Loot Boxes are Gambling - Get fucked EA

[Karbuncle]

https://www.siliconera.com/2019/02/2...e-termination/

okay maybe you have a point

FUCK. It never even came West I'm salty AF that game was fun when I first played it and that was despite the fact I could read exactly 0 Japanese

[dasva]

Also the way the game is balanced has gone downhill since ~TI2 with more and more focus on making it more accessible and a more exciting spectator sport. Every pro will tell you that the way DotA is played now is less and less about the "best" team winning. The pacing and mechanics like fort refreshes and comeback gold make it much easier for underdogs to pull off upsets. It's too hard for the better team to transition early game dominance into capturing objectives and a bad team can hang around for an extra 15 minutes and hope to capitalize on late game chaos (see OG winning TI8 by spamming Spectre). But these days that randomness makes it more exciting for casuals, and maximizing views and capturing the interest of the LCD matter more than the purity of the game as a competition..

Tbf this has less to do with microtransactions and more to do with "esports". Not even actual games that have real esports themselves but just the idea that people want to spend a ton of time watching streamers play games live. So even at games with no real professional level are being designed more and more to cater to viewability than actual playability.

[Gredival]

Again, it's all fruit from the same poisoned tree. Whenever TI season rolls around, a lot of players come back and also buy the battle pass. Valve is quite transparently consciously trying their best not to alienate these players during that brief window to sell them hats. Which is also why there is a "fresh" patch and new hero to shake things up right after TI to keep people interested in trying out the new patch. Those patches get reverted when the player base craters after the TI boon.

Happened 3 years straight now.

[Gredival]

imagine favoring mandatory subscription fees over optional cosmetic DLC to sustain a MOBA's development

Oh also QOL improvements that should be standard are being rolled out as experimental "features" of the battle pass that you have to pay for the pass to access before they integrate them after TI.

Region locked teams in matchmaking, avoiding team stacks in matchmaking, ranked roles in matchmaking, player blacklists for matchmaking. All of these are QOL features the game should have by default (that others in the genre did) that Valve only rolls out as a "bonus" for engaging in micro transactions.

So yes I'll take my $10-20 subscription fee and a playerbase of tryhard neckbeards rather than having the filthy masses in the game.

[Gredival]

The same excuse was given for why they never integrated any of these: "It will extend search duration for matchmaking queue."

Yet one by one they trickle in as Battle Pass bonuses

[Koul]

EA: "Loots boxes are surprise mechanics, not loot boxes"

[6souls]

EA: "Loots boxes are surprise mechanics, not loot boxes"

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...om-british-mps
https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Inde...e-c43c4a0879d4

Attending the hearing were Epic Games' director of marketing Matt Weissinger and general counsel Canon Pence, who were joined by Electronic Arts' UK country manager Shaun Campbell and vice president of legal and government affairs Kerry Hopkins.

Epic Games in particular attracted ire from MPs, driven by evasive or baffling answers that seemed to only raise further concerns.

At one point, Canon Pence claimed it was inaccurate to define Epic as a company which makes money from people playing its games, to which Collins responded: "You're not a charity."

"We don't call them loot boxes... We call then 'surprise mechanics'," said EA's Kerry Hopkins, who said she had no qualms with the publishers' implementation of loot boxes, and justified any problematic consequences as "bad guys find ways to do bad things.

Both companies had little to offer on questions around playtime, either claiming they did not track that data specifically, or providing strawman arguments around what constitutes "too much."

After several minutes of attempting to pin Epic's Matt Weissinger on the definition of a regular player, the committee was met with the response that it was "commercially sensitive" information.

"What I struggle with here, [Fortnite] is a game which makes money out of people playing it," replied Collins in dismay. "It's a hugely successful game played by millions of people around the world. And this sort of basic information -- we know from other game companies we've spoken to -- is something that would be gathered and analysed all of the time. So I don't believe you don't know this information.

"So for me, this arouses suspicion that this is not something we can discuss... this is basic information. We don't need to know your corporate secrets... but I'm sure you've got an idea what the answers to these questions are."

