Legendary or Exotic rewards, upon completing public events.

As for concerns regarding XP buffs provided by the Cosmos Shell: The Well-Rested buff is the only buff that stacks with the Guiding Light perk. No other XP buffs stack, unless otherwise specified in-game.

We'll be looking to publish some articles to Help.bungie.net to give more clarity to the functionality of these perks in the near future.

Cheers,

-dmg04

This is not working. All Public Events still give me a chance of a blue item and a token.

Edit5: In light of Bungie's response, I find it fair to strike through that comment since it's only really valid on Mercury. The larger point still stands, though, buff stacks are not working in the case of XP and remain elusive with regards to loot drops, phrasing of the items still leaves room for interpretation. This is still not a great way to market things for loot box purchases.

iahangir[S] 12 hours ago*

I would just like to know for a fact that I've spent $500 on loot boxes to get a shell that gives me 0.04% buff. Then I can calculate the exact ratio of exotics per hour to dollars spent on loot boxes and cry myself to sleep.

Edit: /s (I have not spent $500 on Eververse, reddit. Calm dow!)

 

[Lahey]

Update on NCGP: http://archive.is/8Gscb

LONG BUT GOOD

National Committee for Games Policy’s backstory: politics, religion, and ‘The Art of War 2’
JEFF GRUBB@JEFFGRUBB DECEMBER 1, 2017 3:46 PM

Kenneth Tran wants you to believe that he is going to Washington, D.C. to solve gaming’s loot box problem. He is the director and founder of the National Committee for Games Policy, which announced its formation earlier this week with a press release that I reported on. At the time, I noted the sloppy language of the PR copy and tried to get in touch with Tran. Since then, I’ve spoken with him, exchanged several emails, and communicated with NCGP’s former vice chair, Jack Wegrich, who is a teenager. What I’ve found over the past week is that Tran is an ambitious 27 year old who references books like The Art of Persuasion and Rules for Radicals. I’ve also found that he has multiple startups running at the same time covering religion, education, Republican election financing, and more his gaming organization is his latest scheme.

The NCGP story nagged at me since I published it on Monday. I began looking into it more on Tuesday morning and, on Wednesday, Forbes contributor Erik Kain, published an excellent story that focused on some of the inconsistencies, quirks, and past comments of Tran and the NCGP. Kain found a blog post where Tran spoke about his plans to start a “public policy think tank” with “Jack” (who I’ve confirmed is the 17-year-old Wegrich).

“This is sure to get me brownie points in the Republican party,” Tran wrote in the blog post in September. “Oh, and we might even revolutionize the industry.” But in his story, Kain wasn’t convinced that the NCGP is even real, and he isn’t alone. A number of gamers in online forums like Resetera and Reddit have voiced their skepticism. And Tran didn’t help his case; “For those who don’t know, I’m a prolific internet troll,” he wrote in the Medium blog. “It comes with the territory of being a real radical.”

I’ve spoken with Kain throughout this week, and we’ve shared some of what we’ve found with one another. By Wednesday night, we both described Tran and the NCGP in the same way: a rabbit hole. Let’s cover the facts first. The NCGP announced itself to the public on Monday. Tran is the director, and its most prominent member is Daniel Doan, who is the cofounder of indie publisher Black Shell Media. Tran has registered himself as an Orange County lobbyist, and I confirmed this with county officials. Tran also registered the NCGP as a 527 political organization with the IRS, which is a standard tax-exempt group that focuses on influencing elections.

In addition to those facts, however, are a number of obvious inconsistencies. Through Tuesday, its vice chair was 17 years old, and the NCGP didn’t disclose that. Its official site was NCGP.ga. That’s strange because “.ga” is a top-level domain for the country of Gabon. The organization also calls itself the first self-regulatory group for the video game industry, which ignores that The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) founded the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) to regulate games in place of government oversight in the ’90s. Tran and Wegrich also both listed publisher Incuvation Games as their experience in the industry, but that company has never published anything on Steam or any other major distribution platform. It only ever purchased the rights to a completed web game. And sure, the NCGP is registered as a 527 group, but that status is typically for political action committees or political parties. The ESA, for example, is a 501c3 nonprofit and not a 527 group.

Is this real?
Is Tran and the NCGP serious? Or is it trolling? Is it, as Kain suggested, just trying to trick the press into covering a make-believe political organization? Here’s how he puts it; “Basically, the story is, whether you believe it or not, I used to — my uncle is a politician,” Tran told GamesBeat during a conversation earlier this week. “My cousin is as well. One is a governor in Vietnam. I was kind of born into this, or not born into this — but I’ve been around it.” The NCGP director says that living around politically active people made him want to get involved. Tran told me he worked as a paid staffer for 2008 Orange County city council democratic candidate Paul Lucas, who is infamous in that area for his activism. I talked to Lucas, and he confirmed that Tran helped oversee voter turnout while he was still 17 years old.

When we spoke, Kenneth Tran also claimed to have some rather impressive connections beyond his uncle and cousin, one of whom is a governor in Vietnam. He said another uncle is a multimillionaire; “He’s a financier for a [California] state senator,” said Tran. “He’s put some people in office. He gives me his money sometimes.” Yet another uncle is a military leader; “This strategy and stuff — if you look up on my uncle on Wikipedia, he’s a general from the Vietnam war,” said Tran. “I kind of approached it as it’s either poker or chess or something like that.” Additionally, Tran said he studied campaigning at the Leadership Institute; “I learned under Ronald Reagan’s secretary,” he said.

The Leadership Institute did confirm that he enrolled in one of its classes; “Yes, Kenneth Tran attended Leadership Institute’s Campaign & Activist Workshop in May of 2014,” Leadership Institute executive Angel Chitnatham wrote in a note to GamesBeat. The military uncle Tran brings up is Le Quang Luong, who served as a South Vietnamese (Republic of Vietnam) general before leaving the country to settle in Bakersfield, California, according to Wikipedia — although I have not been able to verify that this is his uncle. I’m also still working to verify that his financier uncle founded the Asian American Chamber of Commerce, as he claims here; “I chaired the 68th district of a Republican organization called the Republican Liberty Caucus,” said Tran. “That was a few years ago, while I was working at Incuvation Games. I was doing two things at once. I was doing game development in a producer role for indie games, and then aside from that, I was working within the Republican Party.”

