gaming Should Lootboxes/microtransactions be banned?

[Pentium100 2,186]

Yea, there is one thing in making stupid choices, which we all do once in a while, but another thing is exploiting addicted people. People who literally cannot stop. While I do not wish harm to anyone, it would be interesting to see the people who talk about personal responsibility etc beat a heroin addiction. Without help. And with heroin being not only easily available, but advertised. Show us how you can hold a syringe with the heroin and not inject it. Some people can. Those people are very rare. Some people can stop being alcoholics by sheer determination. Those people are also rare, and even for them, just having one drink can get them back to drinking non-stop.

It's not just the matter of not drinking, smoking, injecting or gambling. It changes the brain in a way that makes it extremely difficult to stop. And the games are designed in such a way to be addictive. For example, a game that limits your progress after x hours of continuous play or has some rewards each time you log in, encourages you to play it for shorter sessions, but more often. The more often part is important - it's there so you can form a habit, just like going for a smoke. Or that glass of vodka after getting home from work.

I personally do not do microtransactions and I do not play MMOs. If a game is too heavy on the microtransactions I won't play it, if I can ignore the microtransactions completely, then I will.