Because too many games loot boxes are pay to win and whilst Overwatch’s are not, they’re still paid for, random boxes of pixel junk. I have no problem with them in Overwatch, only in games where they lock weapons and other things behind them.
I think people are thinking of the lootboxes that actually impact the game, unlike skins from Overwatch ones.
Give me a link to such study and I will find you a recent one pointing out that it’s in fact an experience problem, learning process, that’s also why teens like to experience. For majority of them, it’s not impulse control, but mere lack of experience. And we are humans, we hunger for experience and wisdom, all of us. Children and infants are very curious, because they are learning that way, because they lack experience compared to teens or adults. If teen has a bad experience with drugs they are less likely to get addicted to the because of said experience. We base our decisions on experience. Our thinking is different if we have none regarding something.
Predatory strategies? What do you call a predatory strategies, because from what you say, discounts are predatory strategy, too. Black friday ‘exploits’ the same group of people, those who spend irresponsibly and can’t stop themselves. Should we ban discounts, too? Because majority of people likes them, just because of few people we should ban them? No, it’s the opposite, the minority needs proffessional help. That’s how we protect the vulnerable.
2+1 is another predatory strategy. Banks use predatory strategy while lending money, auctions, they all can be described as predatory by this logic, because they might ‘exploit’ the same group of people, while also benefiting a much larger group.
I will ask you why you call him a victim? Why is he a victim?
If we use this logic, an adult who is attracted to children and is abusing children and getting punished for it is just a victim, because he is not responsible for his mental condition, he is probably not aware of his mental disorder and it seems normal to him. And that’s horrific. If we start to think like this, then we will truly have anarchy. You can’t shape society around those people.
And the alternative is not anarchy, it’s dictatorship or oligarchy. Anarchy is a special state of society. One you would get if we adopted the idea of victim-calling. You could be victim of anything and demand something for that. And if everyone started doing it, and have a right to do it however reasonable or unreasonable and get what they want, you would have anarchy.
Choosing a business model that depends on creating a dependency, like gambling, smoking, drinking, medicines; those other highly regulated industries, is pretty much the definition of predatory.
Blizzard didn’t pick this model in ignorance, we’ve known forever this kind of practice is problematic.
And yes, catering only to the majority is anarchy, because at some point everyone becomes that minority that needs help.
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Because I paid $70 for this game so I expect everything to be free.
They should lock these cosmetic items and make them unlockable through finishing achievements/missions like 100 kills, headshots, ults etc.
Like video games in the good old days.
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Because loot boxes are inherently predatory. Oh, and they’re also becoming legally recognized by different countries as a form of gambling.
To be honest, I feel that Overwatch handles loot boxes reasonably. However, most games seem not to be nearly so well balanced. And what I view as reasonable still exploits a certain subset of the populace. The current system almost certainly benefits me more than its inevitable replacement will, since I pay no real money for cosmetics, yet have ~ 95% unlock completion.
It’s too bad, in a way, that Overwatch set the precedent for the foolish and ethically bankrupt implementation of loot boxes of its imitators. From EA’s Stars Wars Battlefront 2 to Middle Earth: Shadow of War, it’s become increasingly clear that publishers can’t be trusted with loot boxes.
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It’s for the greater good. Banning them overall will prevent paytowin games to abuse that. Those games are living from a few players (whales), that are throwing ton of money at those companies.
Also now we will hopefully just buy the skins we like directly, without the random stuff of the lootboxes.
Shady publishers will just move on to the next big thing. Greed finds a way.
Given Blizzard’s track record with individually prices cosmetics, I’m not very hopeful.
Lul it’s up to Blizz if they want to come across as greedy af, than they will feel the consequences for that.
Also we are in a time where gamers FIIIIIIIIIIIIIINAAAAALLLY are not accepting everything from the Publishers etc. and it works really really well. Also blizz is making money with owl anyway and not with lootboxes anymore (in overwatch) so i doubt it will really hurt the game in any way.
