携帯ゲーム規制 健全性を重視したビジネスに

The Yomiuri Shimbun (May. 30, 2012)
Social networking games must be responsible
携帯ゲーム規制　健全性を重視したビジネスに（5月29日付・読売社説）

It is after all an improper business model to earn profits by exploiting child psychology and stimulating vanity and the desire to gamble.
　子供の心理につけこんだり、射幸心や虚栄心をあおったりして利益を上げるビジネスモデルは、やはりおかしい。

The Consumer Affairs Agency has decided to ban "kompu gacha" (complete gacha) online games played on mobile phones from July under the Law against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations. This is a reasonable step.
　消費者庁は、携帯電話で遊ぶ「コンプガチャ」と呼ばれるゲーム商法を、７月から、景品表示法で禁止することを決めた。妥当な措置である。

The phrase "kompu gacha" combines "complete" and the name of the "gacha gacha" game arcade machine that sells capsules of toys. It is a kind of lottery game played on a social networking service website via mobile phones.
　コンプガチャは、おもちゃのカプセルを売る機械「ガチャガチャ」とコンプリート（そろえる）という単語を合わせた呼び名で、携帯電話を通じて利用者が集う「ソーシャルゲーム」の中で行われるくじのようなものだ。

Players pay about 300 yen per drawing in a lottery in the game to win virtual items. If they combine items they win in a certain order, they can obtain rare items. The possessors of these rare items gain an advantage in playing games, thereby becoming the envy of other game players.
　ゲームの中で１回３００円ほどのくじを引き、当たったアイテム（品物）が一定の組み合わせでそろうと、価値の高いアイテムがもらえる。ゲームを有利に進められ、利用者仲間の羨望も集まる。

Items can be bought and sold among players, so it is possible to earn profits by selling them at high prices.
　アイテムは利用者間でやり取りできるため、高値で売って儲(もう)けることも可能だ。

Games played on social networking service websites enthrall players by stimulating a sense of superiority and achievement as well as a desire to gamble.
　ソーシャルゲームは、優越感や達成感、射幸心など利用者の心理を巧みについて夢中にさせる。

If players draw in the lottery many times, they end up having to pay a huge amount of charges added to bills for mobile phone service.
　ついつい何度もくじを引いてしまうと、多額の料金を払うことになり、電話使用料に上乗せして請求される仕組みだ。

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High price to pay

It is not a problem if mature adults play online games because they can take responsibility for themselves. But it is problematic if children are caught up in such games. Consumer consulting offices have received one complaint after another from the guardians of children, including one case in which a middle school student was charged 400,000 yen for one month.
　分別ある大人が楽しむなら自己責任の面が強いが、問題は子供がはまり込むケースだ。中学生が月に４０万円も請求されるなど、保護者からの苦情が消費者相談窓口に相次いでいた。

The Consumer Affairs Agency has decided to regulate kompu gacha after concluding it is a sales practice banned by the Law against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations, as in the case of selling the cards of professional baseball players, which was extremely popular among boys between 1945 and 1955. But it is difficult to apply the law to quasi-gacha games, which differ slightly from the practice of collecting and trading in baseball cards.
　今回、消費者庁はコンプガチャを、昭和２０年代にブームとなったプロ野球選手カードと同様、景表法が禁じる「カード合わせ」と見なし、規制に踏み切った。だが、カード合わせと微妙に異なる“類似ガチャ”は適用が難しい。

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Restrictions necessary

In other mobile phone games, too, players are attracted by advertisements promising no fees "in principle." But players have to buy items if they want to take the games to a higher level. This framework is adopted in most of these games. They are no different from kompu gacha games in that children are tempted to pay a huge amount of money to play the games.
　それ以外の携帯ゲームでも、「原則無料」をうたって利用者を集めながら、ゲームをより楽しむには有料アイテムを買う必要がある、という大枠は同じものが多い。子供が多額の料金をつぎ込む恐れがある仕組みは変わらない。

Six major mobile phone game operators, including GREE, Inc. and DeNA Co., have decided to abolish their kompu gacha games before the end of this month and study compiling self-restraint guidelines on all their social networking games.
　「グリー」や「ディー・エヌ・エー」など携帯ゲーム大手６社は、自社のコンプガチャは５月中に廃止し、ソーシャルゲーム全体の自主規制の指針を検討している。

Some measures must be taken to set the age limit for players of social mobile games. It will be also necessary to prevent virtual items earned through the games from being exchanged for money.
　利用できる年齢を制限するなどの手立てを講じてもらいたい。アイテムを現金化できないようにすることも必要だろう。

The social gaming market has grown by leaps and bounds, with annual sales now reaching 250 billion yen. If the market is to expand further, it will be necessary to restructure the business model for such games. Individual corporate visions and the industry-wide stance must be reviewed in this regard.
　ソーシャルゲーム市場は年間２５００億円の規模に急成長している。さらに発展を目指すならば、健全性を重視したビジネスモデルを再構築すべきだ。企業理念、業界全体の姿勢が問われている。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, May 29, 2012)
（2012年5月29日01時59分 読売新聞）