Are Gachas Considered Loot Boxes (And Gambling)?

Lewis Luminos

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Personally, I don't think Gachas are lootboxes/gambling IF all the items are of equal rarity and value. Like, say, a set of shoes all identical except for the colour. Where it becomes problematic is when there are items of different rarity/value. Say, all the coveted red, blue and black shoes are rare and the colours less wanted like green, brown and orange are common. Or the gacha is for a complete outfit ensemble where the small accessories are common but a key piece, like the jacket, is rare.

And yes, I do think that in this case, they should fall under lootbox/gambling regulations.
 
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Aribeth Zelin

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Personally, I don't think Gachas are lootboxes/gambling IF all the items are of equal rarity and value. Like, say, a set of shoes all identical except for the colour. Where it becomes problematic is when there are items of different rarity/value. Say, all the coveted red, blue and black shoes are rare and the colours less wanted like green, brown and orange are common. Or the gacha is for a complete outfit ensemble where the small accessories are common but a key piece, like the jacket, is rare.

And yes, I do think that in this case, they should fall under lootbox/gambling regulations.
The thing is, all a Gacha is one of those gumball toy machines. And I've yet to see those considered to be gambling.

As for the only difference between the rare and the common being colour, I can't see that being gambling either. Though I really am not a fan in general of the sets.
 

Amity Slade

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The thing is, all a Gacha is one of those gumball toy machines. And I've yet to see those considered to be gambling.
The gumball machines with prizes are certainly a form of gambling. The reason that no one cares about it is that, generally, children have a limited number of nickels to put into the machine, and generally do not have access to a machine unless a parent or someone takes them to a place with a machine. As far as I know, there is no history of children becoming addicted to the gumball prize machines, or blowing through a significant amount of money on them. It is difficult to imagine a scenario where those ill consequences would even be possible.

Video games with loot boxes are different from the gumball prize machines in that they are hooked into electronic payments, and children have easy access from home. That is a whole lot easier for children to abuse, and there are plenty of cases where they have.

Gachas are similar to both the gumball prize machines and video game loot boxes. Assuming that SL is generally effective in excluding minors, gachas probably are not the kind of thing that various governments intend to regulate, because they are concerned primarily about things to which children have access.

Now when it gets to the point of enacting a law- laws are enforced by their actual wording and not by the subjective intent of the legislators. Because everyone seems to struggle to define what they mean by gambling, it would be very easy to pass a law intended to regulate video game loot boxes only, but include by definition SL gachas and even gumball prize machines.
 

eku zhong

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The thing is, all a Gacha is one of those gumball toy machines. And I've yet to see those considered to be gambling.

As for the only difference between the rare and the common being colour, I can't see that being gambling either. Though I really am not a fan in general of the sets.
In Japan 'kompu gacha' or Complete Gacha are illegal. Japan officially declares lucractive kompu gacha practice illegal in social games – Adweek

A gacha where you need to collect all the items to have an outfit would fall under 'kompu gacha'. One with different colours of the same item would not.
One with different stuff that performs without the need for all the other pieces is also not 'kompu gacha'

oh poo Kamilah beat me haha.
 

eku zhong

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The gumball machines with prizes are certainly a form of gambling. The reason that no one cares about it is that, generally, children have a limited number of nickels to put into the machine, and generally do not have access to a machine unless a parent or someone takes them to a place with a machine. As far as I know, there is no history of children becoming addicted to the gumball prize machines, or blowing through a significant amount of money on them. It is difficult to imagine a scenario where those ill consequences would even be possible.
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obviously you have not been to Japan where gachapon are USD equiv of 3 to 5USD a pop and machines are everywhere; at the supermarket checkout area, outside the post office, in restaurants, on the street.. in pharmacies etc etc etc. Children are very much addicted and some will scream blue bloody murder to get their parents to give them money to play the machines.
Even middle aged men are addicted.. women too haha. Just go to youtube and search for ガチャポン



 
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Tigger

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From the article

that article said:
The United Kingdom has tracked a rise in problem gambling behavior in young people, and they lay at least some of the blame on loot boxes targeted at children.
Myself I'd put that down to the fact that every TV ad break is now filled gambling apps for smartphones whether it's "jackpot joy" bingo or "sky casino" it's become and endless barrage of gambling apps. This is a fairly new phenomena, go back a few years and these were unheard of.
 

Risotto

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A big difference for me between SL gachas and video game lootboxes is that lootboxes almost always drop character/accountbound resources. When I get something I really want in a game, usually there's only ONE way to get it, eitehr as a random drop from a specific boss like in WoW, or from the lootboxes. I can't go on the market and buy them like I can in SL. There are so many experienced resellers nowadays that the prices hit equilibrium fairly quickly too. When on average it costs the same to buy something directly, and to roll for it on the gacha machine, it isn't really a gamble.

Maybe the government isn't as apt to see the difference as me, but institutions with the power to levy taxes by force tend to have a difference perspective on such things.
 
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Sid

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How does one describe a game of chance then?

I put money in the gatcha machine and have to wait if I'm lucky to get the object I want.
I would not buy my furniture that way in RL.
 

Noodles

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How does one describe a game of chance then?

I put money in the gatcha machine and have to wait if I'm lucky to get the object I want.
I would not buy my furniture that way in RL.
I was going to make a snarky comments about "imagine people.shopping this way" but I remembered that there are a ton of different "Subscription box" services out there that are essentially a monthly loot box of random things you can get.
 

Argent Stonecutter

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So a Wasted Engineer clone showed up on Reddit.


I'm pretty sure that gambling has always been in SL.
 
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Mechanical

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My two main issues with Gachapon is object permissions and build quality. This has been addressed somewhat where the "token" is used to aquire a copy/?/nt version, but overall I would like to see them being copy/mod. Then there is the build quality; creators pump and dump these things on the same level as stuff sold at shopping events. Usually high triangle counts, bad LoDs, and the inability to use anything but 1024px textures despite having texture resizing tools as part of any 3d modeling suite. Gachapons take the worst of no mod culture and amplify it.
 

Kokoro Fasching

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The Gacha Mafia is prepping to take over Jessie.. that is why this thread was risen from the dead... the war is coming to those with the best luck at loot boxes...
 
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WolfEyes

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The Gacha Mafia is prepping to take over Jessie.. that is why this thread was risen from the dead... the war is coming to those with the best luck at loot boxes...
But... the war in Jessie never ended. It just... faded away. 🤭