I reached out to the Republican Liberty Caucus for confirmation that he held a position within that organization. The group says that it has no 68th California district, and the leaders don’t remember anyone named Kenny Tran. He is also not listed on the website, and he was not on the website at any time since 2014, according to Google Cache and Internet Archives. Separate from our conversations, Tran wrote in his biography on About.me that he was the chair of the California Republican Caucus, but that is unaffiliated with the RLC.

Tran also told me that he is on the steering committee for the Independent Game Developers Association’s special interest groups. But according to the IGDA, it has no evidence of him ever being active in its SIG, and while Tran was once a due-paying member of the IGDA, that expired six months ago.

So that’s his political history, but he’ll also need to understand gaming and business. What’s his experience in those spaces? Well, that’s also tricky.

Incuvation Games
In the first press release for the NCGP, the name “Incuvation Games” popped up repeatedly. Tran cofounded the indie publisher. Jack Wegrich also had it listed in his experience. And Jonathan Perez, another NCGP member, is its vice president. When I saw this, I figured that a small publisher was looking to establish a bigger name for itself by jumping into politics on behalf of developers that are not members of the ESA. That’s one of the reasons that I overlooked the typos and language of the original press release — it felt like some scrappy group of friends. But now that I’ve looked more closely at Incuvation, “scrappy” isn’t the right word. My understanding of the publisher — at least under Tran, who has since sold off his stake in the company — is that it was a company that lived by the “fake it until you make it” credo. But it never quite made it. The one game that the company published, Nemexia, it purchased from developer XS Software. This web game is on a few online portals, including SyFyGames.com. Way back in 2013, SyFy sent a press release saying it was adding Nemexia (among other releases) to its platform, but this predated the Incuvation acquisition.

Outside of Nemexia, the company seemed to spend most of its time looking for tiny indie games, swooping in to help with marketing. One game that Tran spent a significant amount of time on was Brutal Nature, which is a more complex Minecraft-style survival sandbox that is still in development. Tran started working with Brutal Nature in July 2016. He reached out to the sole developer, Jamie Stapleton, and made some promises about building a web presence and getting attention online — but nothing about actually investing capital into development.

“Kenneth Tran is … lol,” Stapleton told GamesBeat in a chat conversation over Discord. “I can’t confirm [that everything] he says is a lie, but god damn, does he ever stretch the truth.”

Stapleton provide the the chat history between himself and Tran, and I could see how the relationship started with a lot of ideas in July 2016 before falling apart by this September. Over those 14 months, Stapleton would repeatedly ask for marketing and traffic to the website. In response, Tran would say that he’s coming up with a plan or that unpaid interns were working to drum up interest on Reddit or YouTube. But that never turned into hits for the Brutal Nature site.

One of the primary people that worked on Brutal Nature as part of the Incuvation team was Jack Wegrich. At the time, Wegrich was only 16 years old. He had some experience working as a community manager for a consumer robotics company formerly called Cut Throat Robotics (now Zozrobotics). Inventor Ken Miller founded Zozrobotics, and he confirmed Wegrich’s association with his company. But the Zozrobotics boss did not characterize Wegrich’s work as something that would qualify him for the vice chair position of a Washington think tank; “He’s still in high school,” Miller told me during a phone conversation earlier this week. “We live in the same neighborhood. H[e] and one of his buddies helped me out. His buddy is more mechanical and was helping me build some stuff. So basically, just a couple of teenage neighbor kids helping me out.”

But while Miller is happy with Wegrich, the ambitious youth had a contentious relationship with Stapleton. The Brutal Nature developer said that Jack would try to throw community tournaments, and only one player would show up; “I’ve gotten better results from individual posts on Reddit than all of what [Jack] did for me,” Stapleton explained. “I don’t know why [Tran] ever offered him to work on my game in the first place.” Wegrich was supposed to work on a trailer for the game, but the end product came out useless; “I got a video from him in 110 field-of-view and mouse acceleration turned up to puke-inducing 360-degree sniper noscope,” Stapleton explained.

So Wegrich fell off the project, but then he did something odd. In February, Wegrich appeared on the Indie Insider podcast from Daniel Doan’s Black Shell Media. As part of that interview, Wegrich said some harsh things about Brutal Nature. And he publicly blamed Stapleton for the game’s failures. Wegrich is still a kid, so none of this reflects on him poorly. I bet he’s going to end up doing exactly what he wants to do in the gaming industry. But he came across as unprofessional in this podcast, which makes sense for someone who is still maturing. I reached out to Wegrich multiple times for a comment about his work with Brutal Nature or Zozrobotics. He did not respond to my requests.

‘Black Hat’ marketing
But while Wegrich disappointed and frustrated Stapleton, Tran was annoying and confusing to the Brutal Nature developer. From the start of their correspondence, Tran would take little interest in what Stapleton was telling him. A lot of the time, it would seem like Tran was struggling to understand some of the more technical aspects of publishing a game. But that wouldn’t stop Tran from hopping into their chat to rattle off his latest, unrelated plan to troll Reddit. Here’s an example from September:

Kenneth Tran: btw- i’m preparing a viral marketing campaign
Kenneth Tran: my last one went pretty well
Kenneth Tran: about 8,000 upvotes
Kenneth Tran: wanna know what this one is? :D
Black Moons: sure.
Kenneth Tran: I’m doing a reddit AMA where I announce that I have developed my own IQ test that is better than current ones
*** Black Moons readys the shit umbrella. ***
Kenneth Tran: “The Dragon IQ Test is a modern IQ test that is designed to be more accurate than older IQ tests. While almost all IQ tests assume a bell curve distribution of scores, The Dragon IQ assumes a bimodal distribution with a larger number of scores for below average intelligence and average intelligence. The Dragon IQ Test has a number of new features:”
Kenneth Tran: one of my fans thinks it might go viral even more than my last AMA
Kenneth Tran: “I have 140+ IQ and I designed my own better IQ test… AMA”
Kenneth Tran: then in the topic
Kenneth Tran: I’m going to call everybody
Kenneth Tran: a fucking idiot
Black Moons: you have fun with that.

