Well, time to get political…

Now to be honest, I didn’t want to cover this, but it’s been on my mind since this news has been making waves, and since I now finally have my computer back and I can write again, I figured I’d throw my hat in the ring and share my thoughts about this act.

So what is the ‘Protecting Children from Abusive Games Act’? Quite simply it is a piece of legislation introduced by Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican Senator from the state of Missouri. You can find a copy of the proposed legislation here.

What this legislation proposes is that several ‘manipulative design’ features that have been implemented in multiple video games across multiple platforms be banned within the United States, including Loot Boxes and Pay to Win mechanics. He defines both fairly simply in his legislation, with Loot Boxes being defined as ‘Microtransactions offering randomized or partially randomized rewards to players’, and Pay to Win having two definitions, the first being ‘Manipulation of a game’s progression system – typically by building artificial difficulty or other barriers into game progression – to induce players to spend money on microtransactions to advance through content supposedly available to them at no additional cost’ and the second definition being ‘Pay-to-win – Manipulation of the competitive balance between players of multiplayer games by allowing players who purchase microtransactions competitive advantages over other players’.

It also proposes that these rules should be enforced by the Federal Trade Commision (FTC) and it would give powers to State Attorneys that would allow them to file suits in defense of the residents of their states against these practices.

And that’s it, that’s the general idea behind this legislation, and already the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has issued a statement in response to this proposal stating the following:

“Numerous countries, including Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, determined that loot boxes do not constitute gambling. We look forward to sharing with the senator the tools and information the industry already provides that keeps the control of in-game spending in parents’ hands. Parents already have the ability to limit or prohibit in-game purchases with easy to use parental controls.”

So now that we’ve got the facts out of the way, let’s discuss my opinion, and I’ll start with the ESA’s response. It’s 100% spot on. What? Did you think I was going to slam the ESA? No, not at all, and the reason why I haven’t decided to slam the ESA is because I have two stances which are relevant to this particular piece of legislation.

• Stance 1: I do not like politicians putting their hands on video games, as they always either go too far, or not far enough, and that ultimately inconveniences gamers.
• Stance 2: Government legislation should not be used as a bludgeon in place of proper parental responsibility.

Now to give some context as to why I have those stances. As you may have seen if you’ve looked at my profile here, or my twitter, I’m from Australia. When I was really getting into gaming, there were many games which I never had access to, not because I didn’t have the money, or because my parents restricted the content I could play/watch, but because the government had not legislated an adults only rating for video games. This meant that if a game was too violent, or had sexual themes, it was blocked from being sold in my country, and there were many gamers in my country who didn’t think that was acceptable. We fought tooth and nail against our own government to get an R18+ rating for games, and we finally won and got what we wanted, but it took years for it to happen, and in that time we missed out on a lot of games, or got censored/watered down versions which denied us the whole game experience.

Ever since that fight started, I’ve been opposed to politicians getting involved in limiting access to video games, and that hasn’t changed now. Even though this does not affect my country in the slightest, my stance remains the same. Politicians have much more important things to worry about than pixels on a screen,

As for Stance 2? Well that comes down to how I was raised essentially. I was taught to take responsibility for my actions, and not to ‘pass the buck’ to someone else when it’s convenient to do so. For too long there have been a large number of parents, including celebrities, who have not been responsibile when it comes to their children and what they can do on their devices and now, rather than fix their own problems, they’re attempting to get the government to do it for them.

Here is the simple fact that the ESA gets right. Parental controls exist on every major platform where you can buy and play games. Apple’s iOS, Android, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, Steam, uPlay, EA’s Origin, Microsoft Store, the Blizzard Launcher and even GOG Galaxy all have parental controls. Now while the parental controls vary between platforms, one thing they all have in common is that the controls you have access to allow you to limit, or outright block any purchases using that platform, and those controls can only be disabled by the person that set them up (assuming the person that set them up did a good job at doing so of course). If you enable parental controls on an iPad or iPhone, it doesn’t matter how many games your kid downloads which have microtransations in them, they won’t be able to spend a cent without your approval.

And despite the name ‘parental controls’ these can also be used by adults who have problems with gambling. All they need is a dependable friend or family member to set up the controls for them and they won’t be able to make purchases either, which will help them play the games they want, without any potential risks. If they don’t have a dependable friend or family member, then they can reach out to a support worker, someone who is helping them combat their addiction.

The point is that these tools have existed for years, and in my opinion, it’s time parents started using them, rather than ignoring them and hoping the government steps in and does their job for them.

Now that we have that out of the way, I hope any of you reading this can understand why I think the ESA is spot on. But let’s cover a major concern I have, and finally, I’ll give you my opinion on whether I think this legislation will pass or not.

First, let’s talk about the concern, and it’s simple. I feel like this legislation could be used as a stepping stone for more restrictions, or that the current legislation could be abused to make gaming more inconvenient for gamers or game developers/publishers. It’s not difficult to change the wording on a bill, and right now we simply don’t know enough about the fine print to make a judgement call about this particular piece of legislation. If it remains as it is, it can still be used as a stepping stone for harsher restrictions further down the line. As I said above, too often governments either go too far, or not far enough when it comes to legislation, and this is a perfect scenario where they could go too far and ruin gaming for a large number of people, rather than the smaller group they’re trying to target. For that reason, and the points I made above, I personally hope this legislation doesn’t pass and that it gets buried and never pops up again.

Secondly, let’s talk about whether I think this will pass or not. Leaving aside my personal thoughts that I hope it doesn’t pass. Let’s be realistic here. If you’ve been paying attention to politics at all lately, you’ll know that it is a divided mess when it comes to the government and their ability to pass legislation of any sort. Democrats block Republican bills, Republicans block Democrat bills (simply because they’re the opposition), Republicans block bills that their own party supports, and we even have cases of Republicans filibustering bills that they themselves introduced.

There’s no order, there’s no control, it’s a hole filled with swirling chaos and anarchy and as long as it remains that way, I have serious doubts that any legislation like this will pass. Especially since the current Senate, which is dominated by Republicans who care more about business interests and profits than they do about the people they’re elected to serve. All the ESA has to do is apply a bit of pressure to some of the Republicans in congress and this bill will die before it gets anywhere significant.

And as you already know, I hope it does, because I really don’t want politicians getting their hands on video games.

Until next time folks.