Activision won’t stop until it gets all the money. It’s no less a blight on gaming than EA; it’s just less grossly incompetent. Diablo Immortal will likely be monetized like mobile games tend to be.
I was very pleased to see the reaction to Diablo Immortal. With both EA and Warner Bros. backpedaling on loot boxes, it’s quite clear that they won’t be able to get away with such practices any longer. With Bethesda getting rekt due to shipping a broken, barely playable mess in Fallout 76, gamers have indicated that such a shameful release won’t fly anymore.
OWL is definitely turning a pretty profit now, but there’s no way Actiblizz isn’t raking in cash hand over fist with loot boxes. In one year, they earned over a billion dollars through said loot boxes.
One wouldn’t know that Overwatch had earned well in excess of a billion dollars from the amount of content which has been released in the last couple of years. It really doesn’t matter that the game has been unimaginably profitable, since the degree of success it’s seen hasn’t translated to a better experience for the players.
I will make it simple
OW Income
Purchase Game on Consoles/PC
Lootboxes
OWL
Merchandise
Money Spent
Modelling Maps and Characters
Server Running full time
OWL to organize
Production
Salary of Full Staff
mostly the selling of lootboxes are getting baned, not the boxes.
I agree. At least the mobile game I play have system to guarantee you to get a rainbow although it might not be the unit you want, system that gives you 50% chance of what you want if you spend in game currency which you can save up from daily quest and events, and even tickets you can collect to pick what you want 100%.
Game gives a lot of free stuff. I can’t say the same for other gacha mobile games. For example, Bandai makes everything rng, even their reward system.
Yes they do have a negative impact… its just not In your face obvious…
I dont expect you to understand business or marketing…
but you do realize that a large portion of those who are buying them have a much more negative impact on the health of the game and community than a positive one… Then you couple in the fact that blizzard is going to do virtually anything to pander to these people to get them to buy more boxes… yes it does have a negitive impact…
so what they loose a little money, its not going to kill them… LMAFO you think there going to outlaw smurfing… LMAFO The only part about smurfing blizzard cares about, is the part where the player buys an additonal account to actually do it. If anything they will lash out at the player base and start suspending people for the most trivial of things… as those of us who have looked at the big picture see the report system is more about trying to coax people into buying additional accounts to circumvent punishments than actually combating problems
While loot boxes themselves have no harm to a game… its when a developer panders to those who buy them despite the negitive impact those people have on the health of the community and game itself. considering corporate greed and all… the only way to stop it is to get rid of them
Im ALL fo them making money! They need it so they can keep our game going, HOWEVER…
TBH Most state laws have a gambling commission that outlines a few easy to recongize lines which define gambling. However loot boxes from ALL gaming companies are getting in trouble because.
States have gambling laws in regards to AGE. 18,19, and 21 as defined by state and local statutes.
Gambling as defined: A person engages in gambling if he stakes or risks something of value upon the outcome of a contest of chance or a future contingent event not under his control or influence, upon an agreement or understanding that he or someone else will receive something of value in the event of a certain outcome. Gambling does not include bona fide business transactions valid under the law of contracts, such as the purchase or sale at a future date of securities or commodities, contracts of indemnity or guaranty and life, health or accident insurance.
What would make Lootboxes 100% Legal without question:
- The individual earns in-game currency coins and can spend them on a CHANCE at a lootbox to present an item(s) with odds behind it. As long as there is no exchange of money for buying these coins.
Note: If the individual has to BUY in-game coins with real-world currency., than this is a form of GAMBLING. (taking a chance at something).
Cosmetics:
- If the individual spends money on a specific cosmetic, than this is NOT gambling.
If the individual has to spend money on a CHANCE to purchase a cosmetic, This IS a form of gambling.
If the company wants to continue to make money. I would encourage them to pursue the following system"
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Cosmetics with a Set currency Price. You can spend $0.75 and purchase an in-game skin.
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Coins that offer a chance to PURCHASE an in-game lootbox. Provided that the coins and Lootboxes cannot be purchased by realworld currency.
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Some Overwatch coins should be awarded at the COMPLETION of every match, and some additional coins for the WIN of a game… This would compel people NOT to leave and try HARD.
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Matches NEED to be balanced back to the system of "everyone is within a “fair level of experience range”. So people feel as though they are working together and have an equal chance at a “WIN”.
![:slight_smile:](https://d74zh8edaijub.cloudfront.net/en/overwatch/images/emoji/twitter/slight_smile.png?v=6" ":slight_smile:")
Yet there is no real ban, only regulations. We are also dependant on food, water, etc… and those are, by your definition, predatory bussiness models. Some people suffer from hoarding disorder, around 2% people in US. Are they victims? Since you didn’t answer me last time, I will tell you, yes, they are, kinda. Stores, shopping centers, auctions, online shops ‘exploit’ them. But for me or you, there is no problem, is there? So is he really a victim? He is not at fault that he has a mental disorder, but we should not ban every business that sells objects out there to help him. It’s him, who needs help.
And we are back at tract. Why is it problematic? Many people are fine with the system. Many are not affected. It’s the minority that has a problem, and unlike gambling, there is a finite number of things you can get, you know the number, they do as well. This has a stopping point. If they exhaust it, they will move to casino or somewhere where they can waste their money. See, banning it won’t fix the problem and it won’t even help prevent it, unless you ban everything that has to do with gambling in any shape or form. They will find out that they are addicts somewhere else, and it may be worse, or better, but never good. They need professional, that’s the way to go. Banning would get us nowhere. It wouldn’t help or it would negativelly affect majority of society (hoarding disorder example).
Catering to majority is called democracy. By definition, it’s the rule of majority.
And if we go to catering only to the majority, there is still no anarchy. Just like dictatorship, majority would enforce their laws, creating order. Where there is order (just or unjust) there is no anarchy. That’s why dictatorship is not called anarchy. They enforced their rules.
Victim-calling would create law of individuals - anything would be allowed as long as everyone could call themselves a victim. There would be no order, in other words, there would be anarchy.
We do help minorities, it’s the right thing to do, but catering to them only would create anarchy, unlike with majorities. We do it if it’s reasonable, not only because few individuals are at risk and banning something would create negative experience for majority (again, hoarding disorder for example). If we shape our society around such minorities with ,for example, disorders, banning anything that would cause them harm, you would be protecting sociopaths, adults attracted to children and other people that need professional help, but not in the right way. Imagine the society that would ban police because they could cause harm to mentally ill person who just killed someone. It’s an extreme example, I know, but a good one to depict what I mean by all of this.
We are off topic there, if you want to discuss this we can move somewhere else, but we should stop there. We can go on endlessly like this, but this is not the topic of this thread.
Its just a hate bandwagon, loot boxes have been a great part of many games as long as they can be earned by playing and only contain cosmetics. But after the whole battlefront controversy there’s just this repetition of “loot boxes are gambling” (even though they aren’t) and people acting like its this horrible thing that ruined gaming.
While your correct in that they are technically not gambling. You do realize that this is more about Normalizing gambling behavior… which then can lead to gambling addictions in youth, and then irresponsible gambling.
Again its about preventing the instilling of bad habits in youth, and some games have very predatory systems.
Honestly i dont cant understand why your against it… i mean you get 3 free every week from the arcade… and get one from leveling ever 8-12 matches. I dont work all that hard for my money, but that doesnt mean im going to just blindly throw it at a game for some virtual cosmetics… that when i quit or the game dies i have nothing to show for that money spent… especially when grinding them i so easy
over all if they were to be banned it would prompt blizzard to have to make some serious changes to the game for the better… or just rework the system to loop hole the laws…
I mean it doesn’t effect me one way or another if they remove buyable boxes since I have no intent to ever buy any, but I think if people want to they should be able to, and I’m mostly talking about people who are against loot boxes entirely, even ones you earn, cause they exist for some reason.
I know one of them is Belgium, as part of their gambling laws