Mystery Brand & Molly Fantasy controversies

Microtransactions may not be compulsory in most of the games but Loot Box may be one as part of the tutorial when playing for the first time although you do get to draw one digital item at the cost of the in-game currency that comes with the game by default. Some time later, this is when microtransactions and loot boxes may become dangerous with new rare items to loot within the limited time although most of the time, you end up getting normal items that you can use to power up the rare items you currently have in your possession. It's been a year and I forgot to blog about the controversies that I'll mention below.

Mystery Brand by Jake Paul & Ricegum

The Mystery Brand website is a different story as you get to spend actual money on the loot box stuff like it's basically gambling at the next level. Microtransactions just for loot boxes may look like gambling in two steps until you get the complete set of rare items you want but this one seems to be worse and especially that two YouTubers, Jake Paul & Ricegum sold out their viewers with that site to be promoted, which was going to get certain concerning YouTubers like Yongyea or TheQuartering to talk about although there were already times they were attacked for talking too much negative shit about microtransactions and loot boxes by some Kotaku journalist at that time. It's one scammy website that you should avoid like a plague.

Molly Fantasy

Next is the Molly Fantasy or any other brand that has the online crane game where you remotely control the crane machine with your own device. You buy points online, use them as virtual credits or whatnot and you get a prize if you win similar to playing an actual crane machine. It's basically like the cloud equivalent of a crane machine and the same goes for pachinko and arcade machines although modern arcade machines are starting to cause a similar level of controversy with the introduction of PAID LOOT-BOXES. You pay money for arcade tokens or to top up your card that is for inserting coins and then you insert coins on those machines just to draw the items for use in certain games. It's a big deal for me but for kids games that have the card slots representing whatever characters, it's a different story like you're buying trading cards or something. So, it's basically gambling in the arcades as if the time of controversy had come like the same controversy already spread from console/computer/mobile gaming to even online and arcade gaming. For crane machines, it's all about luck in getting whatever item you want but in case of Molly Online or similar, you have multiple options.

1. Credit Card
2. Pay at the convenience store
3. Add the credit card to the phone bill

Online crane gaming is probably dangerous enough that it falls under gambling if you let your kid consume too much money from your phone bill/credit card on remote crane machines through your phone or other device you have. Many YouTubers including virtual ones have been promoting on crane machines both online and offline. Unlike smartphone games where microtransactions are optional, online crane gaming through smartphones/tablets and cloud arcade gaming don't seem to be like that as they fall under Pay-To-Win mechanic. What adds another controversy is that the kid-oriented YouTube channels promote such practice like it manipulates kids through encouragement to play the online crane machines.

Below is the video from PDR and you should be concerned about how dangerous the online crane gaming can be as stated above.

Japanese YouTubers Promote Gambling To Kids!? by PDR

When you win the prize, the item will take days to be shipped from the warehouse or something although the struggle can be quite large with trial & error when it comes to crane machines. I don't play crane games nor have I ever done before myself.