Parents: Do You Know What Your Child Is Playing?

Hey, parents! Do you know your kids are being targeted for learning how to gamble, and the major companies that your kids play these games, hope you don’t figure it out?

I love playing games. In fact, I probably play more than four of my five kids combined. This wasn’t always the case, but this isn’t what we are talking today. Today, the subject are loot boxes, and what this means to you as a parent. Parents, READ UP! Pay Attention!!

I have a game on my phone called Candy Crush. This game is very cute and innocent. You just crush candy and you level up. The game looks l Ike you’re in a candy land type game, and the main character, Tiffany, is the cutest with her pudgy checks and her little smiles when you reach a new level. Her sad face breaks your heart if you don’t make the level, and the stress of making you feel awful letting Tiffany down w hen you click a button telling her you give up because you didn’t make the level. Her eyes weld with tears, and her shoulders slump. As you click the “Retry” Button, her face pops out with all these rewards you will lose if you “retry” instead of buying more “Power Candy” or a “New Life” in order to stay and not give up your life. Sometimes, depending how high your level is, you lose all your hard earned rewards. Poof. Just like that. Why do you lose all those rewards? Well, you must play and play and play to earn those rewards, but, in order to keep those power candies, you can’t fail. If you fail, you can’t go to the next level. You can use gold bars, which are near impossible to win, unless you pass so many levels in a week and are the #1 in the race for passing levels. Then, you get one or two gold bars. Those are good for getting lives, or other power candies in order to the beat the level. Or, one can merely buy bars, power candies, etc. etc. in order to move up in the levels. 
The game is free, and so, where do you think the company makes it’s money? (There are no commercials to watch in order to play the game, no annoying cut screens of advertisements) King, the company that produced Candy Crush makes it’s money through monetizing the levels. You can’t move up in the game without those power candies, and once your 5 lives are over, you have to wait and wait and wait in order to play again. Ideally, you just buy a bunch of power candies, and you wont have to wait, because you spend a good 15$ on power candies, witch will get you at least five more levels. or, you can be stuck on a level for a week, until you figure out how to crush all the candy and go to the next puzzle (or level) 
Candy Crush does allow you to know what you are buying, however, those power candies don’t guarantee that you will get fro the next level with those special candies. Such as the problem with Loot Boxes. Loot Boxes give a false sense of hope and promise that the character you are playing will be able to get to the next level with a weapon, or other things that will get you to the next level. This is 100% gambling. Mind you, I am using Candy Crush as an example.
The U.K. came out with a half- a$$ “Beware What Your Kids Are Playing” to end with a “It’s your parenting, not the gaming trolls that is allowing your kids to take your money when they play video games like FIFA, which has a rating of E for EVERYONE... Including your little 8 year old child who wants to play a video game, and come to find out, he has cleaned out your banking account unbeknownst to you, thinking your child was just playing a soccer game, and, according to the warning you get, it’s your parenting and even is suggested you play with your children. This wouldn’t be such a problem, however, I recall when I would allow my teens to play video games. I used the XBox as a reward tool, and at the time I wasn’t a huge fan of video games. To be honest with you, there were times my kids would zone out and not pay attention to me, so, I would turn it off mid-game (which is a huge no no) 
I don’t think it is realistic to think that parents will play video games with their kids (not all parents). While, I tried to introduce my dad to my favorite video game because if not for anything the artistic graphics are outstanding, I was met with complete resistance from my mom, who was absolutely against me even showing the trailer for the game, which has really stunning graphics for the time.  
The problem I have with all of this is the video game industry has the same reaction that Purdue Pharmaceuticals has to the OxyContin addiction problem. That is, we just made the consumer something that everyone likes and wants, and it isn’t hurting anyone. If you Google “Gaming and Gambling” and see the list of the games that directly relate to gambling, you will be surprised. In fact, FIFA 20 is a game my husband wanted, until I told him about what is happening with FIFA and parents with their kids and “Pay To Win” scams. Pay to Win is exactly what is sounds like. That is that if you pay money you will win everything you want, and get through the game faster, without having to do the grind to get the same result, that is to play the game though without having to pay. Some of the games give even better equipment and tools to beat the level without doing the work, whilst others are spending hours playing the game and get half the results. Is this fair? If we want to teach our kids to not cheat, why are we teaching them that they can pay for their levels... 
Well, in the coming months, it will be interesting to see what happens to the gaming industry here in the USA. It won’t take too long before we will wake up and smell the stink that consumers are being ripped off of millions of dollars by innocently playing videos games. 
Do you know what your child is playing?