State legislators have called the Electronic Arts Star Wars Battlefront II game an online casino that is preying on children, and hysterical politicians have vowed to take action. And so it begins! Righteous politicians have joined the fray of those rebelling against the aggressive money-making strategy in the new title.
Hawaii is Having None of It
Chris Lee and Sean Quinlan, state representatives for Hawaii, have promised to take steps to protect underage kids from the title’s monetisation practices. While it is certainly not in the same league as the kind of enjoyable real money entertainment adult-only operations like the River Belle casino provide, these men believe it to be close enough.
Lee released a press statement on Tuesday stating that he believed the game to be an online casino with a Star Wars theme that had at its core the intent to lure children into gambling money in order to win upgrades. He deemed these methods exploitative, and stated that they should not be present in a game marketed to minors. Especially not when there are so many child-appropriate activities available elsewhere.
He went on to say that there is nothing in place to prevent Electronic Arts to trick people into buying so-called loot crates with random content by means of microtransactions thanks to the fact that there is no need for the company to reveal the odds of these being filled with anything meaningful. He summed it up by saying that these kinds of actions are allowing companies to target youth that do not possess the cognitive maturity to spot exploitation.
The Attorney General May be Getting Involved
Lee stated that the Attorney General had been asked to review the situation, and that legislation was also being considered that would prohibit the sale of these kinds of games to those who were underage. There is also talk of these kinds of so-called gambling mechanisms being outlawed entirely.
Wall Street Analysts Calling the Uproar Nonsense
A widely-followed analyst from Wall Street is less than impressed with the politician’s histrionics, going so far as to label them morons! It was said that gambling requires something to be wagered in order for the gambler to win something that had a tangible value. If the item/s won could not be monetized or sold, then the action could simply not be termed gambling.
All In-Game Purchases Turned Off
EA announced that it would temporarily suspend all in-game purchases on November the 16th, just one day before the game was set to officially be launched, and yes, this was as a response to the overwhelmingly negative sentiments from the gaming community as a whole. The company stated that, after changes had been implemented, the purchasing of crystals from within the game would once again become a possibility.
The initial uproar concerned in-game purchases that allowed players to save time by spending on loot boxes containing so-called Star Cards, which accelerated time by unlocking big characters like Darth Vader. Social media platforms were flooded with negative posts, with the protestors demanding that these kinds of benefits should be included in the initial price for the game.
