politics
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...
China adds new rules against games with ‘effeminate males’ and ‘blurred moral boundaries’
The Chinese government is further putting the screws to game developers in the country according to the details of a new internal memo from...
Congress asks publishers to self-regulate lootboxes via a UK regulation that has nothing to do with lootboxes
There are some Democrats in the US Congress that are hoping to do something about lootboxes in the country. That's good. They even went...
Tencent reacts to Chinese state media calling online games ‘spiritual opium’ by adding new restrictions
Young online game fans in China are going to be facing some new restrictions from Tencent-operated games. That's in response to an article from...
MMO Business Roundup: Discord, Ubisoft, Twitch, WB Games, Starfield, and more
Welcome back to another quick roundup of MMO- and MMO-adjacent games industry news! First, let's talk about Clyde. He's got a bit of a makeover.
Discord:...
Chinese Overwatch teams are boycotting a South Korean player who called out Chinese policies
Another year, another furor involving Blizzard, boycotts, China, and livestream remarks. Sounds familiar, eh? Well, the situation is a little bit different this time...
New UK research finds opening lootboxes is ‘structurally and psychologically akin’ to gambling
The mountain of research-based evidence against lootboxes has had another leaflet added to the pile. A recent report from researchers at the universities of...
Arizona moves forward with legislation that will force Apple and Google to allow alternative payment options
While Apple and Google likely breathed a sigh of relief when a proposed North Dakota bill that would require the mobile platforms to allow...
House financial services committee investigates Gamestonk as investors sue Reddit ‘agitator’
As promised, the US House Financial Services Committee held its hearing on Gamestonk yesterday, and to read some of the coverage, you'd think the...
MMO Business Roundup: ESA’s PAC, mail criming, Steam by the numbers, and Blizzard charity
Welcome back to another quick roundup of MMO- and MMO-adjacent industry news in our first MMO Business Roundup of 2021!
The ESA: The Entertainment Software...
Twitch lowers a (temporary?) banhammer on Donald Trump
Following the shameful events of this past week in Washington D.C. during which an outgoing U.S. president urged supporters to storm the Capitol, many...
Why WB Games should make a new Asheron’s Call game in 2021+: The lore
So we recently brought up how Asheron's Call 2 died twice during the winter seasons, with the second one being a double funeral with the original...
UK study says over 1 in 10 young gamers go into debt due to lootbox spending habits
The pushback against lockboxes in gaming in the UK continues in spite of the matter not exactly making non-stop headlines. A new study from...
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is seemingly cracking down on orgs and ‘politics’ in-game
Back in October, we reported on a move by Joe Biden's presidential campaign to create an island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which was...
Judge enforces a Dutch government order for EA to remove FIFA lockboxes or face over $11M in fines
This has been a long and drawn-out battle, so let us review: Back in 2017 when the outrage against lockboxes was at its highest...
Presidential nominee Joe Biden has his own Animal Crossing: New Horizons island
As a US presidential hopeful, you want to make sure you have your message spread to as many corners of the country as possible....
Fallout 76 roleplay group had its Facebook account terminated for being mistakenly flagged as a hate group
Politically, things in the US are... charged, to say the least, and the impact of misinformation efforts across social media platforms is more in...
Second Life bans all in-game advertisements that are ‘political in nature’
Launching into political rants in global chat or hijacking the guild discussion to make everyone uncomfortable with views on election candidates is seen as...
New executive order could ban US transactions with Tencent – potentially bad news for gaming [Updated]
File this one under "I was about to go to sleep when the internet erupted in an absolute panic over Tencent": Late this evening,...
Riot Games canceled its League of Legends esports partnership with Saudia Arabia after massive backlash
The League of Legends esports community was set on fire and then partially doused this week thanks to a decision - now rescinded -...
