3 ms·

Are you not concerned that while some of these costs may not be entirely hidden - they are very often intentionally obfuscated? It's not exactly analogous to "

Are you not concerned that while some of these costs may not be entirely hidden - they are very often intentionally obfuscated? It's not exactly analogous to "people should know to avoid credit cards with 20% interest rates" as that interest rate must be openly communicated to the consumer while the collection and sale of my personal data has no such requirement.

lr4444lr 8y ago
Hidden terms in a credit card agreement are not the same concept as voluntarily confirming and paying for a video game in-game purchase. Or what is it that you're saying is hidden in video games?
- marnett 8y ago
  Micro transactions allow some "video games" (I use quotes as it seems to mostly be mobile apps) to play nearly identically to machines you'd find within a casino. We regulate those casinos due to the known addiction of gambling - some applications employ the same psychological tactics that result in gambling addiction, and they sit right there on your phone; a phone that is constantly with you, and constantly sending push notifications to convince you to take another hit.
dcosson 8y ago
What? If I sign up for a new credit card I won't come across the interest rate at all until I get to the fine-print legal contract. Sure, maybe it's in bold or something there, but it's still not upfront and obvious in the signup flow like the perks are. Similarly, the ways in which a site will use your data is hidden within the thousands of words of fine print in their privacy policy. Seems exactly the same to me.
- abiox 8y ago
  > If I sign up for a new credit card I won't come across the interest rate at all until I get to the fine-print legal contract. my experience has been different (in TX, USA). having modestly improved my credit score (at least, i assume this is the reason), as well as registering a LLC, i've been getting a deluge of offers for personal and business cards. every distinct one i've looked at was pretty clear about the apr and fees. i mean, i suppose you could miss these things if you really don't care too look, but i haven't seen anything be obfuscated at all (at least wrt to apr). doesn't really seem fine-printy.
zrobotics 8y ago
I would argue that with the prevalence of reviews on steam /youtube/etc that it is far easier than ever to avoid undesirable games. In fact, it's stupidly easy to avoid even bad games, I don't think I've bought a game I didn't enjoy in several years. Sure, not everyone will read & comprehend a credit card agreement, but surely it's fairly easy to Google a game review before purchase.

lr4444lr 8y ago

Hidden terms in a credit card agreement are not the same concept as voluntarily confirming and paying for a video game in-game purchase. Or what is it that you're saying is hidden in video games?

marnett 8y ago
Micro transactions allow some "video games" (I use quotes as it seems to mostly be mobile apps) to play nearly identically to machines you'd find within a casino. We regulate those casinos due to the known addiction of gambling - some applications employ the same psychological tactics that result in gambling addiction, and they sit right there on your phone; a phone that is constantly with you, and constantly sending push notifications to convince you to take another hit.

dcosson 8y ago

What? If I sign up for a new credit card I won't come across the interest rate at all until I get to the fine-print legal contract. Sure, maybe it's in bold or something there, but it's still not upfront and obvious in the signup flow like the perks are. Similarly, the ways in which a site will use your data is hidden within the thousands of words of fine print in their privacy policy. Seems exactly the same to me.

abiox 8y ago
> If I sign up for a new credit card I won't come across the interest rate at all until I get to the fine-print legal contract. my experience has been different (in TX, USA). having modestly improved my credit score (at least, i assume this is the reason), as well as registering a LLC, i've been getting a deluge of offers for personal and business cards. every distinct one i've looked at was pretty clear about the apr and fees. i mean, i suppose you could miss these things if you really don't care too look, but i haven't seen anything be obfuscated at all (at least wrt to apr). doesn't really seem fine-printy.

zrobotics 8y ago

I would argue that with the prevalence of reviews on steam /youtube/etc that it is far easier than ever to avoid undesirable games. In fact, it's stupidly easy to avoid even bad games, I don't think I've bought a game I didn't enjoy in several years. Sure, not everyone will read & comprehend a credit card agreement, but surely it's fairly easy to Google a game review before purchase.