Oh, it’s gambling because I’m addicted

You drew a really strong link between what EA did and what Valve does, and that gives me the idea that you build your stance on that. EA lootboxes gave you nothing of monetary value, whereas that's objectively untrue with valve.

You can say that the items are virtual so they're not really valuable, but you can say the same thing about baseball cards in a sense; they provide no tangible value, only monetary value from sentiment, which is either real and applies to virtual items equally, or it isn't in which collectable cards are in the same camp as weapon skins.

EA's lootboxes gave items that could not be transferred, that's also different from csgo boxes.

EA's lootboxes locked core gameplay content behind them, and went so far as to reduce the playtime of people without them because the contents of the boxes were so overpowered making them a must have. I don't recall ever having a noticeably worse experience playing CS because I didn't have a skin, and I'm not already $60 in on the game y'know?

I agree that kids should not be able to buy cases unsupervised, and parents should be aware that this exists. But I also think that about pokemon and baseball and MTG cards as well, for the exact same reason.

I know I've done a lot of writing, so to summarize I'm not convinced by your logic. I believe CS cases are much closer to opening a pack of cards than you're giving them credit for, and I think they're an entirely different product than EA's infamous lootboxes for a number of reasons.

The targeted court cases are to argue that the previously passed legislation already covers these particular facts.

If the legislature passes a law that says "making false statements to another in order to obtain something of value is fraud," you can expect litigation about the actual contours of what is or isn't fraud.

Same with legislation against driving at an unsafe speed, causing a nuisance to your neighbors, discriminating against employees on the basis of sex, etc. Court cases decide the edge cases.

If the legislature passes a law banning gambling outside of licensed institutions, and banning gambling for minors, you can expect litigation about what actually is or isn't gambling.

Targeted court cases are how you get the ball rolling. You can't just go after everyone all at once. You gotta start somewhere.

I'm not a lawyer, and even having perused the official filing, it's still legalese that I can't swear I fully understand. There are two possibilities of what NY state actually wants:

1. just stop selling loot boxes
2. you can sell loot boxes, but only if you've verified that your customers are of legal gambling age

And I don't know for sure which is true. Of course it's in Valve's best interests to represent this to their customers as the government trying to violate your freedoms, because it gets the public on their side. Remember the Epic case against Apple, where Epic knowingly broke a contract with Apple allowing in-game purchases to cut Apple out, then they had a trailer parodying the 1984 Apple ad to garner public support with "Free Fortnite" ready to go.

These are two different things. You don't need to let valve sell loot boxes to stop new York from implementing mass surveillance.

The TF2 loot crates were the worst, but you could get around them for crafting except for visuals. What's crazy to me is that people are getting mad over visuals in loot boxes and that the gambling is largely over that. I don't think you can put all the shit leading up to that to one company, yet bureaucrats persistently try to do it to avoid acknowledging their own dismal efforts to get their feet wet in implementing some basic legislation on the matter.

Before it used to be Asian MMOs that basically targeted people with addictive personalities with paid for RNG boosts that gave actual in-game advantages (and they will still exist, because they are not loot boxes, just dice rolls), now people are getting this invested over skins and 3D models. We need to address the core of the problem, because the same people falling for this bullshit are also the ones who fall for populist reactionary political bullshit pushing scammers onto our governments. Education and our social nets are clearly failing, and going after one of the better companies that's guilty of this is not going to do anything when the problem is literally coming from the highest tiers of government as they rush to get their friends and family invested in predatory ventures. It's sort of like living in Nazi Germany and thinking the most important thing to complain about is whether businesses forced to be sold are really getting their money's worth instead of being forced to sell to whomever can buy them up the soonest.

I’m not a big fan of Valve’s use of loot boxes. But I’m also not happy about the proposed solution of “Just collect blood samples from all users”.

It also might not be exactly what NY is asking for, even if that's how Valve would like to frame it. The actual ask might be to just stop profiting from gambling.

It shouldn't go away. It should extend to all of the big players using gambling and addictive conditioning in video games starting with EA and Microslop/Activision. Targeting Valve and nobody else is extremely suspicious, especially in the wake of the victory over the Rothchilds.

There are also child gambling machines, like crane games, coin pushers, or that one with the moving light. I don't get why stuff like that is okay. I'm not defending loot boxes, but I do think it's really weird to single them out. Why don't they just work to pass a law which bans all of them?

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