Polygon: The ESRB’s new warning seems to hide loot boxes in plain sight
https://archive.fo/wVxAg
>Patricia Vance at first sounded a little confused by the pushback. Another reporter on the call Tuesday pointed out to Vance, the president of the Entertainment Software Rating Board, just how expansive the board’s new labeling of in-game purchases really was. Practically anything you see touted at E3 2017, The Game Awards, PlayStation Experience, it’s all carrying some kind of in-app purchase.
>Vance suggested that there are post-release expansions that are not offered for sale from within a game. I know I scratched my head trying to think of one; it sounded like the others on the line were, too. I tried to repeat the question in a different way, pointing out that a current game --- South Park: The Fractured But Whole — has chapter extensions and a season pass, literally available from within the game (a bus stop serves as the marketplace for that). None of that was objectionable before loot crates hit the scene last fall. And there are no loot crates in the South Park game.
>Vance stuck to the message. A season pass and DLC offered from within the game gets the in-game purchases label, and the ESRB encourages all parents to set spending controls using tools on the platforms available.
>“The new In-Game Purchases label will be applied to games with in-game offers to purchase digital goods or premiums with real world currency,” the ESRB said in a statement, “including but not limited to bonus levels, skins, surprise items (such as item packs, loot boxes, mystery awards), music, virtual coins and other forms of in-game currency, subscriptions, season passes and upgrades (eg. to disable ads).”
>To me, it has the effect of obscuring, or normalizing (there’s a trendy word) the phenomenon of loot crates. If they’re just another in-game purchase, and gamers have tolerated them for years, what’s the BFD about this one, right? I’m not the only one who feels this way.
>A ‘Missed Opportunity’ to educate consumers
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