Last time I went to vegas, none of the games I played gave me ANYTHING when I lost.
Overwatches lootboxes are a game of chance, but they’re probably the best compromise I’ve seen of sustainable profit to customer benefit. Yes you don’t specifically get what you want but you do progress toward it steadily. Sometimes you do though and you don’t have to spend a penny to do so. Even then it doesn’t require insane amounts of time investment to get the things you want. I bought lootboxes ONCE because I was going to be out of country for the entire event… everafter I have been able to get at least 2 or 3 of the items I REALLY wanted just by playing a few times a week.
I wonder how new players would react if we went back the the orignal rollout of being able to get dupes of things we already had when there were still items of that rarity that weren’t unlocked and no way to work towards seasonal items. Blizzard has compromised due to customer feedback. Straight purchases of items would be better for people who want specific things but very poor from the standpoint of a cashflow for those invested in the game who we need to keep the game in favor.
I’ve yet to see a suggestion that benefits the company AND the players equally. It’s always variations of “but we paid already” or “gambling is wrong”. Companies are here to make money, we gotta accept that.
… easier to make the matchmaking system boost you up quickly for good performance and make you throw to stay in low MMR… since throwing is bannable the accounts either get banned and new accounts must be made, or new copies need to be purchased anyway. There is absolutely nothing wrong with buying a new copy of the game for a “clean” account but if you’re following the rules you should shoot up in MMR pretty quickly.
Or their own line of merchandise sold on their own store?
Or the revenue from youtube and twitch?
Or Owl?
Or Blizzcon?
If lootbox’s were removed they would have ZERO need to replace them with something else. I am proponent of AAA titles not having any micro-transactions of any kind. They make plenty of money without hurting the game experience.
Sounds harder than just spending cash until I get what I want
Prices for skins might be fairly expensive especially for legendary skins currently I can get those for free or super cheap by saving up coins or spending bucks I have no way to know but meh pessimism
Yeah that’s the thing though. With publicly-traded corporations, it’s not about some fix amount of profit. It’s about ALL the profit. Quarter to quarter, year to year, investors demand every-increasing profit.
Not sure how to think about this. Since loot box buyers are basically the reason I’ve gotten thousands of loot boxes for free. That’s how OW monetizes the skins they make.
If lootboxes go, blizz would have to go to direct sales, which based on HOTS, can be absurd $25 purchases that I won’t touch. That are they axe the monetization altogether, which just means they won’t make skins anymore or submit themselves to another round of Activision budget cuts.
Starting to think partnering with publicly traded companies are a kiss of death for game studios.
They would not. This is a lie you have bought into (literally and figuratively).
This is also another lie. They have to produce content and cosmetics to create interest. If they axe cosmetics they will either be forced to produce other content or shut the game down. After all they have invested they are not about to do the latter and the former would require even more work then cosmetics.
How is that a lie? They don’t have to create interest. Remember, many publishers(Activision) make their money creating cyclical titles that are eventually rolled on to skeleton servers before shutting down some years later(CoD).
If the content isn’t monetized somehow, it can’t be produced for free just to keep interest.
You also don’t have to gamble, but THAT gets regulated because it can have very detrimental repercussions on people.
HOWEVER, those people are not the majority, but that doesn’t mean we say f the 5% who have a gambling addiction.
Just because everyone doesn’t blow $1000 let alone $10 on lootboxes does not mean it doesn’t need to be regulated.
Good, by all means bring back paid DLC. At least I don’t have to buy it if it’s as pathetic as Brig was. Or if it’s a god-awful sniper paradise map like Busan is.
This free content only works for cosmetics, but even then the rest of the game is suffering while the cosmetics are an ok addon.
Lack of impulse control is the entire driving force behind gambling addictions, not just as regards loot boxes, and has lead to gambling being heavily regulated (when not outright banned) in most countries.
Gambling regulations are very much a case of “protecting people from themselves.”
