Game-wise: my guild, friends and family moved to titles whose devs listen to more than cherry-picked feedback and are at least somewhat loyal to their long-time veteran player base. Thus WoW is back to being our go-to MMORPG again. MMOs aside we're having a blast playing Rocket League, and I'm personally loving Elite: Dangerous and iRacing in VR. Outside of gaming - lots: golfing, sailing, surfing, biking, music, BBQ ... and of course - work. Our beta through pre-KOTFE years playing this game were truly amazing, and for that I sincerely thank the original Wall of Crazy SWTOR devs for delivering on a promise that has since been broken by their successors. Regardless, may you all enjoy your remaining time here. Cheers!

This really needs to be a two pronged assault: (1) eliminate the video game Cartels' predatory gambling practices by having the ability for minors to wager real money on chance removed from their games, and (2) make the minimum age for gambling 18 across the board. Representative Lee's been focusing on working with other state legislators to take on the predatory gambling practices problem. It will take another complimentary campaign to get the minimum ages for alcohol, tobacco, firearms & gambling all changed to 18. Each state's myriad earmarks that were lobbied for, which shaped their minimum age and restriction requirements, will have to be addressed and their sponsors brought on board as well. Both are long roads. As far as how we can help ... find a civic leader who is underwriting a similar plan and support them. If none exist then search for one who will. Write your Congressperson. Hell ... create a petition. One individual won't change anything. But an army of united individuals will, and it starts with the first one. No monopoly is untouchable.

Yep. A huge hurdle in fixing this (in the U.S. anyway) is unifying the states to agree on measures since their legal ages and restrictions are all over the map. EA's blatancy being called out on such a massive scale was the break he, and others who have been pursuing this, had been waiting for. Other titles under scrutiny aren't being forgotten and will serve as additional matter. But they needed a headliner to blow their investigations wide open. Battlefront 2 delivered that to them on a silver platter. Bioware got clobbered by players last year after introducing CXP with KotET. Knowing it was a huge grind their first order of business was to promote CXP boost sales in the Cartel Market. That is more about lowdown underhanded gouging than gambling though. Speaking of which, here is a real beauty courtesy of Activision (quoted to make it easier to read): http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN/9789406 But one thing at a time. Putting real money down to play a game of chance is, by pure definition, gambling. And it's not just Battlefront 2. STO, NWO and even Rocket League are coming under fire for indirect loot box gambling. Not for the RNG loot boxes themselves (that players can earn simply by playing), but in charging for keys that open them. Those games dole out way more crates & boxes than they do keys. Rift's Supply Crates are garnering some attention, as well as Wildstar's Madame Fay for being a possible pay-to-play slot machine mini-game. These barely scratch the surface. Ouch! I'm really sorry to hear about your nephew, but am glad your sister has it handled. You got a smart sis. Ideas that are being tossed around for fixing this are almost as convoluted as the mechanisms themselves because of all the politics involved. For what it's worth I submitted a proposal that is being reviewed, though I'm finding it's not as simple to get forwarded as I was hoping because of said politics. In real life, people get ID'd (carded) for tobacco and liquor purchases. The digital equivalent is the mobile device touch ID system like the thumb print verification used to approve app purchases from the Apple store. Many game companies are already employing 2-step verification using mobile devices at login to deter account (and identity) theft. This same 2-step verification system with touch ID as its login credentials could be used to digitally ID buyers, check them against items tagged for "gambling" then disable the ability to purchase those tagged items before they're even selected if Touch ID determines that the buyer is underage. It's implementing that "gambling" tag that comprises the real war as big game companies (who loathe both transparency and code inspections) essentially own the ESA, which in turn means they also own the ESRB. Leaving the video game cartels to police themselves was a bad idea. This is a pretty deep rabbit hole.

There's an inconsistent disconnect with "underage" protection laws in the U.S. IIRC minimum age for long firearm permit ownership ranges from 14 to 21 depending on the state. Minimum age for sidearm permit ownership ranges from 18 to 21 depending on the state. Minimum age for alcohol purchase ranges from 18 to 21 depending on the state. Minimum age for tobacco purchase is 18. Minimum age for gambling ranges from 18 (restricted) to 21 (unrestricted). And I agree with you wholeheartedly that if a person is old enough to put their life on the line serving their country then they damn well should be considered legally old enough to enjoy an evening of chemmy, cigars and scotch in a casino after a day of target practice at the gun club. But that has nothing to do with what this guy does or doesn't think because the minimum age for online gambling is 21. He's merely following the law. Now if the minimum age for online gambling was 18, then his template would have read: What I find most fascinating is how an individual's cred and character comes under blind & assumptive attack by people on the other side of the Internet who somehow feel threatened enough by this to warrant Googling him for ammo.

http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/memberpage.aspx?member=clee http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/members/leadership.aspx?chamber=H

Ugh! Was a good old fashioned slug fest in the snow and mud. The football gods probably enjoyed this one as each team did their academy proud in a genuine blood and guts throwback game. But, alas ... to quote the late Don Adams as Agent 86: "Missed it by that much!" Grats to all Army faithful on the win.

Doesn't need to be. Representative Lee is a Majority Whip in the Hawai'i House of Representatives who as a state representative does not legislate federal law. Though many bills that are introduced in Congress originate from state legislatures. So Rep. Lee is working with other state legislatures to eventually get this issue on the Federal docket. If the being as recent as 4 days ago qualifies as old news. I doubt we'll be hearing much else for a few weeks as Sessions are in recess until January because of the Holidays, with all current activities officially being carried over to the 2018 Regular Session schedule as a result. Though he and his team will continue to actively monitor the situation.

