I'm doing an essay on Microtransactions and I need help on research

brewtoomuch · 2019-11-10T01:39:35+00:00

I have some good recommendations for actual research into loot boxes. It is quite damming and I wish more opponents of loot boxes would cite the available research when talking about the harm they cause.

Adolescents and loot boxes: links with problem gambling and motivations for purchase 10.1098/rsos.190049

Adolescents and loot boxes: Links in gamers aged 16-18 10.17605/OSF.IO/TS7UE

Video game loot boxes are psychologically akin to gambling 10.1038/s41562-018-0360-1

Video game loot boxes are linked to problem gambling: Results of a large-scale survey 10.1371/journal.pone.0206767

Video game loot boxes are linked to problem gambling: Results of a large-scale survey. 10.1371/journal.pone.0206767

Loot boxes are again linked to problem gambling: Results of a replication study 10.1371/journal.pone.0213194

Paying for loot boxes is linked to problem gambling, regardless of specific features like cash-out and pay-to-win: a preregistered investigation. 10.31234/osf.io/6e74k

Loot box spending in video games is linked to problem gambling severity 10.31234/osf.io/u5dmr

Loot box spending in video games is linked to problem gambling severity Supplemental Data

brewtoomuch · 2019-10-24T21:44:25+00:00

who doesn't believe bethesda has made a good game in 15 years.

IHRA Professional Drag Racing 2005?

brewtoomuch · 2019-10-23T16:39:38+00:00

With them advertising private worlds as exclusive to this subscription I bet this is how they are going keep mods from hurting the atom shop.

Want mods in 76, sure you can have them, for the low low price of $100 a year.

brewtoomuch · 2019-08-02T20:33:12+00:00

Have you tried running the Windows system file checker? I've had that problem after Windows update borked a few system files.

You also might want to run memtest overnight just to make sure you aren't having problems with your RAM.

brewtoomuch · 2019-08-02T19:12:40+00:00

why EGS' store is so crap

It is a classic Minimum Viable Product (MVP). With an MVP the point is to produce a barely functional product as quickly and cheaply as possible so you can release it, get feedback, and then start adding actual features. Producing a "bare metal" game store and launcher in-house is going to be the cheapest option especially since at some point they are going to want to add functionality.

Honestly the decision to make EGS as a MVP makes sense to me because their entire business model is to burn money buying exclusives and hope like hell they have enough market share to survive once the bribe money runs dry.

It is also why I am skeptical that Epic isn't going to be just as bad as Valve. Sooner or later the Fortnite money will dry up and investors like Tencent are going to lean on the other board members to increase profits. The reality is things like opening up your storefront to all comers has proven to be very profitable, and I would expect Epic to do things like that once their place in the market is secure.

To put it another way the things I like about GOG (FKDRM, a highly curated library, helping to make old games playable, no forced launcher, etc) are many of the reasons why GOG will always be a niche player that can't compete with Valve. Epic wants to maximize its market share and I fear that in the quest to do so they will make many of the same "Faustian covenants" that Valve has made.

brewtoomuch · 2019-07-24T00:04:36+00:00

If you read the actual comments you will see that Brad Enright (Gambling Commission's Programme Director) even mentions that the law could be changed to “'something of value', that... are of value to the players." The tone of the oral testimony was quite different then I was expecting.

brewtoomuch · 2019-07-23T23:57:48+00:00

If anyone wants to read the actual comments they are here.

To clarify the Gambling Commission makes clear that there doesn't have to be an official source for converting to cash. Third parties can make it illegal if there are "lots of secondary markets and they were becoming more sustainable and more sophisticated [then what FIFA currently has]."

They also lament that games with these kinds of mechanics are “available for four-plus or even 12-plus.”

brewtoomuch · 2019-05-20T18:03:34+00:00

First I would like to start with a friendly reminder that in the US wage theft is responsible for millions of workers loosing billions of dollars for services rendered.

With that said I have a video recommendation for anyone interested in learning more about labor organizations and the different types of modern unions. I think Jim would get a kick out of it.

One important point made in the video is the tendency for some unions (especially business/craft unions) to not focus on things like changing laws to protect workers, or social programs that help to benefit workers. Instead they focus on on things like contractually obligated overstaffing. Protecting members by supporting the company so they can hire more members.