Tran runs a blog called the “High IQ Society,” and he was using that to draw attention on Reddit. And then you have this short exchange:

Kenneth Tran: btw
Kenneth Tran: did you ever see my art of war 2 AMA?
Kenneth Tran: if no then nvm
Black Moons: nope.
Kenneth Tran: okay nvm

Tran has since deleted his Reddit account, and many of these posts are gone. But his posts about “the sequel” to The Art of War did not go unnoticed by other users. Some people on the “AMADisasters” subforum for Ask Me Anything sessions that go horribly wrong preserved some of his comments. He says that “The Art of War 2” was the end of his trolling, and he used it to satirize his family who were in the military. You can read the Art of War 2 here. Tran’s frequent diversions would come while he was floundering to find a way to promote Brutal Nature. In one exchange, Tran — who is the publisher and marketer for this game — asked Stapleton for help finding YouTubers who would play it:

Kenneth Tran: I haven’t worked out your streamer marketing plan yet
Kenneth Tran: its like typing code with no plan
Kenneth Tran: can you pay 50 bucks?
Kenneth Tran: oh shit
Kenneth Tran: this is our guy? this is the streamer that does minecraft? ragegaming? lol
Kenneth Tran: okay let me work out a deal with them
Kenneth Tran: dude this would help if you just told me who was a big name in minecraft gaming/youtubers
Black Moons: no clue I hardly watch much youtube.
Black Moons: some random searching on youtube
Black Moons: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiufyZv8iRPTafTw0D4CvnQ
Black Moons: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH8Eirtdko5wjPmuOp6wb_Q
Black Moons: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClyfWhFlnrt3oBs2Zs2dH6w
Black Moons: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNvzD7Z-g64bPXxGzaQaa4g
Black Moons: just basically anyone making videos about survival games shrugs
Kenneth Tran: okay ill check these guys out

This exchange highlights Tran’s inexperience, and to compensate for these shortcomings, he would devise elaborate “black hat” marketing schemes. While that term typically refers to search-engine-optimization specialists that try to trick Google’s algorithms, for Tran, black hat marketing is more about creating controversies for attention. The plan that he pitched to Stapleton would have had him attempting to get coverage from a site like Kotaku by positioning Brutal Nature as a hyperviolent game:

Kenneth Tran: lets say theoretically
Kenneth Tran: well okay have you heard of the politicians blaming video games for violence?
Black Moons: vaguely
Kenneth Tran: i guess you don’t hear much of it in canada
Kenneth Tran: question then, do you think BN would get more publicity/press if it got labeled a violent video game?
Black Moons: shrugs theres so many shitty violent games out there
Kenneth Tran: like “It’s like Minecraft, but with gun violence. Definitely not for children.”
Kenneth Tran: I just became Chairman of a political organization, The California Republican Caucus
Kenneth Tran: and I’m looking to stir up some controversy that would make it into Kotaku
Kenneth Tran: for example- http://kotaku.com/warming-up-on-onsen-plumbing-nagano-japan-by-jonas-j-1803126135
Kenneth Tran: oops sorry- http://kotaku.com/5982842/oh-come-o...games-are-a-bigger-threat-to-safety-than-guns
Kenneth Tran: So how can I help you?
Black Moons: and what was the plan here?
Kenneth Tran: 1. you are looking for exposure for your game
Kenneth Tran: 2. I get brownie points for forwarding the Republican agenda of video games are violent
Kenneth Tran: are points 1 and 2 true?
Kenneth Tran: If so…
Kenneth Tran: I think we can help each other
Kenneth Tran: that’s the plan
Black Moons: Id have to think about it..
Kenneth Tran: How much attention do you think your game would get if the Republican Party specifically listed your game as being “violent”.
Kenneth Tran: I’ll give you an example
Kenneth Tran: http://techland.time.com/2012/10/10...world-of-warcraft-makes-you-unfit-for-office/
Kenneth Tran: that story made it into TIME
Kenneth Tran: the poll made it into Kotak
Kenneth Tran: *Kotaku
Kenneth Tran: I can understand if you don’t want that level of PR
Kenneth Tran: I’m now on the Steering Committee for the International Developers Association, Business and Legal Special Interest Group
Black Moons: So iv been thinking about it… I think im going to have to say no to the violent video game article thing.
Black Moons: its not really an adjenda I want advanced and the california goverment is scary since they actually get stuff done… crazy stuff, Like putting warning stickers on powercords that end up all the way here in canada saying they might cause cancer.. if ya yaknow, ate them.
Kenneth Tran: Lol
Black Moons: the rest of the US states never get anything done/passed.

After months of these interactions, Stapleton stopped hiding his frustration. He wanted traffic, and Tran wasn’t delivering. And then in September, around the time of the Medium blog, Tran told Stapleton about the NCGP:

Kenneth Tran: you’ve invited as an international member
Black Moons: Yea sorry your all over the place and don’t stay dedicated to any one thing long enough for me to want to spend any of my time on them.
Kenneth Tran: they’re all interconnected…
Black Moons: I noticed since you hired jack, the guy who never did shit
Black Moons: and jonathan, the guy who took 4 weeks of nagging and another week of ‘work’ just to compile my game, to then say he wasent actually going to do any work on it.
Kenneth Tran: i see your concerns
Kenneth Tran: okay then, there’s no mixing of you and them so i understand
Kenneth Tran: but please note, it appears as though I’m all over the place, but my work is all connected
Black Moons: Talk to me again when you have actually stayed with something long enough to make it successful, as in thousands of hits per day successful
Kenneth Tran: then thats already done
Kenneth Tran: i write for the news…
Black Moons: you write independant blogs on webspace provided by news sites
Kenneth Tran: http://www.business.uspa24.com/contact-us.html
Kenneth Tran: you only think about things in terms of traffic…
Kenneth Tran: look. there are 5 things everybody wants in life- Money. Power (Influence). Fame (Traffic). Love. Freedom.
Black Moons: I only think in terms of traffic because I could have the best website on the entire internet, where every single visitor bought my game, and it still wouldn’t amount to a hill of beams
Black Moons: beans
Black Moons: because my traffic is that low
Black Moons: and the fact that none of you guys get the fact you NEED TRAFFIC period, pisses me off to no end.
Kenneth Tran: YOU DONT NEED TRAFFIC DUDE
Kenneth Tran: and you asked for something I stuck with I’ve been in politics for 10 years
Kenneth Tran: Do you play RTS games? Because you don’t understand how strategy works
Kenneth Tran: Look, your goal is to either find a AAA gaming job with stable income
Black Moons: Im playing an RTS game with no resources. its not fun.
Kenneth Tran: or make a lot of money on BN
Kenneth Tran: I’ve worked in AAA, you know how the majority of people get their jobs?
Kenneth Tran: The ones who walk in and say I made a successful indie game are the minority
Kenneth Tran: The majority “know people”
Black Moons: they get in by knowing someone. I know nobody so im fucked and honestly don’t give a shit anymore.
Kenneth Tran: EXACTLY
Kenneth Tran: let me do something for you
Black Moons: like?
Kenneth Tran: go to https://blackshellmedia.com/
Kenneth Tran: Contact Daniel Doan
Kenneth Tran: Tell him you just joined the National Committtee for Games Policy, and you’re a friend of Kenneth’s
Kenneth Tran: and ask him if he can give some tips on getting traffic OR if he can be the publisher for BN
Kenneth Tran: does that work for you Mr. Black Moons
Black Moons: maybe, im not sure why id want to join that committee though
Kenneth Tran: you would be “International Member”
Kenneth Tran: Because it’s your chance to network
Kenneth Tran: We’re recruiting everyday. We only opened membership up a few days ago…
Kenneth Tran: it’s basically a giant networking group
Kenneth Tran: but we limit membership to only veterans
Kenneth Tran: Or you can cold call Daniel Doan
Kenneth Tran: and say “this is black moons and I fucking hate Kenneth Tran and his stupid NCGP. can you help me market my game?”

