Came to mind because Mortal Kombat 1 is one of the greediest fighting games I’ve ever seen, with the recent announcement of a $12 Halloween fatality plus all characters + DLC adding up to $118, so I’m assuming it’s because Warner Bros/Netherrealm Studios just wants more bonus money, so I’m genuinely curious how that whole thought process came to be, and if there’s any way for society as a whole to counteract that, or is it simply built into capitalism and we’re stuck with this forever.
Edit: I didn’t buy MK1, just know people who did because I go to tournaments
Alternatively: we demand interference and regulation in plenty of predatory markets in order to protect ignorant and vulnerable consumers. I would argue that psychologically priming children and gambling addicts to exchange large sums of real money in exchange for alternative currencies and virtual property - both of which have been engineered to cynically manipulate spending behavior - is the sort of marketplace that absolutely cries out for regulation. We outlaw plenty of products and services, and I think these video game “products and services” deserve way more consideration for heavy regulation (up to and including prevention).
Personally I think the industry is infested with leftoids enough as it is, without giving government parasites the ability to dictate what indie and small studios are allowed to do.
Besides, the supposed problem youth so concerned with can be solved by simply banning the Chinese from owning stock in local companies.
A problem created by regulation? More regulation to solve it. More federal power, more, always more. No, you've fallen for the trap.
Strip the system of corporate protections instead - let people sue these companies to address grievances, remove protections that keep them from being destroyed over consumer property rights cases.