the CFB is taking an interest into microtransactions and live services.

[Naughty Hieroglyph]

The video game industry has been playing some very stupid games over the past decade, and now the US government is starting to think up a good prize for them. 

Relevant articles from the US CFB:

LFG (Looking for gamers): CFPB wants to hear about your video game loot | Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Banking in video games and virtual worlds | Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

"As these evolutions have occurred, gamers—or in some cases their parents and guardians—have reported issues such as trouble when converting dollars to in-game currency, unauthorized transactions, account hacks and takeovers, theft, scams, and and other losses of assets. They have also described receiving limited to no help from gaming companies and the banks or digital wallets involved. Refunds are often denied, gaming accounts are being suspended by the video game company after the account owner tires to get a refund from their financial institution, or people are left caught in doom loops with AI-powered customer service representatives while they’re just trying to get straight answers."

 

Back in the early days of WOW, the gold had a 1 to 1 exchange rate with korean won. Gold farming was a minimum wage job, and if you played your cards right it could pay rent and textbooks. Really pissed me off thinking about it on those long nights at watch in the cold at yokouska. 

 

to be honest i am surprised that it took the government this long to notice. Granted, my understanding is that the law is 15 years behind technology, so the senile old boomers in Washington are now making laws for 2010 America.  

 

Good news for us that are tired of them killing games, extra good news for us if you hate microtransactions. Bad news for the AAA industry as i have a hunch that this is going to be a brick sized suppository for them.