“I still maintain that any discussion of murder without a discussion of morality is ultimately going to collapse into nihilism.”

(I’m replacing your use of the word ‘moral’ with ‘necessary’ in the quote below, because I think it’s more useful in getting my point across. I actually don’t conflate the two here, but I just don’t think it’s important to even discuss the distinction right now)

currently, you’re misunderstanding my position. 

i dont think this is intentional, but youve been creating strawmen which have been effective at demonstrating what your position is, but ineffective at showing how your position has any value in the real world.

okay. so if someone were able to demonstrate to you that violence *would* actually be effective in creating political change in this and other areas, you would change your mind and agree that violence should be on the table?

you wouldnt run someone over with a steamroller if it prevented the deaths of many women?

i ran into this myself when i first played. it is the kind of game where it may take a bit to ‘figure it out,’ but then once it clicks it gets really fun. at least that’s how it was for me. also i think there’s a way to restart it so you aren’t stuck with less than three pilots.

esports were a mistake

the comparison to arcade machines i think is really good. it really shows how the advancement of a technology can be used to make exploitation exponentially more effective.

one thing that’s been concerning is the tendency for some people, including games writers, to say ‘well i’m not FORCED to spend money, so it’s not predatory,’ which is just not how manipulation works at all.

i feel like part of it is a defensive reaction to criticism and i hope with time they’re able to take a moment to reconsider that criticism and learn from it a bit!

this is a great comment, it’s really irritating to me that we have these really clear correct criticisms of the whole lootbox phenomenon and people kind of try to dismiss it as ‘gamers being annoying’ or whatever.

they really should just be banned, but otherwise 100%  behind this

i think it doesn’t even have to be at the level you’re describing (not necessarily disagreeing though). sometimes it can be as simple as, for those who are this dedicated to the industry that they write about it for a living, it is often likely that they want to believe very strongly in the goodness of the industry,…

this is off-base imo.

one day you may realize the emptiness of your ideology. peace

oh okay, yeah, i’m not plugged in enough to know how negative the internet’s reaction to this game has been compared to other gacha/lootbox games. if, as you say, this game has been targeted more aggressively than others for criticism, that may be ‘unfair.’ but i’m not really concerned with ‘fairness’ in that sense,…

the way i see it, there are two main reasons that people are (and imo should be) particularly vocal about this gacha lootbox stuff.

“it’s too absolute of a moral stance on something that is, at the end of the day, totally inconsequential for 99% of people who might play the game.”

thank you for this comment, i worry that these kinds of articles may sometimes be written due to their controversial nature and not with an eye towards actually improving the lay of the land so i do hope the author takes these criticisms to heart