Burt Bolissima

First of all, thank you for this constructive reply. It is based on arguments and this is sometimes refreshing. I want to say to this that wearing a logo is a choice that comes with buying the product, which you agree to before you buy it. The gacha system makes you end up with products you don't need, for which you have paid, and turns you into a vendor or when you don't want that hassle, into a sucker because you have paid more for the goods you required. Someone already pointed out that there is completely no transparency on this. Who knows if the system is rigged to have a higher chance on certain colors or objects? I completely agree with that. And not only should the odds be published but also verified. If not, the vendor has virtually any kind of freedom to rig the system in any kind they want. I am not against capitalism as I am not against prostitution or certain kinds of drugs. But I am against certain types of prostitution, and certain types of drugs. And yes, so I am against certain types of capitalism. What happened with over the counter derivatives, subprime mortgages, S&L scandals, false advertising, horse-meat scandals, false labeling, not labeling at all... the list of corporate trickery is very long. All of them started small didn't they? And because of the lucrative nature they mushroom into something enormous. Eventually the public has to play catch up with such practices, and in the meantime the damage is done and the profits already cashed in.

Certainly, but there is also thing called public responsibility. We don't always have to think about ourselves. Only the price is agreed upon, not the item! Because the item is random to eternity and you might never get what you want. You can get the same item 10 times and still not get the exact color you want. This constitutes the nature of gambling, not a sound commercial transaction. I mentioned that whether it is likely to happen is not the issue. It is the to show the nature of the unfair principle of gacha. I agree with that. But I wouldn't have an issue with gacha if it was a third option besides a fatpack and the option to buy an individual outfit. I would rather spend 1000L on one outfit, or 3000L for a fatpack, then to keep pushing 75L in the machine because it leaves me no other choice. I wouldn't be bothered with gacha if it was a gimmick option besides the regular options to buy. Then it can also be ok for McDonalds. If that is the attitude, anything could be gacha, from real estate to your health care. My issue is... do we want that. And this isn't about you and me, but think about future generations. Do we want 50% of digital economy to be gacha by 2049? 50% of our normal economy by 2100? Do we want it to exceed some more? That is a personal attitude. Also for your comments about the colors black and purple. I think from this as the general perspective. These are no arguments against the unfair nature of gacha's and how they operate. And why do you think these health inspectors exist? To protect the interest of the customer! That is not true, because if it is a mess in an apparel store or McDonalds or anywhere else, the customer stays away. It is for the customer that they put effort in their operation. In SL under the gacha system, this has been reversed without any supervision, legal aid for the customer, the right to sue a company, to appeal to higher institutions, and so on. Sex and food are inalienable rights. That is not the case for the company to sell gacha. Then it can also be 50% or 75% or in the case of Horntail, a 100%. I am not ok with that. I don't get to be an arbiter, but I do have a say in it. And that's what I'm doing. Having a say in it. That is subjective. If all commercial activity on SL exceeds 50%, and there are no limitations from a legal standpoint, it could happen, and then more people will ***** about this.

I would also like to add that in a normal situation a vendor should put effort in selling their wares. In the case with gachas, the consumer is set up with items he don't need from the vendor, which turns him into a vendor as well, doing the work for the vendor. After you bought something, in a normal situation it is your choice whether you want to advertise for the company by means of mouth-to-mouth or otherwise. In the gacha situation you are forced to advertise for the company you bought from. A normal company has normal exposure. A gacha situation forces the consumer to do the exposure for them.

I'm glad to hear that. But sadly there are those who do. Someone with an addictive personality can spend 10K on a gacha, do it the next day again and so on. Do we really need that? Who or what is benefited by that? We can say that those people have to smarten up, or we can try to protect them.

