Statement 2 is not that they’re so profitable that it’s unfair. Statement 2 is that the revenue stream they *do* have is unfairly top-heavy in terms of who receives it: the corporate executive employees. Their high-figure salaries and bonuses are eating up the revenue that could otherwise be profit. 

PC games are inherently harder to moderate because it’s so trivial to make new accounts for most games.

The problem is that impeachment is entirely a political process, not a legal one. The process itself needs serious reform.

One thing to note is that Brazil is going through a particularly nationalist phase right now politically, arguably even more so than the US (since their quasi-fascist ruler is actually popular).

Four Swords Adventures was a fantastic multiplayer experience, but the hardware required to enjoy it was definitely a hurdle. You could play it single-player with just an ordinary controller, and that was entertaining but not as interesting. I had hopes that FSA would be remade for the Wii U, at least as a two-player…

“Return of the Obra Dinn” technically came out last year, but it’s an excellent & short independent game. 

A lottery is also gambling, but what you might be confusing that with is a sweepstakes, which must provide a free means of entry even if the normal means of entry is via purchase.

That’s not how gambling is defined. Whether you get back nothing doesn’t matter. If it did, tons of casinos would form whereby every bet of $1.00 would return $0.01 at minimum, even if you lose.

I don’t see that the distinction of whether it comes in a virtual box or not matters. 

Price and cost are not the same as value.

1) That’s cost, not value. Value can be initially based on cost, but they don’t always remain linked. Toilet paper has no value after I wipe my butt with it. Value *can* be measured if the item can be reliably resold.

For games where sale of items or accounts for real money is expressly prohibited, particularly when the game takes steps to detect and close sold accounts, that’s not a reliable method of valuation. 

Paying for a roll of the dice, when the prize is never measurably valuable, is not gambling. It may still be a predatory business practice, but we have to understand the difference before we start regulating it. 

That aspect strikes me more as an issue of game design rather than something that needs regulation.

If the exchange between virtual and real currency only flows in one direction (real spent to buy virtual), then it isn’t the same as casino chips.

So you’re getting closer to something I agree with, but your argument is all over the map:

As stated in another reply thread, the fact that all virtual items are supposed to have zero monetary value is one reason it’s often not considered gambling.

I don’t know if the “standard loot rotation” has anything to do with whether the mechanic is gambling or not, but the second part is potentially worth thinking about.

Diablo is probably a good example whereby the random loot is completely severed from the monetary cost. But that’s not really the game I had in mind.

I think there are two questions that need to be separated from one another: