You are totally right, lets sue Kinder! those damn eggs⊠how could they!
I think you understand it wrong, Itâs more like, letâs protect people children.
About Kinder©, the content is shown on the outside
from what? they have parents you know? most of them that play ow.
Well, lootboxes content is shown in the hero galleryâŠ
TLDR; Strictly talking in legal terms: unfortunately no.
Moral and behaviour of it: absolutely.
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The reason I hate lootboxes is because of how todayâs video games are designed. It started with mobile, but the infection spread into our AAA games. It encourages lazy and deliberately tedious game design to encourage players to spend more money. First microtransactions, and no lootbox microtransactions.
It used to be that a game becomes rich by being good. When your only chance of monitization was the point of purchase, you had to make a good game to get people to buy it in the first place.
But with the age of technology, along with the conception of many forms of after purchase monitization, it facilititated some of the most shady business practices ever witnessed in any industry.
At the age of DLC, some games would deliberately crop their games and strip them off of basic features to sell those pieces as extra later on. I remember how with Battlefield 1, a WW1 game, important parts of history were chunked out to be resold, when it should have been in tge base game (seriously, the French army was unplayable without a DLC).
With microtransaction, games were created with interesting concepts designed to âhookâ players, but progression was designed to be extremely tedious and time consuming. An option was given to players interested in skipping some of the grind, for a price of course. The discriminating argument is that you are not really forced to buy anything, and everything is achievable by pure grind. But what players failed to realize is that the game designers intentionally made this tedious grind in the first place to encourage you to spend your money.
And now, the strongest manifestation of greed to date, loot boxes. Not only is the game stripped away from basic features and progression is deliberately hindered by insane amount of grind, but now progression and feautres are earned at a game of chance. We all know the Star Wars BF2 fiasco. How they have stripped a basic character (Darth Vader) off the main game and hid many of their features behind days worth of grind to only get chances at acquiring the things you want. It combines all the frustrating parts of the previous systems, but you are not guaranteed a reward that you want. Absolutely dispicable.
Yes, you may not be playing for a cash payout, but you are playing to try to get your moneys worth. The games industryâs defense has been a very flimsy one based on a legal technicality, and their willful obtuseness during the UK hearing did nothing to help their image.
Also, just look at 2Kâs ad for their new NBA game MyTeam mode. It focuses more on showing off random card packs, pachinko, roulette, and slot machines than it does gameplay. I donât think anyone can say with a straight face that it isnât gambling when real money can be wagered in all those.
A lot of things in life are a gamble. I suppose the big part is how much does it cost to play, and how good are the rewards? I mean you could claim taking a bag of chex mix is a gamble, you never know how many of those tasty pretzels you will get in a bag.
But it cost like $1 and you can only get pretzels, nobody cares about regulating that.
However loot boxes in some games can cost thousands of dollars and reward you with skins, cards or power ups people are willing to pay that for. Even if there is no cash out feature the mere fact players are willing to spend that much to receive those rewards means they have value imo.
And the âyou just want everything freeâ straw man rears its ugly head.
I only have to go back 20 years and see myself as example. itâs not only about kids, but I do think theyâre more sensitive for this.
But
but you canât choose that one lootbox with some legendary,
thatâs why I wrote you canât see what you are buying / getting.
You can see the value of Jackpot in every casino.
I guess trying to have a healthy consumer mindset and try to advocate for practices more friendly to customers, is considered as âentitlementâ and âwanting anything for freeâ nowadays to people like him.
No, itâs not gambling (with the strict turn-reward-to-cash definition).
But itâs for sure a terrible, exploitative, scummy and borderline scammy practice that it should be regulated hard.
No paying customer is benefited from paid lootboxes. Itâs one of the least cost-efficient methods for consumers.
Oh, and were only talking about OW lootboxes, that are only cosmetic and have a free alternative. These are the closest thing you can get to âethicalâ lootboxes (combining these two words doesnât feel fitting at all).
The p2w lootboxes and the ones you can sell their contents, are direct gambling, no doubt about that. These are the ones that have to be regulated no matter what.
You 2 are welcome to put words in someone elseâs mouth, not mine.
All I said was that if you want something, it doesnât mean you should have it.
And if I were to entertain your little argument:
If you believe you should always get what you want, then Blizzard has a price for it and itâs entirely up to them to decide what price that is and it is entirely up to you if you pay for it or not.
A healthy consumer mindset its for you to create and follow, not for the company, if you believe that your free will and your critical thinking is in the hands of a corporation or anyone else then I donât know what to tell you.
Your actions and your decisions are ultimately yours, you canât blame someone else that you wanted a skin so bad that you were willing to spend in several lootboxes for it, instead of simply earning it through grinding in the game, which is also a valid option and one that has always been available.
You donât like either option?
There are several other games that offer other options.
Donât like those other options in other games either?
Youâre out of luck
Maybe this give you more information (by blizzard),
before you judge over people wanting free stuff .
In April 2018, the Belgian Gaming Commission published a report that was endorsed by the Belgian Ministry of Justice in which they concluded that paid loot boxes in Overwatch are considered gambling under local law. While we at Blizzard were surprised by this conclusion and do not share the same opinion, we have decided to comply with their interpretation of Belgian law. As a result, we have no choice but to implement measures that will prevent Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm players located in Belgium from purchasing in-game loot boxes and loot chests with real money and gems.
Offtopic, I still donât know why that forum exists.
did they change the surprise to a specific toy per egg? Afaik there is always a small pool of toys even if you choose the âpinkâ or âlight blueâ eggs, genuinely asking, been a long time since i bought one.
I dont see how the 20 years comment relate to this. Kids needs parents to educate them, there are always going to be fringe cases and people that obsess about things, you canât go prohibitng stuff because someone might obsess over it, if there is where you were aiming.
I truly believe the line that differentiates gambling is the monetization of the prize, else is a case of obsesions and how people may lack self dicipline, other characteristic relevant to the issue or in some special cases help. But in those, the problem is probably a symptom of some other issues and would have arisen with many other things.
Whats the point of this? blizzard explicitly disagrees with the ruling.
As did EA with their âsurprise mechanicsâ. Do you actually think any company will go ahead and say âyeah, itâs gambling but I went ahead and put it in the game anywayâ? No, wonât happen.
Depends how you define gambling:
play games of chance for money? Not gambling
take risky action in the hope of a desired result? probably gambling
Lootboxes in Overwatch are currently a progression system where the order of progression is random.
When you open a loot box you are guaranteed a cosmetic unlock that has no intrinsic value - You cannot sell or redistribute the unlock - It merely adds unlock progression to your account.
Lootboxes in overwatch are a core part of the base game and itâs unlock methodology - Nothing in purchased lootboxes is of greater or less value than a regular unlocked loot box.
In many other games, loot boxes are available with unique rewards only to those who purchase them. In these cases loot boxes are gambling rather than accelerating a predefined progression. Especially when you can transfer the item, instead of being a progression system it becomes gambling as users can put in money with the intention of potentially getting something more valuable out.
Basically, Overwatch loot boxes are not gambling because buying them doesnât give you a chance to get something more or less valuable. All loot box skins are effectively worth $0 as they are non-transferable and in over-abundance.
Some users however might believe the unlocks are more or less valuable and thus to them, they gamble.
How am I supposed to take this seriously, ok letâs try
Letâs go off-topic, are you the funnest at home when you are home alone?
I removed this comment, to make it more easy for you, before the subject changed to how people should raise children.
Blizzard isnât above law.
Belgian Gaming Commission published a report that was endorsed by the Belgian Ministry of Justice in which they concluded that paid loot boxes in Overwatch are considered gambling under local law.
You can have opinions as much as you want, this is a court decision,
the people in belgium(Iâm not) will have to deal with that
This is just the information and knowledge I have about âAre Lootboxes Gambling?â, nothing more or less.
Compare lootboxes and owl tokens for more clarity.
You know what you get for your tokens.
Alright, I apologize. Itâs just the same tired excuse I saw from many who did say exactly what you said, in the same post as âyou people just want everything for free donât you?â.
During the first Summer Games some people spent a lot of money trying get what they wanted, but were out of luck due to the way Blizzard designed things.