Ok I've read everyone's comments and I have a few things to mention before I'm ready to move on. People say often that you have a choice not to play. But sometimes you encounter something that is perfect, beyond your dreams. This can happen with clothes yes, but also with a car, a piece of furniture, anything. You choose not to play unless you meet something that you really want. That is the power of gacha. Of all the items to be sold as such there is always someone who got to got that item because it is not featured anywhere else. Then there is the argument that you will get something in return, and so it can't be gambling. But if you get the same outfit twice or for the 3rd time, in a color that is hard to sell (which is often black and purple), the item is useless anyway and not of any value. Also, the nature of gambling remains the same, because you don't know what you will get for the price you play. In a fair market, the buyer and seller always agree upon a specific price and the goods to be traded for that price. If for example, you stand at the McDonalds counter, and they strip the burger from the bun, the ketchup, lettuce, onions in different random items to be gained for the price of one dollar, you can imagine what will happen. You will sometimes have to pay 20 or 30 dollar before you will get a complete burger. That is exactly the nature of gacha's. Why is it that gacha's are ok for clothes and not for food? Suppose meals are split up in a restaurant, or the supermarket will start having gacha's on things you want. If gacha's are ok for clothes, then from a legal point of view, it can be ok for anything. What if secondlife pets become gacha. What if your favorite beachhouse becomes gacha. What if you have to pay 50L for a certain 'premium rare' teleport and you don't know where you are teleported to. Then people say that you can look on the marketplace. But the only items you will find there are the ones that nobody wants. The vendors create certain color choices that are hard to match with any outfit or avatar, which is often black and purple. So you cannot resell them. Suppose you are in McDonalds again and their burgers are gacha. Then a resellers market will arise close to the counter but at a certain point this market will plummet because not all the items are available to make a complete burger. New customers will not buy items on the reseller market because they have the chance to get that item when playing gacha themselves, or have to wait ages before that item becomes available as reseller. What is commercial activity based upon? It is based on lots of activity from the vendor to make life as easy as possible for the customer as part of the service. This is why they wipe your table at McDonalds and don't have to do the dishes . This is why you try an outfit at an apparel store and don't have to put it back yourself. They are supposed to make life easier for you, not harder. With gacha you end up paying more for the items that you need, and you end up with items that you don't need, for which you have to spend time and effort to resell them again. For some people this might be fun, but for others it is a huge pain in the ass, especially if they can pay any reasonable price if the price was fixed and listed. Finally, the argument that gacha's are legal. Yes, they are legal. But once it was legal to sell heroine as cough syrup. Not so long ago asbestos was legal, and over the counter derivatives. Anything can be legal or illegal, we just have to think about if it is desired to be either legal or illegal, and what it is based upon; do we feel the need to protect commercial activities, or do we need to protect the customer and the individual. Any market that is lucrative has the potential to become big. Now let's say the total amount of products (or income) from gacha's is currently 5%. Would we be ok with it, if that figure would be 10% in 3 years and 25% in 10 years? Would we be ok with it if real life follows suit, appreciating the example of secondlife, and these figures will also be realized in normal society? Do I think these things will happen? That's not the issue, hopefully it illustrates the point I'm trying to make.

If that's the case I'd be happy with that. Also videogames are indeed well known for dragging customers into paying more and more. This is a form of aggressive capitalism that I'm really unhappy about and on Steam the complaints about it go through the roof.

No, that was not the outfit I wanted. I posted a picture of another one because the outfit I wanted looked very skimpy

I find it really strange that people would take the side of the vendors, and not the customers. But that is probably something that creeped in from RL into SL.

Should you or the vendor decide what I want or need, or should the customer?

But if it's not available on the MP and you really NEED that item then you are still forced to play!

Yeah I wish that the Lindens would revise this. See if they can get an official point of view on this.

But sometimes there is something that you really want. If it's only available through gatcha you're kinda forced to play it.

My girlfriend did 15 attempts and we settled for the blue and winterpink outfits from Horntail. That's 2 outfits for 1125L which is not bad, however... we wanted the full pink one, not the winterpink. So we spend 1125L and still didn't get the outfit we wanted and now we have to quit because it can take ages before you get only the pink one, a 2x (1out of 24) chance. Can't we do something about this? I still see it as scamming customers.

Thank you for your replies. Still I am against this, only if its optional I have no problem with it.

Well I clearly don't know anything about this. If it's possible to resell the items you don't want then it is not that bad, however... how can you resell items when they are No Copy? Where can we go for these second hand markets? And can you get the same item twice? I believe it is vital to know that.