Stapleton responded to this proposal by linking to some complaints about Black Shell Media. Stories about that company note that it attempts to get revenue by signing on to indie games as a publisher without actually investing any money into the games. Tran had already fizzled out of Incuvation back in December 2016. He sold his stake in the company back to his partner, Ghassan Gholmieh. I spoke to Gholmieh, and he told me that they weren’t making any money; “We didn’t have any marketing money or connections,” Gholmieh told GamesBeat.

But while Tran was no longer working with Incuvation, he was still working Stapleton. On December 15, 2016, Tran said he was moving to Vietnam but that he was also planning to start his own gaming company. To get things going, Tran suggested that he should merge his as-of-yet unformed startup with Stapleton’s company. “I don’t want anything to do with that really,” the developer told Tran at the time. The last time Stapleton talked to Tran was in late September of this year. The NCGP director once again pitched the idea of working with Black Shell Media. “I don’t want to have anything to do with Black Shell Media, as I have previously stated, as their online reputation is basically near-scammers,” Stapleton told Tran.

To be fair to Black Shell, it was not pursuing the Brutal Nature developer, according to Black Shell chief executive Raghav Mathur. And the publishing boss acknowledges its reputation on Reddit; “We don’t offer upfront lump sum capital investment in development,” Mathur told GamesBeat in a message. “But we do help devs cover costs like trailer production, events, graphics, and paid marketing. We’ve talked about this publicly before and don’t hide it by any means. As for the Reddit threads, we’ve talked about that so much on Reddit that I don’t think there’s anything new I can say here. I would just encourage people to read both sides of the story, and actually listen to BSM and people who have worked with BSM, rather than people who are just commenting after hearing the story from a third party.” It’s worth noting that trailer production, events, graphics, and marketing were all the services that Incuvation was promising to Stapleton without an upfront investment.

Ken Tran, confident man
A Kushner family friend.

After Incuvation, Tran wanted to leave the gaming industry. He had plans to get back into the EB-5 investment business, which is something he had worked on in the past. EB-5 is a type of visa that the U.S. government grants to foreign investors. If you spend at least $500,000, you can get a visa to come and stay in America. If this sounds familiar, that’s because this program made headlines when news organizations reported that EB-5 agents in China were using the likeness of Jared Kushner, the president’s adviser and son-in-law, and actual visits from Kushner’s sister, Nicole Meyer, to sell these investment visas. The Kushner organization is under investigation for these practices.

And guess who claims he worked for the Kushners during this time.

“I worked for the Kushner family,” said Tran. “I was a finance agent. Basically, I would be fundraising for their projects. I did that for several months overseas. I don’t know if you follow politics, but there’s the whole Kushner … event, or whatever.” Tran alleges that he worked as a contractor for the Kushner Real Estate Group (KRE Group). It was his job to find investors in the Vietnamese market to fund projects for KRE in exchange for EB-5 visas. He claims that his contract position was done through a company called New York Immigration Fund. This is a different entity than the U.S. Immigration Fund corporation that reports have already linked with the Kushner Companies; “I was their sole guy working in Vietnam,” said Tran. “I was doing the Vietnam market, fundraising from there. But so New York Immigration Fund and Kushner real estate have a joint venture company. It’s like they formed a company where they each own part of it. Then that company hired me. If you call Kushner, they — I received a letter where it’s like, blah blah blah, you can’t mention Trump and stuff like that, you know what I mean? I think that was in the news too.”

Despite that alleged letter, Tran has repeatedly referenced both Kushner and Trump when talking about his work with EB-5 visas. He used the phrase “working for Kushner (Trump family)” in an email to Erik Kain and myself. I’ve spent the last half of this week trying to verify this particular claim. The NYI Fund told me that it does not even operate in Vietnam and that it had no record of a Kenneth Tran. I’ve reached out to the Kushner Companies for verification as well, and it has not responded to my request. I also checked with the U.S. Immigration Fund, which has done some work in Vietnam, and it claims it didn’t work with a Kenneth Tran. I spoke with multiple people at the NYI Fund, and it said that it has never worked with someone named “Kenneth Tran” at any of its companies. And after multiple requests, Tran has not provided GamesBeat with sufficient evidence to back up this claim.

The illusion of influence
If you look into Kenneth Tran’s history, you will find multiple projects, startups, and schemes that he was heading up. He is the registered owner of the greatsage.org domain, which is a website for an online Buddhist college that he started earlier this month. In a September 8 LinkedIn post, he announced the formation of the Southern California Chamber of Commerce, which he is the president of. And back in February, investment firm EB5Agents.co, founded by managing partner Kenneth Tran, brought on Riley Worcester as a partner.

Riley Worcester is also the Treasurer of the California Republican Caucus. The chairman of that group? You guessed it: Kenneth Tran. This last one is especially revealing because you can see how Tran uses it to build himself up. In his conversation with Stapleton, Tran made it sound like he just won an election for chairman of the California Republican Caucus. He never mentioned he is the founder of that group. He registered and owns its domain, and he filed for its 527-organization status. He has deleted the Facebook group for the CRC, but a Google Cache reveals this post where the organization introduces him as its new chairman.

And on the Twitter account for the California Republican Caucus, you can see a link to the deleted Facebok account. And then another post asks followers to donate to the “Republican War Readiness Fund.” Between all of these organizations and efforts, Tran was looking for money and power. That is something he admitted to me. That’s his goal here, which brings us to his latest and most successful effort.