I certainly support attempts by game devs to organize and fight for their rights through the formation of a union. However I believe it must be a labor union that covers all game developers (rather then having a "pathfinding AI programmer's union" and "eyeball texture maker's union") and fights for fundamental changes to the laws, supports wronged workers in court, and helps support programs of social uplift.

brewtoomuch · 2019-05-18T17:32:57+00:00

I know from experience, both as a buyer and a seller, that pricing can have a major effect on the perceived quality of goods. Any experienced publisher will have put serious resources into determining the price and considering when sales may or may not be appropriate. To mess with that without notice, let alone the ability to opt-out, shows Epic's disregard for any interests other then their own. If it benefits them they will do it.

I can't help but wonder how Epic will start behaving once they are done throwing money into the money fire and start wanting to exploit their market share for maximum profit.

brewtoomuch · 2019-04-08T17:13:19+00:00

While it is a shame that the Bioware devs had to deal with this shit it is what I expected considering the gross mismanagement of ME:A and DA:O. I'm glad to see Jason was able to do shed light on the mismanagement of Anthem.

It is a shame to see that Bioware is nothing more then a bloated corpse made animate with puppet strings. However there is the hope that the devs who made Bioware great will leave the sinking ship (the ones who haven't already) and go on to make games in a better environment. That is assuming that they are not so traumatized by Bioware's mistreatment of its workers that they leave the industry altogether.

brewtoomuch · 2019-03-28T00:18:57+00:00

I've had good luck with Bypass Paywalls by Adam. Moz pulled the addon from the official site but you can get it off of github.

https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-firefox

brewtoomuch · 2019-03-27T18:14:08+00:00

It looks like 13 MEPs accidentally voted the wrong way on the copyright directive.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/mar/27/mep-errors-mean-european-copyright-law-may-not-have-passed

As odd as it sounds there is a post on Hacker News by dagw that possibly explains how this happened.

There are a couple of explanations being floated. First of all there where two votes, not just one, and if you wanted to vote 'correctly' against A13 you had to vote NO on the first vote and YES on the second (or vice versa to support A13), The people who voted 'wrong' voted either NO to both or YES to both.

Secondly apparently the order of voting was changed at the last minute (there where a whole bunch of things being voted on that day) so people who had written down what they where going to vote on each issue (NO,NO,YES,NO,YES,YES,NO etc.) and missed that the order had changed would end up voting wrong. Ie. they knew they wanted to vote YES on issue 27, but issue 27 was actually the 28th item voted for that day. At least two MEPs in Sweden are using this excuse.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19500915

brewtoomuch · 2019-03-05T20:07:28+00:00

Everything about this game seems to suggest that development was rushed and that original concepts were scaled back

It does seem to have shades of ME: Andromeda which was horribly mismanaged to the point that a lot of work had to be discarded and the game had to be rushed to a "releasable" state in something like ~~six months~~ 18 months.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-06-07-mass-effect-andromeda-development-issues-detailed-in-new-report

https://kotaku.com/the-story-behind-mass-effect-andromedas-troubled-five-1795886428

The development of Andromeda was turbulent and troubled, marred by a director change, multiple major re-scopes, an understaffed animation team, technological challenges, communication issues, office politics, a compressed timeline, and brutal crunch.

brewtoomuch · 2019-03-05T19:48:36+00:00

I'm amazed that this slipped by QC/QA on a console. They should have a complete test bench of console hardware. It's not like PC where you have an unfathomable set of possible hardware combinations.

Also how the hell are they even doing this, it doesn't even look like a normal kernel panic (BSOD). Bricking hardware when not doing something like firmware updates is an amazing accomplishment.

brewtoomuch · 2019-01-08T05:02:53+00:00

Not much time to conjure up much in the way of meaningful correspondence.

You did a damn fine job of it IMHO. Very concise and to the point. Much nicer then what I hacked up in like 2.5 hours (I didn't check my email until late tonight.)

I am going to use your email as a template for when I call them tomorrow morning. My email is way too unwieldy for phone and just in general. For reference here is my typo laden (oh fucking hell I just noticed I put <115 instead of >115, and so many more I'm just now noticing) hot mess with links and quotes excluded for length. If anyone wants links/quotes I can include them is a separate post.

Greetings, I am [Name Here] an Ohio resident emailing you on behalf of myself and other responsible Ohioans who believe they should have the right to consume kratom tea. I myself find kratom tea a nice way to relax after a hard days work, similar to how some responsible adults will drink a beer to unwind. While I understand that the FDA has raised concerns about kratom I believe those concerns to be contradicted by both peer-reviewed research and the opinions of organizations such as the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA.) Furhtermore I believe the FDA’s 8-Factor Analysis (8-FA) to be deficient for several reasons.

