Report discovers video games. And he compares them to gambling
The Report (Rai3) service on video games is discussed. The point of Carlo Terzano
In the same hours in which Rai has discovered, despite the power and disruption of a character like Fedez , that he can speak to millions of people through his social channels or Twitch direct, without having to go through the public service, which indeed risks being revolutionized just for making him angry, the Rai 3 Report broadcast not to be outdone has discovered video games, dedicating the opening service to the success of Fortnite (2017 game, but the latency between state TV and young people is such that it speaks of it in 2021 forwarded) and to other titles united by the presence of micro-transactions and in-app purchases.
Mala tempora currunt! , they shout from Rai 3, accusing video games of being responsible for all evil: alienating children, making them talk absurdly, pushing them to addiction and gambling. One would even expect them to be accused of spreading Covid, but, dulcis in fundo, smear 2.0 would “destroy the Italian welfare”. "Who will pay for our healthcare?" the conductor, Siegfried Ranucci , asks himself theatrically.
But let's go in order. The first accusation that the service makes against the videogames industry is that of alienating children, especially in times of pandemic, pushing them to adopt an incomprehensible language. In reality, the problems of intergenerational communication have always existed: each generation has adopted its own register, with words, jargons and ways that trace the groove with the parents, seen as dinosaurs. Of the "matusa", it was said when the writer was young, and now he would get the "boomer" from those who are younger just for having written it.
There are also several studies that testify how the video games that Report puts in the bar are used by the retired, or the hikikomori , those who close themselves at home by choice, as the only window on the world, the only residual umbilical cord with the rest of society. Then, of course, just as the knife can be used both to cut a steak and to commit a heinous crime, video games can also lend themselves to distorted uses, but this does not mean that they are dangerous regardless.
But the highlight of the service is dedicated to the microtransactions that allowed, for example, Epic, to invoice approximately 1.5 billion in 2018, compared to 10% of taxes paid in Luxembourg. How Epic works, what its extraordinary evolution has been, we already explained it here at the time of the last paw that the software house has delivered to the market, useless to go back to it. Better to spend some characters instead to give complete information to the accusations that Report makes to this genre of video games. The service, for example, asks if it is right that “dad's pocket money” be used to buy skins, avatars, virtual items. The problem, however, is upstream: if parents do not control how their children spend their money, you cannot complain to third parties. Parental responsibility, like criminal responsibility, is personal. In addition, every game system does not now provide for parental control: in a few steps parents can inhibit certain "apps" and console functions and, unless the child discovers the password, he will not even be able to reach the online store, let alone shop. But this report does not say it.
The broadcast of Rai 3 then also takes it out on Fifa (football game) and with the recent video games that have included, among their transactions, surprise contents: one buys but does not know what. He only discovers it after the transaction has taken place. According to the service, even gambling would take place. They are not alone in thinking this way: the European Commission is carrying out studies on the matter and some member countries already have internal legislation that prohibits this kind of purchases. In reality, however, if you think about it, there is nothing new under the sun: behind a few euros Fifa unlocks players and random cards exactly as all Italian stickers have always been random (as always happens to players) who have accompanied the growth of generations, without anyone dreaming of approaching them with a game of poker in some clandestine gambling den. They are still on sale at the newsstand and at the newsstand there are also mysterious boxes that contain surprise toys. Does not knowing the content make them comparable to gambling? And then the surprises of the chocolate eggs?
But for Report, this way of doing business in video games would predispose to gambling addiction. This is probably the case if the children are parked by their parents in front of the TV for whole days, without them bothering to spend time with them. Finally, a last point: software houses are financed that elude the Italian tax authorities. Young people spend their pocket money on virtual sprouts – this is the essence of the service – and they do not even trigger a virtuous mechanism aimed at paying for health care or pensions for the elderly . However, the Italian State has this problem with all the companies on the web or, more generally, with all the companies that sell services and have their tax domicile in the Netherlands, Belgium or Ireland. In fact, in the European Union there is no fiscal union but this cannot be blamed on either the children or the software houses, which like all entrepreneurs exploit the law to their advantage, but only the adults: the politicians who they govern.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/report-scopre-i-videogiochi-e-li-paragona-al-gioco-dazzardo/ on Tue, 04 May 2021 04:17:30 +0000.