The future of the NCGP
Since Monday, the NCGP has changed a lot. It now has a dotcom address at thencgp.com. It has removed Wegrich as vice chair — although he is still on the steering committee. Tran has also shifted the membership model from invite-only to one where anyone can apply. And he is using social media to directly address the public’s concerns. The NCGP is getting attention, and Tran is pouring effort into positioning it as a serious, respectable organization. I wanted to hear him out. So I asked how he plans to repair the group’s credibility after its rocky start. For Tran, a big part of that is recruiting a diverse membership and working with established organizations; “Next week I’m meeting with one of the triple-A publishers that does microtransactions,” said Tran. “We’re going to do a little something together because they’re interested in what we’re doing. Meeting with them. I have — we still need to actively recruit and expand more members. That’s probably priority number one. And the self-regulation, that is — so, I’m still going over the legal for that, what legal remedies we can do. I mean, I have so many lawyers. I have four or five lawyers.” Tran wouldn’t disclose which publisher at this time, and I’ve requested to speak to his lawyers. Tran has not yet put me in touch with his legal staff.

On the think tank side, the NCGP wants to get its insight reports written up soon so it can start distributing them in Washington; “Those will go straight to the office of a congressman, who is our member in D.C.,” said Tran. “So that’s one of our priorities.” Tran said he is leaving it up to the congressman to identify themselves as an NCGP member. But again, with the benefit of the doubt, I asked how the group would put together its insight reports and whether it would use sound data-collecting methods. “I mean, every — in The Art of Persuasion, everything is always a multi-pronged attack or approach,” said Tran. “You’re going to have a better chance of convincing somebody of something if you have, in addition to the data, expert opinions, anecdotal experience. You have things of that nature, because — how many times in the news do you see an anecdotal case that actually swung a legislative vote even though it’s counter-intuitive to the data?”

Fake it until you make it
You could see Tran as an opportunist who is looking for any opening to capitalize on and to improve his status — particularly in the Republican party. I asked Tran directly if he would describe himself as an “opportunist.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I have my—just like everybody out there, anybody you talk to, they all have their own agendas, because that’s what makes us all human, right? We have to look out for our own survival before the collective, just to survive. But—I feel as though it’s killing two birds with one stone. I can accomplish my goals, moving up the political ladder, and then at the same time I can help out the community of which I’ve been a part of. I used to run game servers in high school with like 10,000 players. I’ve been in the game for a while. So far I don’t see any conflict of interest. If there was, then I would have to be like, oh, well, I’m going to be a Republican or I’m going to be a game developer. But so far I don’t see any conflict of interest. I’m more independent than anything. But you have to pick a party if you’re going to move up.” And I think this is the truth. Tran is probably trolling, but it’s 2017 … trolling and saying anything to get ahead is a viable political strategy. And it’s not like you have to prove that you are coming to Washington to lobby in good faith in order to have an influence. Based on the reaction he’s getting — including this story — Tran could stop dividing his efforts across multiple startups. He could start pour everything into the NCGP. If he does that, maybe he could get the attention of some GOP staffers looking for an issue to get young voters energized.

Tran describes his approach as similar to poker. The goal is always to win the hand, and everyone at the table, including Tran, share that desire. But while some people are playing the numbers and others are holding back and trying not to make mistakes, Tran is throwing out bluffs so often you may not realize when he is actually holding something in his hands. “You have the media there, and you have the gamers there,” said Tran. “And I’m playing poker, right? It’s Hold ’em, and I see the cards and raise half my pot, right there, because I’m going to come out of nowhere immediately and just be like, I’m going to do all this stuff. I’m going to change the industry. I’m going to bet half my pot on that. So everybody’s going to be like, oh, this guy’s bullshitting. They’re all going to call. They’re all going to put in the pot too.” And if everyone does continue to pay attention to the NCGP, Tran is making a specific promise. He says he’s planning to work with The Entertainment Software Association. I’ve reached out to that group to confirm that. But Tran also called out another group.

“Let’s say I can accomplish more than what the IGDA is doing about this gambling crisis,” said Tran. “Just doing that with my small organization versus an organization of 12,000 developers, I think that would set the tone for a movement going forward.”

I reached out to the IGDA, which explicitly represents game creators, for a response. The news didn’t phase them.; “The IGDA is proud of its track record of more than 20 years of supporting game developers around the world,” interim IGDA director Jen MacLean said in a statement provided to GamesBeat. “We’ll continue advocating for game developers on the issues that matter most to them, and working with the interactive entertainment industry to support game developers in their craft and in sustainable and fulfilling careers.” So maybe the NCGP will do more than the IGDA about loot boxes, but that’s because that issue isn’t something the IGDA’s members care about. But that shines a light back on the NCGP. Who is it listening to?

“It depends on what the community wants,” said Tran. “It’s a collective. It’s not really a dictatorship or anything. It’s like the NRA, [but] we have more people than them. We have more money than them, collectively, in terms of revenue. We’re just as crazy about our passion as they are.” The problem with that, of course, is that the NRA’s business members and private members are almost always on the same side of every gun-control issue. In gaming, an individual donor is probably more likely to stand in opposition to a company like Electronic Arts. And if the NCGP had to decide between gamers and publishers, which would it choose? Or, to put it another way, whose money does it want more?

“Um, it’s — I guess you would say – huh,” said Tran. “That’s actually — I think I’ll just leave that question up in the air. We haven’t really gotten to that point yet, where we’ve become that big of a force. But so far, with the resources we have, we can do what we set out to do. Maybe not as grandiose as some would portray it, but enough to—the only promise I can make is that we’ll do more than the IGDA does, and they have 12,000 developers. That’s about it.” More than starting weird online Buddhist colleges or saying anything to get ahead, it’s the most unsettling to hear a lobbyist admit they don’t know whose money they want to take. An organization like this needs funding, and this is a question any such group would have already figured out. But if Tran isn’t even sure if he wants your cash or EA’s donations, who is going to give him anything at all?

Of course, if this falls through, maybe Tran will come up with another half-dozen ideas to throw against the wall. Or maybe he’ll take the advice of Gholmieh, his former partner; “He’s very talented,” he said. “He’s a good person, but he needs to focus on one thing. But, hey! I think he’s working right now. Is he still with that company?” He told me that he works as a webmaster and marketer for a major company. According to his social media account, he started that job November 6. So yeah, Gholmieh, he’s working.

tl;dr opportunistic conman attempting to capitalize on the situation.

 

[Lahey]

Hawaii update. Lee and Quinlan have taken to youtube. No word from AG Chin yet.

