law
Belgium and Netherlands reject Diablo Immortal over lockbox gambling concerns
This week's "global launch" of Diablo Immortal already wasn't going to be that global considering that several southeast Asia countries will have to wait...
Former Guild Wars 2 cinematic animator calls out NCsoft for withholding owed back pay
Apparently, NCSoft has a policy in place that withholds owed back pay even if an employee has the courtesy to put in a notice...
Alleged stalker of a World of Warcraft streamer is arrested and faces five years of federal prison time
A two year-long hell for one streamer of World of Warcraft is hopefully coming to an end. Evan Baltierra, a former Los Angeles World...
Lawful Neutral: How is an NFT MMO even supposed to work?
Recently, MassivelyOP hit a milestone: We received our quadrabajillionth email announcing that Scammy-scammers-now-with-NFTs-and-also-metaverse-because-reasons Inc. was a proven market leader with a new scamming game...
The FBI says it was a North Korean hacker gang that crimed Axie Infinity for $620M
At the tail end of March, we reported on a massive hack of exploitative play-to-earn blockchain job/game Axie Infinity. At the time, the hackers...
Disney has quashed another Club Penguin emulator, this time with arrests in the UK
Remember way back in 2017, when Disney shut down the long-running Club Penguin MMO in order to replace it with Club Penguin Island? And...
GDC 2022: Control, revenue, scarcity, ethics, and the human challenges of the gaming ‘metaverse’
While some panels at GDC 2022 have been deeply disappointing, the panel titled "A Brave New (Virtual) World: Ethics and Governance of XR and...
Chinese regulators draft ‘youth mode’ requirement for online games and more
It appears that China's gaming industry still hasn't come close to hitting rock bottom. According to the South China Morning Post, China's Cyberspace Administration...
Dutch court says EA lockboxes didn’t violate region’s gambling law, reels back €10M fine from 2019
It's been some time since the furor over lockboxes and international gambling laws came to light, so let's review: Gambling authorities from the Netherlands...
Family of Activision-Blizzard employee allegedly harassed into suicide filed a wrongful death suit
If Activision-Blizzard was hoping that recent world events would be taking all of the pressure of the company's ongoing scandal and fallout, then such...
Union asks SEC to investigate Activision-Blizzard’s ‘inaccurate and misleading’ acquisition statements
Part of the process necessary for Microsoft to buyout Activision-Blizzard is its submission of a disclosure letter to the SEC about its current state...
Lawful Neutral: Recapping the MMO industry’s legal dramas, 2021 edition
With meatspace commitments causing no-end of stress and herculean amounts of work for me, Lawful Neutral had a bit of a slow year that...
Roblox’s CEO has apparently dodged millions in taxes using a ‘small business’ exemption loophole
In case you somehow still thought Roblox was one of the good ones after all those pieces about its exploitation of child labor, or...
Activision-Blizzard labor organizers score win for contractors as the Actiblizz lawsuits continue
Last week, following the brutal Activision-Blizzard investor call that saw the delay of multiple Blizzard titles and a stock plummet, the A Better ABK...
Activision-Blizzard partly meets some worker demands, dramatically cuts Bobby Kotick’s compensation
At 5:15 a.m. EDT this morning, Activision-Blizzard's PR team dropped a lengthy letter from CEO Bobby Kotick, addressing everything from the ongoing pandemic to...
Lawful Neutral: Managing toxicity in the MMO industry
When I'm playing games, I make a lot of use of the reporting function. If I see a moonkin zerg farming a spot in...
Activision-Blizzard requests venue change and pause in DFEH lawsuit, says it’s fired 20 people for misconduct
In the course of our coverage of the Activision-Blizzard sexual harassment and discrimination scandal and the ensuing legal battle, we've noted that multiple state...
Malaysia’s mufti calls out lockboxes as gambling, states buying them is not permissible in Islamic religion
To appreciate this story, one has to first understand the concept behind a mufti and performing something that's against the religion of Islam. A...
Union organizers call Activision-Blizzard’s $18M EEOC settlement a ‘slap in the face’
Monday night, we reported on a planned settlement between Activision-Blizzard and the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC was one of four state...
Regulators in China and the UK turn their eyes toward streaming, gaming currency
China isn't content to bulldoze its own local gaming industry by freezing game approvals, blocking kids from gaming outside of tiny windows, and freaking...
