iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 19/08/2026

The default option matters. When trying to promote open access, surely the default choice presented first should be the most open CC-BY, although one can see why a commercial publisher would be conflicted in suggesting CC-BY-NC-ND instead...

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 12/08/2026

You come upon a fork in the path: junk mail edition 1. Get paid to publish a gambling affiliate link on your website (Did they even read what else is on that website? Almost tempted to say yes to study their procedure) 2. Claim an AI chatbot pretending to be me answering questions from parents?!

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 11/08/2026

Big oof. OSF is removing file/data sharing capabilities: www.cos.io/osf-changes. I understand this is due to funding challenges. Need to find another repository. Bad news for #OpenScience.

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 02/08/2026

My team actually cracked open and documented the disclosure features of those blind boxes and card packs that you see on display before me in the photo in the article.

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 02/08/2026

The South China Morning Post SCMP raises awareness of concerns around #LootBoxes and other gambling-like products and calls for further research: www.scmp.com/news/hong-ko....

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 01/07/2026

1️⃣: As a matter of principle, traditional DLCs bought through third-party platform stores are “in-game purchases” within the meaning of advertising regulations, because consumers would consider them as additional purchases they might make after purchasing the game itself.

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 01/07/2026

An ad for Borderlands 4 on a bus was NOT required to disclose the presence of in-game purchases, due to specific circumstances, per the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA): www.asa.org.uk/rulings/take....

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 21/05/2026

Delighted to share the visuals and mascot, a cute little mimic monster we've named Looty, for the upcoming Gam(bl)ing Conference (28–29 September 2026) in Hong Kong focusing on the convergence between video games and gambling.

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 30/04/2026

Notably, we also identified gambling ads with novel GRWM (Get Ready With Me) aesthetics that specifically targeted young women, suggesting gambling operators are attempting to reach new audiences.

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 29/04/2026

Gambling ads reached 2.3 times more men than women in Ireland, even though most ads were not set to target men specifically. 🎰🇮🇪 doi.org/10.1556/2006...

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 12/03/2026

I note also that the non-loot box-related new rules are particularly interesting: many different things will attract a variety of age ratings.

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 09/03/2026

We’re recruiting a postdoc and up to 3 research assistants at the Creative Media Policy Observatory (www.cmpo.net), City University of Hong Kong. Apply for the RA position: www.cityu.edu.hk/hro/en/job/c... Apply for the postdoc position: www.cityu.edu.hk/hro/en/job/c...

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 25/02/2026

69 submissions; 42% acceptance rate 60+ authors whose extended abstracts (see: www.cmpo.net/gachacon) we aim to archive in the DiGRA Digital Library ONE gacha machine Many probability disclosures of varying quality were hidden around the venue.

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 25/02/2026

Some hard stats! 277 total registrations; 125 physical badges collected Averaged 70 offline and 30 online attendees throughout 102 in the Discord channel and 91 in the WeChat group Attendees came from 🇨🇳(🇭🇰)🇯🇵🇰🇷🇸🇬🇮🇳🇬🇧🇩🇪🇫🇷🇪🇸🇳🇱🇩🇰🇫🇮🇲🇹🇺🇸🇨🇦🇦🇺🇧🇷

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 25/02/2026

Held our first conference! #GachaCon2026 focused on Genshin Impact, spanning #GameStudies research on storytelling, world building, player communities, gender, the Chinese industry, game design, psychology, monetisation, regulation, and beyond.

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 19/01/2026

R v Lakeman [2026] EWCA Crim 4 (www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWC...) just decided that "Gold Pieces," a premium virtual currency in Old School Runescape by Jagex, are "property" that can be stolen under UK criminal law.

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 16/01/2026

Shortly after the UK @houseoflords.parliament.uk debate on #LootBoxes (see: lnkd.in/gTMy7qH3), the @houseofcommons.parliament.uk also debated gambling harms in relation to children and young people in Westminster Hall.