Predatory gaming practices are hurting everyone, especially vulnerable youth. We need your help. This is the start of a regular vlog to bring you behind the scenes and inside political gaming discussions so you know how to make your voice heard as we work to change the gaming industry for the better. If you want predatory gaming practices to change, join us and spend a few minutes to take action:

1. Take 5 minutes to write to one or more of your elected officials: Governor, State Legislators, Mayor, and City Council members. Their email addresses can be found online.
2. Ask them to consider taking action to protect local families and particularly underage youth from predatory gaming practices. Tell your story in your own words or feel free to use or build on this example letter to get going: http://textuploader.com/dqn4s
3. Connect a link to a news article about this issue to add an additional perspective, and thank them for listening.

That's it! Predatory gaming companies are waiting for people to quiet down. Don’t let that happen. Speak out and help us change the gaming industry for the better.

 

[Lahey]

Chris Lee was interviewed by Kotaku. The article contains some misinformation, but I'm sharing it because of a single line in the last paragraph (emphasized): https://archive.fo/D2mTF

Hawaii State Rep Is Drafting Bill Barring Minors From Buying Games With Loot Boxes

Imagine a 17-year-old gamer tossing a copy of the Teen-rated Star Wars Battlefront 2 onto his local GameStop’s checkout counter, only to be asked: “Sir, may I see your ID?”

A Hawaii in which games with microtransactions are illegal for minors to purchase is one that state legislator Chris Lee is now hoping to realize. He says that prohibiting the sale of games with loot boxes is a “no-brainer,” and along with a dozen other politicians, he says, he’s thinking of how to put legal controls around video game microtransactions. Lee, a member of the state House of Representatives who has also authored bills around climate change and gun control, says he downloaded Clash of Clans two years ago to pass time between meetings. In 2014, the freemium strategy mobile game generated a reported $650,000 per day.

“At one point,” Lee told me over the phone, “I started buying crystals. I ended up spending a few hundred dollars over the course of a few months.” Once he realized what he’d done, Lee deleted the game. He felt that the game’s microtransaction mechanics had snuck up on him without warning. And once he deleted Clash of Clans, he said, “there was no value left. It’s just money that’s gone.” Over the course of a few months, Lee had been hearing from local teachers about kids who struggled with the temptation to spend beyond their means in game microtransactions. Lee cited one conversation about a kid who, he heard, had stolen their parents’ credit card to pay for their gaming habit. He says several families reached out about spending thousands of dollars on microtransactions. “There’s no transparency at the outset of what they’re getting into,” he said. “That’s something I think is a real concern.”

Now, Lee is working to prevent the sale of games containing loot boxes to gamers under 21 in Hawaii. He also wants games to disclose up-front whether they have “gambling-based mechanics” and to publicize the odds of winning various items in loot boxes.
In-game purchases have become more prevalent in recent years and, among a vocal faction of gamers, are viewed as a plague. Some of 2017’s biggest titles including Destiny 2, NBA 2K18, Assassin’s Creed Origins and Middle-earth: Shadow of War contain microtransactions that had players complaining that they were being preyed on by game companies. Discontent peaked with the release of October’s Star Wars Battlefront 2, which contained loot crates purchasable with real money (they’ve been temporarily removed). It became clear that Star Wars Battlefront 2’s microtransaction mechanics gave players who spent more money a statistical advantage in the game’s multiplayer mode. In a recent YouTube video, Lee said that Battlefront 2 was an “online casino designed to lure kids into spending money.”

Loot boxes that can be purchased for cash have proven particularly controversial. Players who might want a specific item often purchase several loot boxes in hopes of obtaining that item. Since the odds of receiving that item aren’t disclosed, players might be tempted to buy and buy and buy. Recently, Kotaku interviewed a 19-year-old who had spent $10,000 on in-game microtransactions. The question of whether purchasing loot boxes (or, generally, randomized loot mechanics) may constitute gambling is not clear-cut, and never has been. In the U.S., the legal definition of gambling involves staking something of value on the outcome of a contest, including the purchase of a chance to win a lottery, with the agreement that the person will “receive something of value in the event of a certain outcome.” At a casino, participants pay money to participate in a game in hopes of receiving their money back. The odds of winning are known. In a video game with loot boxes, players pay money in exchange for a loot box, which may contain an item they want. Players don’t know the odds. And they aren’t asking for a return on value. They just want to feel good.

In 2012, as loot-based mobile games started to catch on in Japan—called gacha after the sound of a capsule-toy machine—the government declared a certain type of loot box design, called “complete gacha,” to be illegal under existing laws. Politicians in Victoria, Australia and Belgium have said that loot boxes constitute gambling, while the United Kingdom’s Gambling Commission has said they do not. In the States, it’s sort of up in the air. A 1999 lawsuit claimed that opening Pokemon card packs counted as illegal gambling. The suit was dismissed. Last year, when game publisher Valve came under fire for empowering Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s underground skin-gambling industry, the Washington State Gambling Commission told Valve to get rid of it—but not to get rid of the randomized loot boxes that fueled players’ desire to gamble skins.

Lee thinks the answer is unambiguous. He wants to make sure kids under 21 can’t purchase games with loot boxes for the same reason kids can’t just walk into casinos. “Gambling has been illegal especially for minors and young adults because they are psychologically vulnerable,” he told me, adding that kids “often don’t have the cognitive maturity to make appropriate decisions when exposed to these kinds of exploitative mechanisms.” As the cost of making games has skyrocketed and the sticker price of console titles has remained at $60, publishers have looked for more ways to make money after that initial purchase. So now, lots of companies like EA and Warner Bros. are thinking of games as “services,” a new model that has players continually buying in. When I asked Lee whether he has sympathy for games studios who hemorrhage money during the development process, Lee pointed to EA’s own statement to investors that the Star Wars BattleFront 2 controversy wouldn’t have “a material impact” on future earnings. “Thats a decision on the industry’s part that could be changed at any time,” he said, adding, “I recall paying 75 dollars for Mario Kart 64 when that was first out.”

Another possible impediment to Lee’s lawmaking initiative is the fact that, even if games were more transparent about whether they included microtransactions, lots of games are constantly in flux. “Say you have a big title with no microtransactions, rated T for teen, sold everywhere right before Christmas,” Lee said. “And then, on January 1st, EA puts out an update that includes loot boxes. Suddenly, what parents thought is safe for their kid is not—and they have no idea the change happened.” Lee isn’t the only politician who has unsheathed his sword in the face of the microtransaction movement. He said that, since becoming vocal on the issue, he’s heard from representatives from over a dozen other states, including California, Minnesota and Pennsylvania. Action on microtransactions, he said, is a nonpartisan issue that is “pretty much universally supported.” In January, he’ll be going into a legislative session. Changes he spearheads would only affect Hawaii, but he’s hoping to set an example. “As an elected official we have an obligation to protect public health and safety,” he said. “In the same way gambling and drugs can be addictive—that’s the same kind of chemical response in the brain that these kinds of predatory loot boxes are designed to elicit.”

