EXTREME Overclocking Tweaking Enthusiast PC Hardware Product Reviews And News. I have lived through a lot of yell a lot about video games controversies in my time, but I have truly never seen anything like whats currently happening in Star Wars Battlefront 2. I saw fans yell until the Mass Effect 3 ending was fixed through DLC. I saw fans yell until Diablo 3s Auction House was killed. But I have never seen fans yell until not only were microtransactions stripped out of a game like Battlefront 2, but it called into question the predatory practices of the entire industry. Thats precisely whats starting to happen now, as this has moved beyond EA did this annoying thing and this is genuinely something that needs to be looked atregulatedbanned. We are seeing this on the global stage, with Belgium recently making the argument that loot boxes in games are gambling, saying plainly the combination of money and addiction is gambling. They havent reached a legal conclusion yet on the matter it was being misreported that they had, and have proposed no specific action yet, but the conversation is happening, and its been confirmed this movement was indeed inspired by Battlefront 2. And here in the states, there was a televised press event in Hawaii addressing the Battlefront 2 situation specifically, with state reps calling the game a Star Wars themed online casino designed to lure kids into spending money. They say theyre looking into legislation to avoid these games being sold to children, or to prevent the games from employing these kinds of randomized, gambling inspired models in the first place. I do find this sudden legislative interest in loot boxes alittle weird. Obviously, the practice has been going on the mobile market for ages, where kids almost play those games at a higher rate than core console titles at this point. And AAA games have had loot boxes for a while as well, started by Valve titles, boosted into the mainstream by Overwatch, and now infesting more or less every game on the market, in some capacity. So why draw the line at Battlefront 2A few reasons, perhaps Its been the loudest controversy of any of these dust ups throughout the lifespan of loot boxes. Its Star Wars, a hugely popular IP usually marketed toward kids the Hawaii rep compares it to Joe Camel selling cigarettes, which Im sure Disney will love. Its a totally unavoidable system when you play the game. Wonder Woman 1975 Lynda. You cant just ignore the store section, loot boxes are directly integrated into multiplayer progression. Purchased or earned, they are the only way to progress. Its encouraging purchases not just to look cool with skins, but to actually fight better with flat stat boosts. Red light therapy is the use of light in the red to infrared wavelengths as a medical instrument to treat or, better, heal a wide variety of ailments. Here are the latest articles published on Toms Hardware. See the latest news, reviews and roundups and access our tech archives. This page grew out of a conversation on the Usenet comp. It can be frustrating for Free Software users to buy a new graphics card because. You feel you almost need to buy boxes or grind crazily to keep up. Berthold Garamond. Still, if were talking about legislation, Im not sure what legal bearing pay to win or loot box to progress systems would have that would mean theyre treated somehow differently than say, Overwatchs cosmetic loot boxes. The overall point seems to be that if youre paying for loot boxes with randomized prizes, thats enough, and would be included in whatever regulations are put in place. There also seems to be some issue about the definition of gambling itself, which remains rooted in this idea that the items being gambled for must have a physical, monetary value. Thats ultimately what weve heard out of Belgium, despite all the bluster, and while that might apply to something like CS GO skins, Star Wars Battlefront 2s Star Cards almost certainly wouldnt meet that definition, if thats the only way you classify gambling. But perhaps the definition of gambling has to change, because there is simply no other word for what loot boxes are. Directory of Resources for Linux Hardware Compatibility Lists and Linux Drivers Video, Audio, Network, Internet, Printer, Scanner, USB, Notebooks and more. Ltcommanderdata Tuesday, August 29, 2017 link Interesting that C422 motherboards list official support for Windows 7. X299 motherboards provide Windows 7 drivers. When gambling was justgambling, there was no such thing as a virtual item that was unable to be assigned a real life dollar value. And yet, clearly people value these things, as theyre willing to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars for the chance at getting them. What is the difference, exactly, between spending 2,0. Even if you cannot sell that item for cash, clearly, to you, it has a value of at least 2,0. EA or Activision or Valve has 2,0. Theres the old trading card argument where if loot boxes start being banned or regulated or unable to be sold to minors, shouldnt card packs full of random rarity cards follow those same rules To that I say, sure, why not Do you know why I buy so many loot boxes and treasure chests and hero crystals in games now Because I spent my entire childhood buying packs of Star Wars, Magic and Pokmon cards in search of the rarest ones. Goal 3 Motherboard Drivers' title='Goal 3 Motherboard Drivers' />There was no reddit back then to vent about drop rates so this wasnt a widely discussed issue, but its still prepping kids for gambling, and I would not shed a tear if trading cards were lumped into these regulations. And many of those cards do have a monetary value attached to them, unlike these virtual items. But for games specifically, the most devastating thing legislation could potentially do is declare that if any game had purchasable, randomized items of differing rarity, that would mean the game could not be sold to children, at all. This would likely force the ESRB to react accordingly, and take these E or T rated games and make them M, if not AO, an 1. Ethernet Driver Download for Windows 10, 8, Windows 7, Vista XP Download Update Ethernet Drivers for your PC Free Drivers Scan Automatic Updates. Last updated March 16, 2008 How to uninstall your current display drivers Sorry, but no Vista info yet. Unfortunately, Microsoft changed things in Vista and Im not. Youve taken the plunge and bought a hot new motherboard. Heres how to upgrade your motherboard, swap your hardware, and prep your system so that you. Crowdfund innovations in tech and design before they go mainstream, and buy hundreds of unique products shipping now from Indiegogos Marketplace. Is this possible Could the governments of the US or Europe or Asia actually kill loot boxes outright It seems far fetched, but if theres a glimmer of hope I can see here, its that this issue can simultaneously combine A video game moral panic, which used to be about game violence, but could instead turn to games promoting childhood gambling with B a gaming public that mostly wants loot boxes to die or be regulated out of existence, unlike when gamers pushed back against the idea that games inspire real life violence. In this case, these two groups want the same thing for once, and its only the publishers that are holding each other close, hoping their newfound cash cow isnt erased because a few of them took it too far. Its just hard for me to see this coming to pass. If loot boxes were made illegal or heavily regulated, that could ravage the profits of both the core gaming and mobile markets to a degree that would make corporate interests foam at the mouth and do everything in their power to lobby so this didnt happen. And honestly, this is not as black and white as Joe Camel selling chemically addictive, cancer causing cigarettes to children. Keep in mind that half the industry has been fine with some amount of loot boxes to this point, but its when there are extreme cases like Battlefront 2 that things get escalated to this level. This is an extremely complicated issue. I have a hunch that despite all this smoke, there will be very little fire when it comes to passing actual laws that protect consumers or children against predatory loot box practices. I just dont have that much faith in our government these days, frankly, that theyd be able to agree on something like that, particularly with billions in corporate profits hanging in the balance. Not to say that the Battlefront 2 controversy means nothing. This is clearly more than just a shouting match.