As soon as you click that purchase button, youāve gambled that amount of money to have a chance to get some good things, but have a greater chance of getting common, crappy stuff you dont want. This then entices you to buy more, to increase you chances.
So if you buy them, yes. If you just earn them through playing, not really, however, they might cause someone to get addicted to the game? Idk. I donāt really care about loot boxes that much, especially if thereās no event. I have most things in the game anyway now, soooo.
Yeah, it was 2016, and it was a mess. False advertising, accusing players of being āentitledā even when many were spending upwards of $100. A 20+ page mega thread on the issue.
I donāt consider OW lootboxes gambling. They donāt impact the game, you get them for free by playing the game, and youāre getting content out of them. Just not the content you want to get out of them.
Itās not like we pay and get nothing at all in said boxes. No one is forced to get them.
I would say it is however I donāt think that lootboxes should be outright pulled or the game shut down. simply adjust the ESRB rating to match that of the age required to gamble for games that have lootboxes.
this way companies can continue to have lootboxes in game and they no longer are using gambling mechanics towards those underage
If you are still on the fence, just because you canāt get money out of it, check these out
Bottom line is this, as long as you can spend real money on these boxes, as far as I am concerned it is gambling. You may not always have the ability to cash out, but if anything that just makes it far worse. Slot Machines ARE adcitive, and the fact itās designed to prey on people and eventually get them to spend money for what they want is a problem.
Overwatch does not get off easy, you get a max of maybe 5-7 boxes a week, thatās from doing Arcade, Role Que, and Leveling Up. But all those boxes you get can give you duplicates, so you have less chance of getting what you want. So you are enticed to spend more, since you know you wonāt get dupes, and $10 is not a lot right? Just an hour of your shift, no biggie, maybe you spend $10 per paycheck to buy boxes. That adds up, fast, and kids especially have no idea what the problem is with it because itās not their money.
There are a lot of stories where kids charge their parents cards for a chance to get what they want. There are people who play video games to escape their gambling addiction, only to find itās now in most AAA games. It is a problem, and if Overwatch doesnāt fix it itās only going to become a bigger problem once more politicians start agreeing itās gambling.
Completely agreed, I apologise if my tone was dismissive, since I wanted to have an honest discussion in my last comment (also +1 for the self criticism, It was a nice reminder for me too).
I just donāt like the āthere is no alternativeā rhetoric. There is always a solution that exists in the middle of both sides. Of course a company has the right to do whatever seems right by its standards, but is also a customers right to evaluate and criticise these methods.
As Cerebrum explained it above, in the first summer event, items werenāt available for purchase via credits. People voiced their concerns and their policy changed.
As I said before, OW has one of the most fair lootbox systems, but still, the core concept of them aināt consumer friendly.
I was talking about lootboxes in general. The models that you can turn the items to cash are pure gambling by definition.
If I want to buy something, I should know how much it costs.
And thatās the bottom line. As I see, we agree to disagree, and thatās ok by me. Have a good night (or day, depends on the part of the world you are).
Yes. Intentionally. Like, its openly by design. And Iām glad they are cracking down on stuff because thereās definitely other ways to monetize things in a more transparent way even by using loot boxes. It makes no sense morally but also imo, financially to keep it this way. But Iām not an actiblizz manager
Sometimes. Not all loot boxes are the same, and only some should be considered gambling.
Lootboxes where the contents are readily converted to money are gambling, eg. Dota2 or CSGO. If you tell a player of those games to stop wasting their money on loot boxes a quite possible response is: ādonāt worry, itās an investment, I can sell it later.ā
Lootboxes in OW are different because the rewards are entirely ingame. The RNG mechanics of an MMO or RPG are quite comparable. You pay to get the opportunity to get random loot in an MMO for an account that canāt be sold.
Random loot alone does not make something gambling or bad, and it quite often improves a game. Diablo3 is great because of RNG. If I knew what every monster in that game will drop every time, then Iād find that quite a boring genre. Most wouldnāt classify D3 as gambling, but just a video game with RNG.
And thatās what they are: games. When playing OW/Chess/Dota2 and I kill/eliminate/take an opposing player/hero/piece Iām not murdering. When I play a digital poker game without real money rewards then Iām not gambling even if the real world analogue is gambling. That money aspect is essential to the act, otherwise itās a simulation.
I grew up in a culture where gambling is very common, even among the children. And even though I know people with gambling addiction problems I donāt have a problem with it because I know addiction and compulsory behavior exists in all parts of life. People are addicted to eating, alcohol, and even shopping.
If addiction is an issue, then address that. Moving away from loot boxes toward direct purchase doesnāt solve the addiction problem, it just shifts the target population. I read lots of people on here posting that theyāll ābuy so many skins with a direct purchase marketā and I canāt help but think thatās a shopping addiction if I ever saw one. And if Fortnite has shown me anything itās that heavily manipulating consumer sentiment to push shopping addiction is very lucrative.
It is if you BUY them with REAL MONEY. Aside from that, the random ones you get from leveling up or for completing one of those random character achievement thingsā¦ya knowā¦win 3 rounds win a loot box, and do it 2 more times, 2 more loot boxes. These are obviously not since your own game time, not your money was used to acquire them.
Generally itās a one sided gambling thing in overwatch at least, when it comes to buying their loot boxes because you may get random crap. But that crap has no real value that you can exchange for real money. Itās all in blizzards favor anyway.
Also, it would be an unfair advantage if the loot boxes that you would pay for gave you buffs or more damage or special features, so itās not really that bad that you can buy them. Itās only bad on āyourā part since youāre wasting money buying things that really only make your character look or sound more diverseā¦thatās it.