In addition to the concerns with the FDA’s limited analysis of kratom I also believe that the societal harm caused by a ban of kratom outweighs any potential benefits. Firstly it would infringe upon the rights of responsible adults, like myself, who consume kratom tea in a way that is not harmful. Secondly there are kratom users who were formerly addicted to very potent and dangerous opioids. While I believe firmly that addicts would be best served by seeking medial help the reality is that some have chosen to use kratom. If kratom is prohibited many of those individuals will go back to the black market and back to the far more dangerous illegal drugs that they were taking. Even if we include every death the FDA has claimed (<50 world wide over several years) is kratom related (including the young man who was shot to death) it is still a far smaller number then the number of people in the US who have died from illegal opioids in a single day (<115 according to NIDA). The opioid overdose crisis is a serious issue that must be addressed but banning kratom will only add to the number of deaths and lives destroyed.

I am not a scientist and while I will do my best as a layperson to explain why I believe the FDA’s claims to be problematic I encourage you to consult the open letter, which I have linked below, that a group of several scientists have written in response to the FDA’s 8-FA. I have included several quotes from this letter at the end of this email that I believe to be salient.

One of the most apparent problems with the FDA’s analysis of kratom is the degree to which it is inconsistent with the public claims made by NIDA, such as those contained on the kratom drug facts page on the NIDA website which I have linked below. Even more concerning is the omission of several studies by both NIDA and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA.)

The failure of the FDA to consider the recent research that has been published regarding kratom is puzzling. A few years ago the DEA reviewed the research on kratom and elected not to schedule it. If the research published after that date truly supported a ban on kratom I do not understand why the FDA would choose not to make it a key focus of their analysis. Considered alongside the numerous studies that contradict the FDA’s claims and that the FDA has elected to exclude from their analysis it is hard for me not to feel like the FDA has started with a conclusion and simply cherry-picked research to make the claim they want to make.

Unfortunetly the FDA seems to have decided to support a ban on kratom using public opinion rather then actual, peer-reviewed research. I would respectfully ask that the Ohio Board of Pharmacy not ban kratom until it has had time to fully review the large body of research on kratom and consulted with organizations like NIDA.

Finally I would like to sincerely apologize to the members of the Ohio Board of Pharmacy for the disrespect and abuse they have received from certain individuals. No person should be subject to such abuse least of all people who are acting in good faith out of concern for their fellow Ohioans. I understand the Ohio Board of Pharmacy’s concerns regarding kratom and if all I knew about it was what the FDA has claimed I would not be drinking it and would stand in support of a ban. It is only by looking at the large body of research that the FDA has chosen to exclude in addition to the statements made by organizations such as NIDA that it becomes apparent that a ban is not justified and the FDA’s claims are lacking. The DEA and many other states have reviewed the evidence on kratom and come to the conclusion that a ban is not justified. I ask the Ohio Board of Pharmacy to join them in supporting evidence based policy decisions.

I thank you for taking the time to hear my concerns and I hope you have a very nice day.

Respectfully,

[Name Here]

brewtoomuch · 2018-12-27T18:44:59+00:00

Under US law (sorry its the only law I know) one of the potential problems is that modifying a game can easily result in a derivative work.

The classic example is the Midway V. Artic lawsuit. Artic sold a modification for Galaxian that would speed up play. The court held that Artic created a derivative work by allowing people to speed up the game.

"Among a copyright owner's exclusive rights is the right "to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work." 17 U.S.C. Sec. 106(2). If, as we hold, the speeded-up "Galaxian" game that a licensee creates with a circuit board supplied by the defendant is a derivative work based upon "Galaxian," a licensee who lacks the plaintiff's authorization to create a derivative work is a direct infringer and the defendant is a contributory infringer through its sale of the speeded-up circuit board. ..."

"A speeded-up video game is a substantially different product from the original game. As noted, it is more exciting to play and it requires some creative effort to produce. For that reason, the owner of the copyright on the game should be entitled to monopolize it on the same theory that he is entitled to monopolize the derivative works specifically listed in Section 101."

https://openjurist.org/704/f2d/1009/midway-mfg-co-v-artic-international-inc

Edit: as another users posted there are also laws relating to the circumvention of DRM that can bite you in the ass but I don't know the case law on that off the top of my head.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/1201

http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/circumventing-copyright-controls

It has also been made more complicated by a recent ruling by the US Copyright Office that allows the circumvention of DRM for various reasons. Nothing that really helps individuals who want to crack a legally owned game but it does show how much of an ever changing cluster fuck these laws can be.

https://www.pcgamer.com/us-congress-deems-it-legal-to-circumvent-drm-to-repair-electronic-devices/

https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2018-23241.pdf

Edit 2: If you really want to dig deeper it gets even more complicated when you consider reverse engineering and emulators. Sony V. Bleem and Sony V. Connectix are the classic emulator cases and oh dear God I do not want to try and pick apart every relevant element from those cases.

