Should In-Game Currency Receive Federal Government Banking Protections? (yahoo.com) 35
Friday America's consumer watchdog agency "proposed a rule to give virtual video game currencies protections similar to those of real-world bank accounts..." reports the Washington Post, "so players can receive refunds or compensation for unauthorized transactions, similar to how banks are required to respond to claims of fraudulent activity."
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is seeking public input on a rule interpretation to clarify which rights are protected and available to video game consumers under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act. It would hold video game companies subject to violations of federal consumer financial law if they fail to address financial issues reported by customers. The public comment period lasts from Friday through March 31. In particular, the independent federal agency wants to hear from gamers about the types of transactions they make, any issues with in-game currencies, and stories about how companies helped or denied help.
The effort is in response to complaints to the bureau and the Federal Trade Commission about unauthorized transactions, scams, hacking attempts and account theft, outlined in an April bureau report that covered banking in video games and virtual worlds. The complaints said consumers "received limited recourse from gaming companies." Companies may ban or lock accounts or shut down a service, according to the report, but they don't generally guarantee refunds to people who lost property... The April report says the bureau and FTC received numerous complaints from players who contacted their banks regarding unauthorized charges on Roblox. "These complaints note that while they received refunds through their financial institutions, Roblox then terminated or locked their account," the report says.
The effort is in response to complaints to the bureau and the Federal Trade Commission about unauthorized transactions, scams, hacking attempts and account theft, outlined in an April bureau report that covered banking in video games and virtual worlds. The complaints said consumers "received limited recourse from gaming companies." Companies may ban or lock accounts or shut down a service, according to the report, but they don't generally guarantee refunds to people who lost property... The April report says the bureau and FTC received numerous complaints from players who contacted their banks regarding unauthorized charges on Roblox. "These complaints note that while they received refunds through their financial institutions, Roblox then terminated or locked their account," the report says.
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If you can cash out. It's real money. Even if the means of cashing out is convoluted.
To "cash out" Counterstrike skins you have to go through a bunch of casino BS, or just buy Steamdecks and sell them on eBay. Things like Robux are traded like money. Things like "gold" in WoW or FFXIV are not. But you can still cash out through the RMT black market. Then you have more specific examples in Korean and Japanese games where the virtual currency is traded online and offline by people through secondary channels b
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Let's start with Monopoly money.
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Bingo. This is the foot in the door to tax in-game transactions.
need to fill out an gane and loss stenmet each tim (Score:2)
need to fill out an gane and loss statement each time you play
Misleading (Score:5, Interesting)
This has little to do with in-game currencies. This is entirely about real world money being used to buy in-game currency. The gist of it is that games like Roblox will sometimes take your money and then refuse to give you what you purchased. If you ask for a refund, they will say no. If you complain to your bank, Roblox will cancel your account. This is essentially theft.
This happened to me several years ago when I bought Robux for my young child gamer on his Android tablet, and the Robux were never delivered to his account. I contacted Roblox, and was told tough shit. I complained to Google, and Roblox canceled my son's account. I send dozens of emails over the course of a week, and Roblox finally relented.
So hell yes, this needs to be regulated. The blight on humanity called Roblox is why we can't have nice things.
Re:Misleading (Score:4, Interesting)
eh. These kind of things are already regulated.
If you do not get the in game $ you purchased, you file a chargeback with google (as you did) or with your credit card company. If they retaliate by terminating your game account, you file another chargeback for the purchase of the game. (They do not have to keep you as a customer, but they do owe you a refund for termination without cause -and your CC company will likely take your side so that it is not you vs game-corp.)
The FTC, and your state Attorney General's office will take consumer complaints and can pursue further action if multiple people complain about a companies behavior.
I don't see that we need to apply federal banking regulations to virtual world transactions. It just adds more layers of oversight and unnecessary paperwork (Know Your Customer?) to things that are already regulated by consumer protection laws.
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Exactly why the real regulation we need is simply ending all forms of non-currency real money in games. You want to sell shit for real money? Fine. Sell shit for real money. But no more of the abuse "first buy our fake premium 'currency'" bullshit they play now.
No refunds for in-game currency. (Score:1)
Conceptually, a video game is a fictional space. Fictional currency. If we must discuss banking protections on fictional currency, then I propose a Federal ban on tradeable video game currencies. Ban loot boxes. Ban DLC. Ban Pay2Win. Ban anything beyond the initial purchase of the game or a flat monthly subscription to an online service.