[djzombie]

[6souls]

[arus2001]

Get fucked EA.

[archibaldcrane]

can't you just not buy loot boxes?

[djzombie]

can't you just not buy loot boxes?

Sure, unless you're addicted to gambling, and you play video games as an alternative to that behavior, and then your favorite games start to implement them.

In that case it might not be so easy.

Also, kids don't really have impulse control or a sense of what things cost in the real world.

I think the primary concern is companies are trying to cement these gambling behaviors in children at a young age.

[archibaldcrane]

my advice still stands but that's a good point

It's almost hard to articulate how much I loathe the idea that people spend hard-earned cash on video game costumes that don't affect performance. It like, completely blows my goddamn mind what the fuck is wrong with you people

[Rhyis.]

Sure, unless you're addicted to gambling, and you play video games as an alternative to that behavior, and then your favorite games start to implement them.

In that case it might not be so easy.

Also, kids don't really have impulse control or a sense of what things cost in the real world.

I think the primary concern is companies are trying to cement these gambling behaviors in children at a young age.

sounds like this should be a problem for the parents

my advice still stands but that's a good point

It's almost hard to articulate how much I loathe the idea that people spend hard-earned cash on video game costumes that don't affect performance. It like, completely blows my goddamn mind what the fuck is wrong with you people

ive never understood the mentality of actively spending extra money to shorten the amount of time you are spending on your hobby by buying the gear you want instead of playing the game to get it. its a fascinating thing

[djzombie]

sounds like this should be a problem for the parents

The only reason I don't agree with this is because casinos use psychological tricks to keep people spending their money. Many of these tricks casinos use videogames have started to implement as well.

When you consider the mind of an adult can be manipulated into spending all their money and gaining no benefit do you think a child has any chance of resisting?

I think the long and the short of it is, how do you define gambling? I think lootboxes are very clearly gambling as you're paying money for the chance of getting what you want.

In some cases (CSGO) there is a real monetary value attached to those items, so getting something rare could net you thousands of dollars.

However the bulk of your experience is going to be receiving an item that is worth only pennies of the money you just spent.

Once you attach a real life monetary value to whatever you receive from a lootbox, it's pretty difficult to claim it isn't gambling, and that is done from the start in most cases by charging users real money to open them.

[Rhyis.]

The only reason I don't agree with this is because casinos use psychological tricks to keep people spending their money.

so do supermarkets and all retail stores in general. they're called impulse buy items and they're placed near the cash register. there's been decades of research on it and it's a thing.
is every store you walk into evil? no. it's just marketing. be above it

also the kids shouldn't have access to their parents credit card/debit card/whatever to begin with. this, again, sounds like a parenting problem

[djzombie]

You're comparing tangible goods that provide a benefit to intangible goods that only exist as pixels in a video game.

You also don't get a random result when you go the grocery store. You don't pick up a bag of randomly selected food and walk to the register with it. (or alternatively pay money and still end up with no food)

These things are not same same.

also the kids shouldn't have access to their parents credit card/debit card/whatever to begin with

I agree with you on this.

[zoobernut]

so do supermarkets and all retail stores in general. they're called impulse buy items and they're placed near the cash register. there's been decades of research on it and it's a thing.
is every store you walk into evil? no. it's just marketing. be above it

also the kids shouldn't have access to their parents credit card/debit card/whatever to begin with. this, again, sounds like a parenting problem

Do you not understand the difference between gambling and buying stuff directly? That isn't a good parallel. If I walk into a store and buy a candy bar on an impulse I am guaranteed to get the candy bar I want. It would be more akin to walking into a store and paying for a CHANCE to take home a candy bar.

[djzombie]

It would be more akin to walking into a store and paying for a CHANCE to take home a candy bar.

Sorry bro, no candy bar for you today. You got another two bucks? You could try again!

[Melena]

The better comparison honestly would be the machines were you put in 25 cents and get some mystery junk toy in the plastic egg.