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 09/01/2026

GachaCon 2026 is just one month away (12–13 February)! Preliminary programme: docs.google.com/spreadsheets.... Want to bag some GachaCon merch? Register for attendance: forms.gle/Mjk9tRo9TTSW....

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 08/12/2025

A tale of two online posts about our impact on UK game advertising: www.asa.org.uk/rulings/hutc.... My LinkedIn post: 1k+ impressions (not bad!) YouTube Shorts by @baitybait.bsky.social with 717k subs: 163k views & 9.5k likes! Academia does need to think about other channels to reach the public!

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 02/12/2025

Another video game tries to illegally “BREAK FREE” from advertising regulation. But we will hold them to account! 🚨⛓️ Borderlands 4, published by 2K, a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, contains in-game purchases, but its advertising failed to disclose this material information to consumers.

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 16/11/2025

Got a chance to try out Riftbound, the League of Legends trading card game in Simplified Chinese. Gameplay is basically Magic: The Gathering, but mulligan/the mana system is Hearthstone: send back and redraw + you get two "lands" at the start of each turn. Combat felt a bit like Marvel Snap…?

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 14/11/2025

Perplexing survey design choice to not explicitly ask about #LootBoxes and #SkinGambling anymore when the definition for “gambling” used in the overall survey did include them (“any activity which involves risking money (or something of value) in the hope of winning money or a prize”)… 🤨

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 10/11/2025

Photo credit: Dr James Morris @jamesmorris24.bsky.social. (If you're wondering, UK video game ad non-compliance with the requirement to disclose the presence of loot boxes on social media is likely “down” to ~87.5%. 🤦 A LONG way more to go.)

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 10/11/2025

Importantly, I also showed how this research method could be more widely used for substance-based addiction, beyond behavioural addiction: for example, for studying the advertising of alcohol and nicotine pouches.

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 10/11/2025

I presented our recent research assessing whether video gaming and gambling advertising are complying with regulations (e.g., UK game ads should disclose the presence of #LootBoxes and Dutch gambling ads shouldn’t target under-24s).

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 10/11/2025

Grateful to the Society for the Study of Addiction (@addiction-ssa.org) for awarding me the Fred Yates Prize for Early Career Researchers 2025 in recognition of my “significant impact on the regulation of addictive elements in video games.”

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 07/11/2025

We do not yet have PEGI’s age rating for this game, but doubtless that will also soon state that the game will contain in-game purchases. However, see the ESRB and USK age ratings. Ironic that I often spot illegal video game ads in the evening right after giving a talk on the issue at a conference.

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 07/11/2025

New Call of Duty ad breaches its duty to consumers. 🪖🚫🙅🏻‍♀️ As soon as you walk out of Newcastle train station (26,000 daily visitors): a clear breach of UK @adstandards.bsky.social Advertising Standards Authority rule that advertising for video games must disclose the presence of any in-game purchases.

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 05/11/2025

Glad you pointed this out. Below is a real reaction message I sent whilst listening. There was also a “studies have shown porn has the same effect on the brain as hard drugs.” (Slight but not really paraphrase) How could we push back? 😩

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 30/10/2025

That is obviously not good enough. (We have a precedent on a loot box presence disclosure that is not sufficiently visually prominent: www.asa.org.uk/rulings/elec...) Each of those four points can, and ought to, be improved upon. Check the full ad yourself: www.facebook.com/ads/library/....

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 30/10/2025

See below for an example from a currently active UK ad. Notice the (i) extremely tiny and blurry loot box presence disclosure text (ii) hidden in the middle of a message after the copyright notice that is (iii) flashed for only a few seconds (iv) at the end of a one-and-a-half-minute video?

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 30/10/2025

This concerned a billboard ad for #BrawlStars in the centre of Canary Wharf in London seen on 11 Sep 2024 (photos below). My complaint that it breached advertising rules and was misleading because it failed to disclose the presence of loot boxes was just “informally resolved” after more than a year.

