Paid Loot Boxes and Loot Chests disabled in Belgium

General Discussion
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This was posted on the EU forums, decided to share it for NA players too.

Seems likely that Belgium will have an option to buy coins instead of lootboxes in the near future

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Where does it say that? All it says that they can’t buy loot boxes, but they can still earn them. I see nothing leading me to believe they will be able to buy straight coins.

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^I never claimed it said that. That’s what I think.

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Man I wished loot boxes were removed for all countries :disappointed:

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^There is a chance more EU countries will follow Belgium with this new law if others consider it for the best. We will have to wait and see I guess.

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Removing lootboxes from Overwatch in certain countries is not, and never was, about protecting people from the evils of gambling. The governments just want their cut for their own use.

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wont that destroy like 90% of mobile games?

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Oh wow, didn’t think they would pass the law so soon. Good, hope more countries will follow.

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Saw a report this morn NBA2k having to change there system or entirely remove a part of it (auction house) for Belgium/Denmark cos the new rules. The joke of the matter was the NAB devs were asking players of the country to petition the rules because its not fair or some junk. I lol’d.

Lootboxes got outta hand across games, I dont mind them, personally I think OW system was fine until the messed with the coins in some vague attempt at improving item success rate/reducing dupes. Instead now I get a million sprays and never any bloody coins whereas prior to that I was safe in the knowledge id always have coins for a skin…but nonetheless some devs like EA took the biscuit with them and now all the devs will be paying for the greed.

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Time to get a Belgian VPN! :slight_smile:

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Was it “LoL” or some other game(don’t play moba/rts/mmos games actually so can’t say, they’re all the same to me … but gameplay looked like DOTA-ish, but wasn’t DOTA)
In Belgium, in that game, players can buy lootboxes and they are still random. It’s like buying open lootboxes. So, you go to the “page” to buy lootboxes, and it shows you what you will get before you give money. And it changes I think daily(not sure), and when you buy lootbox(obviously they “open” another one). So, if you want to get something nice you still need to buy a lot of useless stuff, or get lucky - but it’s not gambling, because you know exactly what you’re getting for your money ;).

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Good. I hope the rest of the world follows. Less garbage loot boxes everywhere, and have credits/v-bucks/gold/coins/etc be purchasable so you can buy what you want directly instead.

Like, Overwatch should ditch the stupid OWL tokens and make everything buyable with credits, and have credits be purchasable directly.

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The sad part is that without lootboxes, you’ll probably be paying more money for a single skin than just grinding the game for those free boxes. Eventually anti-lootbox crowds won’t be happy about having to buy event skins either, since each country will still toss on some tax to make it even pricier.

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Lootboxes can stay as in game rewards, just not as something you can buy. It would be lootboxes from in game levels and coin purchases with real money.

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I know. But if all of them would be removed. As in all variations of lootboxes (leveling up/arcade and the likes); meaning that purchase only would be a thing for skins.

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Here’s to hoping.

OW lootboxes while a far cry from the worst examples of AAA microtransactions, is a POTENT enabler for more nefarious schemes.

Let’s make gamers willingly open their wallets and feel good about their purchases again, instead of coaxing them to spend money they’d regret.

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I’m really hoping this lootbox banning spreads. Not being able to buy the exact skin I want has NEVER felt good to me as a consumer. I’m FORCED into a system where I don’t actually have any knowledge of what I’m purchasing. Whether you define it as gambling or not doesn’t change the fact that it doesn’t feel rewarding or fair.

If the devs really care about the players, and I think they do, I hope they can realize that adding a direct buy option into the game would go a long way for improving the game for players like me that don’t want to buy chances/dice rolls for content.

As a side note, I also think it would drive up the quality of character skins. Players are likely going to prioritize shelling out for truly inspired skin designs. It would be incentive to put out high quality skins, and the devs would get an even clearer idea of what aesthetics the playerbase values most.

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Sure it all a grand conspiracy. Poor little indie Blizzard. Nah, bro. It is straight up gambling and it was proven in court. This was not some random decision, they went to court and lost. According to all peer reviewed academic journals and research papers, lootboxes are gambling.

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You’re not forced, even vaguely. You CHOOSE.

As for everyone else complaining about loot boxes:

Games need funding. It costs money to pay the wages of highly skilled developers - that includes artists, designers, programmers and all kinds of clever people. They need to get paid, and money needs to keep coming in to pay them every single month.

With loot boxes, SOME people buy them, not ALL. That means the devs get paid. If you dont buy them, you get the regular content and hard work the devs put in without paying anything.

Now, what would happen if you removed loot boxes? Well, the devs need to be paid so that money needs to come from somewhere. So, that would mean either directly buying items you want (less fun), DLC (with big delays between releases - nobody wants that) or a subscription model for EVERYONE.

Guys, its time to admit to yourself that loot boxes are good.

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the funny part is that’s how it used to be in Heroes of the storm, they changed that game to add loot boxes, and now loot boxes are getting the ban hammer

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