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[fantadomat]

If a kid of mine decidedes to steal money for games it will not see another game in his life until it becomes a self sufficient. It is sad how home education have gone to shit the past few decades.

 

[Lahey]

They get the UK and Belgium details wrong, of course. https://esportsobserver.com/washington-state-senators-introduce-bill-investigate-loot-boxes/

Washington State Senators Introduce Bill to Investigate Loot Boxes

Last week, three Washington state legislators introduced a bill (SB 6266) that if passed would charge the Washington State Gambling Commission to investigate loot boxes. The bill, which has been referred to the Committee on Labor & Commerce, would require the WSGC to report on the topic of loot boxes by the end of the year. Specific topics WSGC would have to address are: “(a) Whether games and apps containing these mechanisms are considered gambling under Washington law; (b) whether these mechanisms belong in games and apps; (c) whether minors and other young people, who may be more vulnerable to gambling addiction, should have access to games and apps with these mechanisms; and (d) the lack of disclosure and transparency with respect to the odds of receiving each type of virtual item.” WSGC would also be charged to “provide recommendations regarding how to best regulate the practice of including loot boxes and similar types of mechanisms in online games and apps, including options for the adoption and implementation of a regulatory and enforcement system, restrictions on the sale of games containing these mechanisms, and any appropriate disclosures.”

Put together, SB 6266 is a pretty clear signal that legislators are paying close attention to loot box-style business models in games, a concept that raised significant mainstream interest and controversy following EA’s Battlefront II loot box scandal. Interestingly, the national loot box conversation was initially started by Hawaii state legislator Chris Lee, who attempted to start a nation-wide conversation about loot boxes and potential problems surrounding their use and misuse. Lee made it clear that the main problem with loot boxes was the introduction of “gambling mechanisms.”

“So if you were to buy a $200 sword in a video game, but you knew that you were getting that sword, that would not fall under the definition,” says Lee’s fellow Hawaii state legislator Sean Quinlan. “But if you were going to spend $200 to buy a percentage chance to get a sword…”

The issue has come up outside of the United States as well. The UK Gambling Commission has hinted strongly that it may move to regulate loot boxes—even if they don’t technically qualify as gambling—as a form of consumer protection. And last November, Belgium ruled that loot boxes indeed were a form of gambling, and wants to have them banned across the EU. China has also installed regulations that game developers utilizing loot boxes must publish drop rates for loot box rewards.

For now, SB 6266 is still stuck in committee and may see significant revision before any votes are cast on the issue. If it does pass, however, WSGC has proved itself an active party that isn’t afraid to stand up to large game developers and tech companies. In 2016, the commission ordered Valve to stop all gambling-related weapon skin transfers in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, in a bid to halt unregulated weapon skin gambling. That issue and related fallout have since stalled due to the closure or reformation of many weapon skin gambling sites.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

If a kid of mine decidedes to steal money for games it will not see another game in his life until it becomes a self sufficient. It is sad how home education have gone to shit the past few decades.

I doubt many of them are deliberately stealing. Most likely just credit card details got saved into the game and parents don't notice anything until bill starts rounding up into hundreds or more.

 

[Ash]

Glad this hasn't quite been forgotten about and swept under the rug yet.

 

[fantadomat]

If a kid of mine decidedes to steal money for games it will not see another game in his life until it becomes a self sufficient. It is sad how home education have gone to shit the past few decades.

I doubt many of them are deliberately stealing. Most likely just credit card details got saved into the game and parents don't notice anything until bill starts rounding up into hundreds or more.

Do people really put their card infos on the pc?

 

[Archibald]

Well it is not uncommon for various sites/apps/whatever to ask if they can save your card info for faster checkouts in the future so I'd assume that some people actually do that, otherwise it wouldn't make any sense to waste time/money on implementing this feature.

 

[Dexter]

Nanny states might enact some positive change by mistake for once:

https://gamerant.com/german-authorities-to-consider-loot-box-ban-104/

German Authorities to Consider Loot Box Ban

By Jasmine Henry | Feb 5, 2018

Over the last few months there has been significant debate on whether or not video game loot boxes constitute gambling. While industry bodies such as the ESA disagree that they are gambling, elected officials in several countries such as Belgium and the United States have looked into legislation against the business model.

Yet another country is about to weigh in on the loot box gambling debate according to report by the Welt Am Sonntag in Germany. The publication reveals that Germany’s Commission for Youth Media Protection of the State Media Authorities is currently debating how best to deal with the issue. Wolfgang Kreißig, the chairman of the Youth Protection Commission, says that “I think that it’s imaginable that loot boxes violate the ban on gambling for children and minors.”

The German authority is set to reach a decision on the issue in March, during which it could decide to fine game developers and publishers who include loot boxes in their games. The authority may also prohibit game creators from including loot boxes in games altogether as a loot box ban. Considering Kreißig’s comments, any ban would likely affect games sold to minors, rather than those rated for adults.

Welt Am Sonntag‘s report points to a study from the Universty of Hamburg that found that a minority of players are responsible for the majority of loot box revenue and that this is “a typical feature of gambling markets.” It is unclear whether the members of the Youth Protection Commission will consider this specific study when coming to a decision.

Germany is not the only country considering an outright loot box ban or possible fines for those that include the business model. For example, a loot box ban has also been considered in the Netherlands.

However, Germany is an economic powerhouse and not only does it have the largest GDP (gross domestic product) of any country in Europe but its games industry is also worth over $4 billion annually. It is also the home of major industry events such as Gamescom. Any loot box ban in the country would likely have a dramatic impact on the revenue of any game released there.

It should be noted that at least one games industry body is currently looking into self-regulation as a way to fix the loot box issue without government intervention e.g loot box bans. But it’s unclear how much progress has been made on that front and whether or not a group like the German Youth Protection Commission would even consider that as a solution.

https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/webw...ele-suechtig-und-schliesslich-arm-machen.html

https://www.gamezone.com/news/sweden-considering-classifying-loot-boxes-gambling-2019/

Swedish authority pushing to classify loot boxes as gambling in 2019
More are pushing for loot box regulation.

