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[Draugoth]

Tencent's stock crashes 16% in minutes as China announces guidelines aimed reducing "excessive gaming."Tencent is China's largest public company and the drop erased ~$55 billion of market cap.This also marks the biggest one-day drop for the company since 2008.

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[BennyBlanco]

good guy china saving us from terrible monetization strats

 

[P:axMagellanic]

Christ, that's based.

 

[Griffon]

 

[splattered]

Good, rest of the world should follow.

I love me some games but some of the monetization is just straight up predatory.

 

[Guilty_AI]

They also included a whole bunch of terms that breach privacy, but then thats just china being china. If western governments try to follow in those steps i sure hope they only get inspired by the predatory monetization bits.

 

[BlvckFox]

Good, rest of the world should follow.

I love me some games but some of the monetization is just straight up predatory.

Seriously. Those practices have made kids straight up addicts. My buddy’s son scratches at his neck when asking his dad for vbucks.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

 

[splattered]

Now with Jimbo's face over Tiger King

 

[winjer]

Although I'm a strong critic of the CCP, I have to admit that passing legislation to curb these online casinos, masquerading as games, is a very good measure.
I can only hope that more countries pass legislation to regulate these scams.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

what kind of games does Tencent make?

 

[StereoVsn]

good guy china saving us from terrible monetization strats

Well, no, this is why Tencent has been investing like crazy in overseas companies. These guidelines only apply within China. Mind you, I am a proponent of these particular rules and wouldn’t mind them applied to NA and Europe as well.

What’s also interesting is CCP is continuing its drive against tech companies considering issues with College graduates and youth employment problems.

 

[StealthGoblin]

I agree with the aspects targeted at the constant monetisation and psychological manipulation. Good doing china (for once)

 

[Panajev2001a]

They also included a whole bunch of terms that breach privacy, but then thats just china being china. If western governments try to follow in those steps i sure hope they only get inspired by the predatory monetization bits.

MS, EA, Activision lobbyists will inform them that actually the opposite of what you suggest could be better (follow privacy intrusion in practice, leaving the poor daily bonuses, mtx boosts, and other predatory practices alone). You protect Engagement KPI’s, help American businesses, and make the country SAFer…

 

[StereoVsn]

They also included a whole bunch of terms that breach privacy, but then thats just china being china. If western governments try to follow in those steps i sure hope they only get inspired by the predatory monetization bits.

Unfortunately I don’t ever see this flying in US. Even Dems won’t do it as there is too much money in the industry going to campaign contributions.

 

[DaGwaphics]

Yikes, not a big fan of excessive micro-transactions, but what a person does with their own money and free time should be up to them.

 

[Guilty_AI]

MS, EA, Activision lobbyists will inform them that actually the opposite of what you suggest could be better (follow privacy intrusion in practice, leaving the poor daily bonuses, mtx boosts, and other predatory practices alone). You protect Engagement KPI’s, help American businesses, and make the country SAFer…

Knowing the EU, its likely they would just copy China word for word. It wouldn't be the first time they tell giant corps to fuck off, nor the first time they try to encroach their power over them and their userbase.

Unfortunately I don’t ever see this flying in US. Even Dems won’t do it as there is too much money in the industry going to campaign contributions.

US on the other hand...

 

[Panajev2001a]

Knowing the EU, its likely they would just copy China word for word. It wouldn't be the first time they tell giant corps to fuck off, nor the first time they try to encroach their power over them and their userbase.

Yeah, I was thinking about U.S…. Even here it became an issue of personal freedom rather quickly .

 

[hinch7]

Knowing the EU, its likely they would just copy China word for word. It wouldn't be the first time they tell giant corps to fuck off, nor the first time they try to encroach their power over them and their userbase.

I mean based EU forced Apple to finally use USB C in their phones so may be a glimmer of hope..

 

[DGrayson]

bbbut gaming isnt gambling

 

[Ronin_7]

what kind of games does Tencent make?

Trash

 

[Saber]

bbbut gaming isnt gambling

It's worse when people(including folks here) blame shifting big corporations. Its not the big corpo fault for structure heavy psychological predatory mechanics, its the consumers fault.

 

[DGrayson]

It's worse when people(including folks here) blame shifting big corporations. Its not the big corpo fault for structure heavy psychological predatory mechanics, its the consumers fault.

Hmm not sure if serious. Of course ultimately its the player who decides to pay or to play, but at the same time its not the same resources. Big corps have the money to structure, market and target predatory gaming to people they know will be affected.

 

[Hudo]

I have to say, this new policy sounds based. I am always down for taking a huge dump on aggressive monetization practices. The MBA's can get fucked.

 

[StereoVsn]

Trash

They own PubG Mobile, Publish PubG in China, own Riot games and half of Epic don’t they? Hmm… can’t disagree.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

China has been my biggest L investment. 40K in Alibaba and Xi keeps fucking me

 

[PaintTinJr]

Good, rest of the world should follow.

I love me some games but some of the monetization is just straight up predatory.