What about (Score:2)
Gift cards, companies live those because they are so profitable.
Absolutely!!!!! (Score:2)
Re: Absolutely!!!!! (Score:2)
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I agree you have to be mentally-ill to piss your money away on whatever-the-fuck Robux are.
You piss your money away buying alcohol.
Re: Absolutely!!!!! (Score:2)
profoundly ignorant typical incel response (Score:2)
And if you are this worried about the money you are pissing away, maybe pissing it away is not the best idea.
while I am sure it makes you feel better about yourself to put down others, it's not about me, but my children and their friends. Although I assume you'd follow with the typical incel response of "well, if you can't tell your kids 'no', it's not our fault you're a shitty parent"...or something to the extent of saying it my fault and my kids suck.
I understand why you'd feel that way, but it's a profoundly ignorant view made by folks who have never had children...or come from cultures where the dads are
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it is just a game (Score:4, Insightful)
next they will want to tax it.
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This is a baby step.
Every regulation is a tax increase.
Bureaucrats don't work for free.
More importantly the non-gamers get to pay to regulate this imbecilic game currency system.
No (Score:2)
What you should have, if necessary to make the courts care, is a law designating in-game transactions as covered by fraud law.
Those transactions affect the value of the game to the player. If the transactions are not properly controlled by the entity responsible for providing the service, that's fraud. They promised you an in-game economy that would provide features... then they failed to maintain it, causing loss of value of the game to the player. They failed to provide what they promised.
Courts will g
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No. That is insane. Part of the point of gaming is that you get to vicariously do things you could not, or just would not, do in real life. We all know this. And it's been the case since forever. Remember the Guiding Hand Social Club? How about the assignation of Lord British? To the perpetrators of those virtual "crimes" all belong in prison? Hell, I scammed more than a bit of ISK back in the day off people who didn't pay close enough attention to the decimal point in the marketplace. Should I hav
no, but yes actually. (Score:2)
The National Bank Acts of 1865 and 1866 imposed a 10% tax on all payments made with alternative currencies. The government should be getting 10% every robux transaction. Also, it should be getting 10% of every bitcoin transaction but it's still unclear if bitcoin is a currency or a security. Looks like bitcoin is dodging the tax by pretending to be a security, for now.
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I do read cryptocurrency as a Tulip Scam. To hold value in a post-apocalypse, there needs to be something worth having. A digital token is of no worth on its own, a
Yes, but (Score:2)
If the game currency is redeemable in real currency, then yes. They are essentially acting as a bank. The online "currency" is just their way of tracking your balance.
If the currency is entirely for use within the game, then no. Its essentially just a purchase like buying monopoly money to play monopoly.
Of course, if your goal is to prevent competition, then creating regulations that make it more difficult for someone to enter the market suits your interests. Suddenly creating an online game requires com
No. Obviously. (Score:2)
A better, more sane initiative would be to ban in-game currencies all together. i.e. if a game has a pay to play aspect then the game should require real money from the player's real jurisdiction to pay for it. Direct, immediate payment. No more Gold, or Doubloons, or Gems, or Smurf Berries, whatever the fuck disassociative bullshit a game wants people to spend in-game. No more boosters, or loot crates, or anything else either. You pay with money or you don't.
Protected from what? (Score:2)
When government is SO good at... (Score:2)
all the stuff it's SUPPOSED to be doing, and therefore has reduced taxes to unheard-of low levels, and it has spare time and money and employees, then PERHAPS it's time to consider letting it regulate financial transactions related to computer games. ... um ... nope ... no, I still don't really see it. If government has the time and money and manpower to have ANYTHING to do with regulating computer games in ANY way then there's too much government and taxes are too high.
The founders of the United States re
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They already have all they need or should have (Score:2)
Purchases of game currencies or other value made with legal tender, by whatever method, are subject to banking, credit, and financial law. Some payment processors do not honor or accept transactions intended to facilitate purchase of such digital assets. This is more obvious as restrictions on cryptocurrency purchases or redemptions, NFTs, and a few other 'risky' transactions. Many processors do not support casino/gambling purchases, though legal sports books*
have enough power to defeat this.
No new law need