but you give your money and get a product, intangible though it may be, in return. That’s not gambling, its a purchase.

No, but ppl trying to say its illegal gambling should stop focusing on red herrings.

How does a dev allow kids to make in game purchases? Why does the kid have a credit card?

The reason these systems are compared to real gambling is to ask “Does this prey on whales the same way real gambling does?” and the answer is pretty ubiquitously “yes”.

To be fair, I doubt most game designers want to put these things in their games, but are required to by their corporate overlords.

Yeah, Jim Sterling is really doing yeoman’s work here. I think it was easy to ignore/handwave these slot machine mechanics when they were largely limited to F2P mobile shovelware, but now they’re starting to creep into everything. I don’t have a problem with DLC. I don’t have a big problem with Season Passes, even! I…

I have to agree with the ESRB here. It’s exactly the same concept.

Even if it’s not “gambling,” that doesn’t mean it isn’t playing on the same exact psychological appeals that gambling does. And when they give people the ability to pay actual money for the loot boxes—even children—that’s just super poor form. It makes me think back to comments that Jonathan Blow made in a game design…

No, we know this is the case with a lot of basis.

These are all costs that the normal $60 can’t cover.

Because Republicans are actually using this to attack the Democratic Party, so it’s worth pointing out they have no moral ground to stand on.

I don’t think those are meaningful exertions. They are exertions, in the way that everything is ultimately an exertion. But they obviously fall into a different category than traditional athletic sport, and so I don’t find it surprising in the least that traditional athletic sport fans are taken aback by attempts to…

All the points you bolded where the piece talks about Republicans are true. Their donor class is more nefarious and radical.

Ragu settles differently depending on body type.

As many have pointed out, women who have been targeted and abused by the rampant misogyny in Hollywood can only do so much. It is the men who stuck up for Weinstein, remained quiet, silenced women, and benefitted from allowing these abuses to continue.

But you have a different reading and, well, that’s fine. Mirkinson could step in and clear it up if he really desired.

In Korea, you’re more likely to find PC rooms (like every 20 feet or so in a commercial area of a decent sized city), and sometimes video game rooms that let you play standard consoles.

[I added some stuff to my previous comment, by the way.]

We have allowed our country to maintain its position as a colonial overseer well into the 21st century. Until we accept that and honestly deal with it, no amount of hurricane relief will be enough.

I’m of two minds about this. On the one hand, when we’re calling Trump the worst president ever, it’s worth remembering that the last Republican president killed probably a million people for no convincing reason. But on the other, a president engaging in nuclear brinksmanship on Twitter is probably pretty good…