By Tatiana Morris February 7, 2018


Sweden appears to be joining the German Youth Protection Commision in considering on whether or not loot boxes should be labeled as gambling. According to Sweden’s Minister of Civil Affairs, Ardalan Shekarabi, loot boxes may be classified as gambling as soon as 2019.

“We are working to regain control of the gaming market as soon as possible and ensure that Swedish consumer protection rules apply to all actors involved in gaming,” said Shekarabi to P3 News. “I am ready to ask our authorities to take a closer look at the phenomenon of loot boxes in the next step and see if there is a need to change legislation in order to strengthen consumer protection.”

Shekarabi went on to note that many gamers get stuck in an abusive (and addictive) cycle of purchasing loot boxes. In this case, loot boxes are very much like a gambling feature. The Minister of Civil Affairs says he will be asking the appropriate authorities and experts to look into loot boxes and create a new legislation that will regulate them in January 2019.

While Sweden’s Minister of Civil Affairs pushes for new regulatory laws on loot boxes, a State Representative in the United States is pursuing new laws to stop predatory microtransaction practices as well. Authorities in Belgium and the UK have found loot boxes to be gambling, while the ESRB and PEGI agree that they are not.

The focus on loot boxes and their similarity to gambling was brought around by the Star Wars Battlefront 2 loot box debacle last year.

Star Wars: Battlefront 2‘s November 2017 was marred by a progression system that was tied to the purchase of loot boxes with real money. The backlash was so fierce that EA decided to cut the cost of heroes in Star Wars: Battlefront 2 by 75%, as well as cut the campaign credit payout by 75%. In addition to that, microtransactions were temporarily removed from the game.

EA plans on bringing back the game’s progression system soon and has defended their use of loot boxes in games.

Also I don't think this Update was posted ITT:

 

[Lahey]

Possible investigation opening in Sweden. Google translation. https://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=1646&artikel=6880674

Loot boxes, ie packages you buy in game play with random content, may be classified as a lottery in the future. According to the Minister of Civil Affairs, Ardalan Shekarabi, after reviewing the P3 News's review: "We are working to regain control of the gaming market as soon as possible and ensure that Swedish consumer protection rules apply to all actors involved in gaming".

There are young people who spend thousands of crowns on so-called lootpacks in game play. Nevertheless, this is not covered by the lottery law - although many testify that they became addicted. Now, the minister opens for a change. The government is working on a review of legislation in the Swedish gaming market. The goal is for a new legislation to come into force in January 2019. Today, foreign players in the Swedish gaming market are not covered by Swedish legislation. Nor is the game of lotteries in game play regulated by the Swedish lottery team. But it may change in the future.

"I am ready to ask our authorities to take a closer look at the phenomenon of loot boxes in the next step and see if there is a need to change legislation in order to strengthen consumer protection".

Can loot boxes be classified as a lottery already in 2019?

"I do not want to exclude it. I would like to start by asking our authorities and experts to look at this. Obviously, there are many people stuck in a game abuse and also end up in this kind of gambling and lose money on it".

EDIT: ninja'd

 

[Dexter]

 

[Ocelot]

Maybe I am a pessimist but I can't see this ending well. On one hand, you have companies being too greedy and selling things that used to be free a decade ago. On the other hand, you have countless aging politicians mentally stuck in the 90s who want to tax video games to death because they are too "violent" or too "sexist" or too "addictive", whatever gets the ball rolling. As Dexter said above, a few nanny states have already jumped into the opportunity to further regulate video games.

It's true that paying for fucking GTA money is like a joke for anyone who didn't start playing games after 2010. But opening your arms and butthole to German, Swedish and Americans politicians to ask for "help" isn't going to end well, neither for your games, nor your butthole.

 

[Average Manatee]

Maybe I am a pessimist but I can't see this ending well. On one hand, you have companies being too greedy and selling things that used to be free a decade ago. On the other hand, you have countless aging politicians mentally stuck in the 90s who want to tax video games to death because they are too "violent" or too "sexist" or too "addictive", whatever gets the ball rolling. As Dexter said above, a few nanny states have already jumped into the opportunity to further regulate video games.

It's true that paying for fucking GTA money is like a joke for anyone who didn't start playing games after 2010. But opening your arms and butthole to German, Swedish and Americans politicians to ask for "help" isn't going to end well, neither for your games, nor your butthole.

Yeah. The ideal is industry self-policing, like happens with rating systems such as the ESRB. But those only work because the games industry doesn't really have a monetary incentive to make M-rated games exclusively, while they have a huge incentive to make every game a microtransaction shithole. But governments getting involved is going to make everything go to shit, ESPECIALLY if governments from multiple countries get involved and end up setting different rules everywhere. It's already a shitshow when every game has to have a Germany-friendly version and an Australia-friendly version. By 2025 the only way to buy the original developer vision of games would be to use a proxy that goes through the international space station.

 

[Lahey]

Last I checked the various commissions are still discussing it, but Lee has stated his intent, which lines up with the first post/prediction in this thread.

Lee is working to prevent the sale of games containing loot boxes to gamers under 21 in Hawaii. He also wants games to disclose up-front whether they have “gambling-based mechanics” and to publicize the odds of winning various items in loot boxes.

While I would love nothing more than seeing companies that deliberately try to get minors addicted to their disgusting pay to win schemes to crash and burn, the most I can hope for is for for games with the most overt shit like lootbox progression to be stamped with an 18+ "Contains Real Gambling" rating, forcing publishers to limit themselves to cosmetic stuff and not base their gameplay around trying to get players to buy that shit if they want to market their games to teens.

This wouldn't be difficult to implement. Games which fit the criteria would be sold under the existing framework as M or 18+ or 21+ or whatever by region. The onus would still ultimately rest upon consumers (or their parents) to inform themselves, and retail clerks to actually enforce on the physical side. An unwashed child with horrible enough taste to buy this trash and neglectful parents whose credit card s/h/it uses for digital purchases wouldn't even notice aside from seeing pay2win design being tweaked just enough to keep that teen rating.

 

[Average Manatee]

Nah, plenty of ways to get around it. Can't sell loot boxes? Sell the equivalent of Baal run entry tokens. Sell temporary "premium" account mode that gives more/better rewards.

 

[Viata]

Why ban loot boxes? It's easier to find shit devs because they use this kind of shit.

 

[Gerrard]

You need loot boxes to find shit devs?