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 30/10/2025

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) @adstandards.bsky.social has published that Supercell has agreed to “amend or withdraw their ad without being subject to a formal ruling” in response to a complaint alleging breach of advertising rules.

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 27/10/2025

Monetization mechanisms in gacha games: The behavioral triad of pricing strategies, pity systems, and belief of luck doi.org/10.1016/j.en.... Pity mechanics in gacha and loot boxes are not all fun and games? Postives: predictable maximum spending; arguably, less random. Negatives: more spending?

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 23/10/2025

The game’s current purported Australian age rating of 9 is also non-compliant with regulations and in fact, criminal, as the game’s loot boxes were updated with new content since 22 September 2024.

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 23/10/2025

3️⃣: Some games, like Clash Royale by Supercell, have yet to complete the updated ratings questionnaire, meaning that the new section does not appear to disclose loot box presence in that game.

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 23/10/2025

Multiple problems with implementation still need to be worked out. 1️⃣: On the mobile version, the information is NOT automatically shown, requiring the player to scroll down and tap on the “Age Rating” tab to expand it, which would then show the loot box presence information.

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 23/10/2025

Finally, Apple has conceded (slightly) and made it possible for game developers to more easily disclose the presence of #LootBoxes and other gambling-like in-game purchases on their App Store product pages. 🎁 However, obvious improvements are needed!

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 22/10/2025

Most survey questions are framed as: "Would you like to agree with us/this very obvious and uncontroversial point?"

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 22/10/2025

Finally got around to the Digital Fairness Act consultation, and it's a mess. 1. There is a feedback and a consultation response option. Unclear as to overlap. 2. I am pasting one sentence into every other field: "Enforce pre-existing consumer law like the UCPD. Fund enforcers. Fund research."

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 26/09/2025

Brazilian President signed the under-18 loot box ban into law (Lei 15.211/25; effective March 2026). 🇧🇷 www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_a...

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 26/09/2025

Written parliamentary question in Singapore asks for probability disclosures and parental controls to be implemented in relation to #LootBoxes following international precedents. Government says the options will be explored. 🇸🇬 www.mha.gov.sg/mediaroom/pa...

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 17/09/2025

#GachaCon2026 was victim to a rather elaborate and personalised travel booking scam. No one fell for it, but we should raise awareness, as other events might also be targeted. Scammers took invited speaker information from our call for papers and wrote individual emails pretending to be official.

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 15/09/2025

Since March 2024, #LootBox #ProbabilityDisclosures have been required by law in South Korea. 🇰🇷 @solippark.bsky.social and I assessed compliance between March and April 2024. Published in Acta Psychologica: doi.org/10.1016/j.ac....

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 08/09/2025

A tale of two comments Frontiers: you clearly know there's a comment. Springer: something related was published, but why was it incorrectly called the "Original Article"?

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 03/09/2025

KamaGames also claimed that the game does not contain “random-item purchasing mechanisms.” However, the game’s Google Play Store page discloses the presence of “In-game purchases (includes random items).” Does the company really not know what’s inside its own game? 🤷😓

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 03/09/2025

If you are advertising a video game containing in-game purchases, you are not allowed to misleadingly claim “No purchases.” BIG shocker! ⚡🤡 @adstandards.bsky.social BANS a “Blackjack 21: Blackjackist” advert shown on X/Twitter by KamaGames (A25-1285809): www.asa.org.uk/rulings/kama.... 🚫🃏

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 01/09/2025

Constructing a new scale like this (alongside transparent disclosure and robust testing) is potentially viable. However, one is certainly NOT entitled to claim that the new "problematic gacha engagement" scale somehow measured traditional "problem gambling" in the original sense. 😓

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 29/08/2025

Today on academic fraud (from the junk folder that never ceases to amaze): Literal bribery. I don't even edit that journal...

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