Some spent hundreds of dollars to try and get what they wanted. These people should have actually gotten what they wanted given how much they put into the system. That they did not is, well, scummy.
The system is better now, but back then you had the real possibility of never getting what you wanted. Regardless of how much money you spent in.
Your words are also the very same kind of argument those defending the system back then used.
This game should have always offered the option to buy what you want directly, even if there was a slim chance of getting it cheaper in loot boxes. I still donât think loot boxes should exist, but at least people would have the option that way.
I have every right to voice my dislike of a companies consumer unfriendly practices. If they keep those practices, I will indeed go somewhere else. Back before I saw how bad things could get I was considering buying some, but at this point I wonât buy loot boxes from anyone.
Companies that arenât customer friendly earn bad will from customers. They do this long enough and they go out of business because no one will buy from them anymore. Itâs in their own best interest to treat customers well.
I believe people should know what they are getting before they pay for it. I donât think someone should get it merely because âthey want itâ. VoraRose didnât say anything like that either.
Pointing out that loot boxes also use the same psychological tricks that casinos use is also something Iâm allowed to do. No, they donât take away your free will, but they do put more pressure on you to buy things. The first Summer games was especially heinous, as they were still acting as if these cosmetics might not come back, thus increasing the pressure to buy now.
Not everyone has grinding for hours on end as a âvalid optionâ. Even then time spent has value, so those boxes arenât exactly âfreeâ.
Also, loot boxes have been declared gambling in several countries, and Blizzard has had to remove them to match those laws. So at least in China, and Belgium loot boxes are indeed gambling.
True, itâs was a wrong move and an unfair stretch of words (at least the âfreeâ part). I stand corrected.
But for the rest of your post.
Well, we also said that if we want something, we want a transparent and clear as possible way to get it. Not exactly an extreme or entitled concept. Lootboxes are nowhere near clear, direct, or transparent.
The funny thing is that I wonât support these practices because they are very cost-inefficient already.
I donât care to get a skin that is behind a huge paywall because I am able to see itâs (artificially overinflated) worth.
To copypaste something from my last post:
Still, this doesnât change the fact that lootboxes are still non consumer friendly. If you lock a wanted item behind a RNG wall, you discourage a prepared customer, but milk an unwary one.
Iâd like to hear whatâs the price of an event skin in monetary value. Because hey, if I want to buy something, Iâd like to know itâs price. If youâre able to calculate how much money you need to buy a skin, Iâll be glad to hear the price that blizzard has set to it.
And one last thing:
Well, history and reality has already proved you wrong.
When blizzard changed itâs event item policy from lootbox only to purchasable, it was because its customers critisised it and offered feedback regarding that policy.
So much for being out of luck, huh?
Also, many countries are taking steps to regulate lootboxes, so it seems like they are limits in what any company can do, and the consumers opinion has an impact (as it should).
If you believe that obscure purchase methods are beneficial to you as a customer in any way, then you do you.
great strawhat, very nice to look at, irrelevant though.
i guess following a conversation is too hard for you⊠we were on the subject that buying something without knowing whats inside is gambling, i brought the kinder egg example, you said that the kinder tells you exactly what you get, but afaik its a pool of toys unless they changed it recently to a specific toy per egg⊠Maybe i should uses pictures next time?
How in the world protecting a children and raising them arent related??? Please instead of trying to treat me like im dumb think what you write, those 20 years seem more like 5 suddenly.
Seriously is this your argument? One country caves to the sjw for some political votes and somehow thatâs some sort of worldwide proof?
Going by that logic, since its not sanctioned as gambling nor illegal in 99% of the countries in the world, itâs not gambling.
Seriously, if you are going to try to make fun of me, at least TRY to have an argument.
Different products, completely unrelated, bringing that up makes absolutely no sense. Sure you buy coins to buy a specific skin, that has absolutely no correlation with a lootbox. You may prefer that, but thatâs not the point we are discussing.
Very dissapointed you had resort to turn this into some kind of trolling and âlook how smart i am using smileys to make fun of himâ, i guess that speaks volumes of who you are. Anyway, it proved you are not capable of an interesting dicussion so, have a nice day.
Opening loot boxes resemble the behavior of slot machines. Wouldnât you agree?