Great question. Why don't you ask him? Representative Chris Lee House District 51 Hawaii State Capitol 415 South Beretania Street, Room 436 Honolulu, HI 96813 replee@Capitol.hawaii.gov

That's because Cartel Coin sales are what's keeping this game alive.

THE ARMY-NAVY GAME PRESENTED BY USAA Dec 9th, 2017 Philadelphia, Pa. | 3 PM ET http://armynavygame.com/

Wait ... I resembled that remark

So you have attended Representative Lee's game on sessions in Honolulu and know all about his character and his ideals? Splendid! DarthDymond should stick out like a sore thumb on the attendance sheet at the next session when everybody reconvenes in January for 5 minutes of screen time like or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTURChcYM9A. Woops ... last one was only 3 minutes long. Damn ... Maybe genuine activism for whatever reason pushes a wince button for others, but in my world (since you asked) people do something about fixing what is ethically wrong. If there's a problem with that then don't watch. [edit] btw ... the next time you try dissing someone's character (especially a public servant) be sure you know them first.

This one:

Only for the players who spend real $$ on CCs to buy hypercrates to facilitate their GTN monopolies. For everyone else it would bring economic balance and affordability back, especially those who could finally return to making an honest virtual living from selling crafted goods. Making companion customization purely cosmetic - as well as BoE armor, weapon and item drops being all but eliminated from the leveling game - essentially made in-game sales of RNG Cartel Market packs, their hypercate bundles and their contents the kings of SWTOR's in-game economy. That made the game's economy pay to win and is something that NEVER should have been allowed to happen.

If the option to buy RNG crates or packs with real money exists, then it exists. It's digital. There is no such thing as "sort of" pregnant. Because it takes almost a year to save up enough CC stipends to purchase a single hypercrate (and that assumes those stipend CCs are spent on nothing else), the question becomes whether or not the system is rigged to use that discrepancy to coerce players into spending real money to make up the difference.

They are already doing that. It's called KOTOR.

Someone mentioned that Reddit also has a thread with the link. 35,000 sigs happened within hours of George Takei putting that link on his Facebook page and more are doing likewise. The number of folks who signed that petition have increased from 55,000 to over 135,000 now in less than a week. But wait ... there's more! Forbes, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal are all over this because it is news. EA's "predatory practices" are going viral on Youtube courtesy of popular vloggers like Jim Sterling, Laymen Gaming, Skill Up and AngryJoe. Those few hundred thousand have indeed become millions. Plus, the legislature here is stepping it up as well ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=47&v=5WxcGYvvgJo. EA is getting their asses handed to them in the court of public opinion as we're well past merely scratching the surface. It's only a matter of time before they get their asses handed to them in a court of law because legislators won't stop until laws are in place to protect their constituents. I know ours won't. A United States v. Entertainment Software Association (ESA) showdown, featuring a complicit EA (among others) sitting squarely in Uncle Sam's crosshairs, is quite possible. There are very few things our lawmakers and their good friends at the Justice Department enjoy more than taking down "untouchable" 600 lb. gorillas.

But it is useless ... the consequence of gambling real money on pretend stuff in a fake world. That light bulb went on for me 2 years ago which is why I haven't put a dime of real money into the Cartel Market since. Deception. Most of the items there that come from hypercrates are purchased using Cartel Coins which players buy with real money. The 600 CC monthly stipend one can receive (500 for subscribing + 100 for owning an authenticator) plus the occasional 5 or so CCs we receive for cheevs, etc. is not enough to support hypercrate purchases. At 5,000 CC to 7,000+ CC per hypercrate it takes almost a year to save enough CC to purchase a single one from stipends alone.

I can't speak to Reddit but someone started an off topic thread here last week about that petition. As far as SWTOR likely getting shut down were EA to lose their license ... manure occurs. If EA were to lose their license and SWTOR was shut down as a result, then that would be all on EA for blowing it. Some would mourn that loss while others would wish for it if it meant getting a new next gen Star Wars MMO.

Me too if it was a real MMO and not a reproduction of this one in its current state. If MMOs do fall out of favor with whoever owns the Star Wars IP when this one fades out then I'll do without a Star Wars MMO.

Back to FFXIV and WoW for my MMORPG fix, Elite: Dangerous for my solo space flight & combat fix (sorry Space Combat & GSF mini-games - was fun while it lasted ... and I get to use my HOTAS), and Star Citizen since our Org has manned up for 3.0 testing (we already found the Derelict Javelin). After this debacle, Star Wars of any kind (Last Jedi included) will not be in my foreseeable future.

SWTOR receives little to no attention from EA or Disney anymore, and appears to have merited zero footprint in EA's Star Wars franchise plan. So I'm guessing that, other than maybe a cursory glance at some surface clutter, the game will continue to be ignored and thus be unaffected by the Battlefront 2 probe.

I just feel sorry for the folks who sunk a ton of real cash into the Cartel Market because the money they spent, as well as the stuff they purchased, will all be gone as well. If they're smart they'll start building a screenshot library to preserve the memories.

Perhaps. If casual mainstream Star Wars fans looking for a Star Wars game to play (EA's target demographic) do their homework and consult gaming forums and the press (not EA's press, not influencer's press, but unbiased press) to find out what they and their money would be getting into ... and in their searches find links all over the Interwebs to some pesky little petition that condemns their potential investment - a petition that just happens to be signed by 125,000 other real people and is only just gaining momentum ... then they may well decide against making that purchase. Such is the power of petitions that resonate. And this one is resonating.

LOL ... it has over 110,000 signatures now.