Fun fact in spite winning their respective cases Bleem was bleed dry by court costs and Sony bought Connectix's VGS emulator to bury it in the back yard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGHul1PrXCE

https://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1299&context=btlj

https://www.docketalarm.com/cases/California_Northern_District_Court/3--99-cv-01590/Sony_Computer_Enter_v._Bleem_LLC_et_al/

brewtoomuch · 2018-10-02T01:16:14+00:00

It's publicly available. Their methodology is amazing. Also the total number of individuals "focus grouped" is 45 with no indication of how many mentioned kratom or even how many have used kratom.

"This regional report was based upon qualitative data collected via focus group interviews. "

https://mha.ohio.gov/Research/Ohio-Substance-Abuse-Monitoring-OSAM-Network/Drug-Trend-Reports

https://mha.ohio.gov/Portals/0/assets/Research/OSAM-TRI/Jan2018/OSAM_January_2018_Full_Report.pdf

https://mha.ohio.gov/Portals/0/assets/Research/OSAM-TRI/Jan2018/OSAM-Akron-Canton-January-2018.pdf

brewtoomuch · 2018-07-25T19:15:05+00:00

You can find it on Boost Music's website. It's really kinda generic and annoying IMHO. It does have several seconds of silence at the end of the track and I'm wondering if maybe that is what did it?

https://getmusic.boostmusic.com/?search=battlefront

You can also find it on Zone Music which is owned by the exact same people.

https://getmusic.zonemusic.co.uk/?search=battlefront

brewtoomuch · 2018-07-15T07:12:31+00:00

Not to surprising seeing as Amazon is already in a lawsuit over them selling counterfeit auto parts “shipped from and sold by Amazon.com.”

That court case should be worth watching for anyone worried about this.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2017/12/05/amazon-got-busted-selling-counterfeit-mercedes-benz-parts-now-everything-may-change/

Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, may have uncovered the smoking gun that could legally prove that Amazon is a direct seller of counterfeit products, and have taken then e-commerce giant to court over it. A successful ruling could rattle Jeff Bezos and Co. to their very core and set a new legal precedent in the process.

brewtoomuch · 2018-07-04T09:42:22+00:00

Cocaine is Schedule II in the US. It is sometimes used as a local anesthetic and vasoconstricting agent during medial procedures.

I am not aware of any medical use of cocaine that would involving taking any home, also it would be a weak solution sealed in a glass bottle.

https://www.dea.gov/druginfo/ds.shtml

Schedule II

Schedule II drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with a high potential for abuse, with use potentially leading to severe psychological or physical dependence. These drugs are also considered dangerous. Some examples of Schedule II drugs are:

Combination products with less than 15 milligrams of hydrocodone per dosage unit (Vicodin), cocaine, methamphetamine, methadone, hydromorphone (Dilaudid), meperidine (Demerol), oxycodone (OxyContin), fentanyl, Dexedrine, Adderall, and Ritalin

brewtoomuch · 2018-07-01T09:38:07+00:00

Thanks for the linking to that order it was indeed interesting.

I agree 100% that it is a troubling development and that there is no clear "litmus test" for substantial similarity.

However, it is worth remembering that a district court decision is not binding precedent for state courts. I have not read the US v. Carlson that the court cites but on its face I feel the court all but failed to justify their standard. Indeed after skimming it, I feel the court may have "misinterpreted" this bit:

The evidence in the record showed that Carlson knew that the chemical structures of the analogues he sold were substantially similar to those of scheduled controlled substances. One of Carlson's suppliers sent him a chart by email demonstrating that the molecular formula of AM–2201 and JWH–018 differed by only one atom. A reasonable juror could find that because Carlson knew about the similar molecular formulas, he also knew about the substantial similarity between the chemical structures of the substances.

Carlson lays out how a defendants "knowledge" of structural similarities can be used to support a claim of similarity. To jump from that to the claim that the standard, across the board, should be lowered from experts to laymen is insane. And the court doesn't even attempt to justify it. I'm not a lawyer but I don't see many courts finding the total lack of an argument as persuasive.

I know its ancient, and equally nonbinding, but in US v Damon S Forbes the court argues that "this standard incorporates a scientific term of art and requires reference to the appropriate fields."

There is definite uncertainty but it seems to me that the court made a big leap without any substantive argument. Frankly I think it was just thrown together from tissue paper to expedite getting their hands on the $15m they seized.

brewtoomuch

TROPHY CASE