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http://www.destructoid.com/the-japanese-government-squashes-social-gaming-s-dreams-227208.phtml

This is an actual video game law that I would like to see passed. Why? It makes randomized items in item mall games illegal by making it the same as gambling. This has always been what it has been like and it is quite a ballsy move by the government to take, but this sort of regulation needs to happen. However, I think that it is a good idea and that they will finally have to start selling exactly what people want to buy rather than spending hundreds of dollars on random boxes and hope you get the item that you want. This sort of system is a terrible system anyways. I want to know what I am buying. I do not want to be gambling on the random odds on the hopes that I might or not might get what I want. When I want to spend my money on something, I want to know exactly what I am getting.

In my opinion, this form of gambling in video games are worse than what happens in most casinos. In casinos, at least you know the odds that you will win or lose if you take the time to look at things. However, it is much harder to do in video games because you do not see the roulette board and the odds of obtaining a certain item are manipulated despite only having so many potential outcomes. You do not know how many prize slots are allocated to each of the items and how many there are total. It is gambling without knowing any of the information that makes you able to know how risky it is or the value of the prize. Most of the items that come from random boxes are complete junk and probably not even worth the same amount as the stuff in the $1 boxes. The odds are just always against you and in the long run, you lose and the company wins. You just do not know by how much.

I just want the item mall to start selling exactly what people want to buy. I do not care if it costs $50 while the random box costs $10. In the long run, you will still save money on the items because the rates for those special item mall items are ridiculously low and the random item boxes are insanely expensive by comparison. There are people who spend HUNDREDS of dollars on boxes each time and get nothing of value out of it. In Atlantica Online, there were people who sometimes spent over $1,000 on boxes just so they could get the item they wanted. The same items end up costing several weeks worth of gold farming for many people as a result of the low odds and high cost of obtaining the items. While sometimes they are novelty, in many games, they provide huge stats that can turn the tide of battle or make you able to solo something you otherwise could not have.

The only downside to this is that the companies will no longer be making as much money as before. This means they might have to shut down some of the less popular games because the wealthy people will no longer have to spend a crap ton of money to get the items they want. I just want to see the item mall randomness stop. They have not had much opposition before and the classification of them to be the same as gambling (thus making it illegal) is what I want to see done. Self regulation of these sort of things are useless because the company that makes the game is the one that can decide the odds and rates for these things and they always want to establish a system where they can benefit from it the most and that is making things random with uncertain odds so people will spend more to get that one mystical item. I would rather pay 10x the cost so that I will certainly get what I want than gamble on their system with a chance to get the item with a box that is 1/10th the cost per attempt.