Yeah, as much as I've been loving eFootball lately - definitely back to playing it ISS Pro Evo levels - and feel guilty I haven't spent a single pound - when I would have bought 3 game versions in the past - the inability to straight out buy DLC, currently really want Cantona, but am not trading earned coins for a 1/150 chance to get him, especially when I'm happy with the developed players in my squad, but could easily see how people of low patience or intelligence could blowing a stack on the Panini for adults - without swaps - business model.

It is shitty, Konami just release a complete eFootball product and let me buy every season again to reward those that make it, or make the business model worse so I stop play. The game is fire when played well against high level AI, but the business model is so, so awful.

 

[Cert.in.Death]

China has been my biggest L investment. 40K in Alibaba and Xi keeps fucking me

 

[Guilty_AI]

Now with Jimbo's face over Tiger King

Trash

They make nothing but are certainly everywhere. They're so big in fact that if anything happened to them, the vast majority of the industry would be affect to different degrees.

 

[ChazAshley]

Seriously. Those practices have made kids straight up addicts. My buddy’s son scratches at his neck when asking his dad for vbucks.

Got any of dem Vbucks???

 

[howitis3]

Wife is chinese. They legit believe games are evil.

 

[Lorianus]

Are the 2 points concerning daily login rewards and luck draw features not basically a bullet to the head for all Mihoyo Games (Genshin, Star Rail and ZZZ), they are a chinese dev afterall ?

 

[Saber]

Hmm not sure if serious. Of course ultimately its the player who decides to pay or to play, but at the same time its not the same resources.

It would be at certain point. But big corpos invested alot of money into instructing psychological traps that affect these people. Its no longer just a microtransaction, its a specially crafted predatory strategy that target those low self control people and kids. And the best of all, its a win scenario since it's never their fault, as you just said the "players aways have choice".

If what you said was true we wouldn't have regulatory stuff trying to interfere on everything. If it was players choice we wouldn't have the Battlefront 2 case.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I hope the laws just get rid of anything that's 'Free' with in game purchase, All of them.

They should just rename the Apple store the 'Get' store.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

Time to scoop up TenCent stock?

 

[Paltheos]

Yikes, not a big fan of excessive micro-transactions, but what a person does with their own money and free time should be up to them.

These kinds of things are always careful balancing acts, but I think China's in the right on this one. Some people can't help themselves, and allot of these monetization practices are aimed specifically at these whales.

Stuff like daily login bonuses are especially insidious because they force your mind to the game all the time for that little reward - it only takes a second to login after all and since I'm already there~. There's no place for them in good game design.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

We’re raising a generation of kids addicted to gambling and we’re not talking about it so whatever measures are done to minimize that are welcome.

 

[ProtoByte]

These kinds of things are always careful balancing acts, but I think China's in the right on this one. Some people can't help themselves, and allot of these monetization practices are aimed specifically at these whales.

Stuff like daily login bonuses are especially insidious because they force your mind to the game all the time for that little reward - it only takes a second to login after all and since I'm already there~. There's no place for them in good game design.

They aren't. Over decades, the Chinese government has engineered a cultural environment where people are more vulnerable to these practices. Let's not forget that both Tencent and Netease, 2 of the leading lights in industry monetization, are and always have been CCP assets. Whatever negatives they're seeing a largely the result of their own draconian policy agenda and crony corporatist structure. Clamping down on this is not going to solve the underlying issue, and can easily create new ones - perhaps including tension and dysfunction within the system of that government. After all, state actors are losing money because of this.

Don't lend any credence to emulating their policy framework. Governments in the west are already doing to much of that shit as is.

 

[ahtlas7]

Almost as sad as having your silk worms stolen.

 

[onQ123]

But they only need 1% of China to win

 

[Nonehxc]

All the western gaming companies that were happily going to cash on the MASSIVE Chinese middle class and HUGH rich ones right now.

 

[bitbydeath]

Will they need to sell stock if they can’t comply?
Fortnite has daily Xmas rewards going on right now.

 

[mckmas8808]

Good, rest of the world should follow.

I love me some games but some of the monetization is just straight up predatory.

What?! You want the world to follow China on this? Are you nuts?

 

[Arsic]

What?! You want the world to follow China on this? Are you nuts?

It really should. It would eliminate gacha games.

 

[adamsapple]

Reading some of these guidelines, China isn't fucking around.

 

[mckmas8808]

It really should. It would eliminate gacha games.

Is that something every nation on Earth should do?

 

[SmokedMeat]

I wonder what would happen if every other country would follow their lead?

 

[Arsic]

Is that something every nation on Earth should do?

Yes

 

[LordOfChaos]

I'd like to see rising regions like China and India contribute more to gaming, but in quality titles that showcase different mythologies than we've usually seen in gaming, such as Black Myth Wukong and Raji do. Not microtransaction hellholes.

So at least China's curbing the bad side of this, though it's also a risk that they get too heavy handed and gimp their nascent industry.

 

[nemiroff]

That's one of the biggest red herrings I've ever seen.. Gaming is the least of China's problems when it comes to places to start regulating.



It's pretty safe to say we shouldn't follow China in pretty much anything.

Just take a gander at that guy's channel and see if you can find words to utter after.