Regarding Lootboxes/Equipment Cases

[GatoCommodore]

[hawkeyeguy99]

I sincerely hope it does get regulated. At least the purchasable ones. Does make me worry about DB’s future though if they can’t sell cases anymore.

[Ptiloui]

@hawkeyeguy99 said:
I sincerely hope it does get regulated. At least the purchasable ones. Does make me worry about DB’s future though if they can’t sell cases anymore.

Because those Elite Cases are still sold ? Since the crafting system is on, i haven’t buy one because it feel completely devlued. Only thing i bought were the special edition cases with each new mercs released.

The good point about DB is that they clearly show the loot chances for each cases. But honestly, i don’t think Splash Damage will suffer a lot from this law. They sold them for only 2-3 years and they don’t rely only on Dirty Bomb to live. Sure, it will hurt a bit but not that much.

If you look at games such as Path of Exile (an ARPG), what they’re selling the most are “supporter packs” containing numerous non-rng content, the higher rank the supporter pack is, the more content it has. They even contain special points you can spend to buy skins, skill effects or convenient tools for your ingame progression.
Prices are even higher than what SD is selling but they still sell a lot of these (cheapest being 30 USD, the most expensive 480 USD ). The only difference being POE is some kind of a niche game.

So, don’t worry : i’m sure game companies will find a new way to make us use our wallet This maybe just marks the end of purchaseable rng shitboxes.

[TheStrangerous]

Only congresses like these can fix gaming. Every time I’ve seen a new game getting microtransactions I’ve always wished “They should be banned!”, and it might be just happening…

[Meerkats]

Wait, wait, wait, there are nearly 200 countries in the EU, wtf?!

Also, if you’ve not heard the Hawaiian representative’s comments on lootboxes, go listen to them; they’re great. He specifically calls them a “Star Wars themed casino” and ends with “it’s a trap.”

While we’re here, some things to think about:

This illustrates how powerful words can be. Gamers have been complaining about lootboxes forever, but nobody gave a shit. Literally, commentators like TotalBiscuit and Jim Sterling have made harping on predatory practices a central shtick for years with almost no perceptible change, but slightly shift the wording to, “targeting children” and suddenly, the entire fucking planet is on fire. And the best part? Supposedly, this is all because, finally, outsiders got involved. Suddenly, parents are getting involved, supposedly cause some random dude on reddit made an oversimplified inforgraphic. So, if that’s true, good job reddit. You’ve done something.

EA fucked the golden goose, and now, that goose is dying. Regulation might be on the way. This is especially important because western law is heavily based on the concept of precedent. Gaming has largely escaped serious oversight via preemptive self-regulation ( ESRB in NA, PEGI in EU ), thereby, for the most part, escaping the courts. It’s not a long shot to say gaming currently exists in somewhat of a legal gray zone. For example, those ratings? ESRB MA ( mature )? As far as I know, those are voluntary guidelines with zero legal enforceability. So by moving preemptively, the gaming industry ( probably ) avoids actual legislative regulation ( actually, I don’t know how this works in the EU; PEGI might be legally enforceable, but I’m pretty sure ESRB isn’t ).

But if this shit goes down, this constitutes fairly invasive regulation, not even on publishers, but on actual content. What can and can’t go into games. Right now, governments move very slowly against gaming because there’s no precedent for action. This establishes precedent for more regulation, which will probably lead to more regulation. Makes sense right? But thing is, we might not agree with some of the future rules so much. So what happens then? Something to think about. EA might’ve really, really, REALLY fucked it on this one.

But right now, good. This is good news. This is good. Fuck lootboxes and fuck people who put lootboxes into games. Good.

[Ptiloui]

@Meerkats said:
As far as I know, those are voluntary guidelines with zero legal enforceability. So by moving preemptively, the gaming industry might’ve avoided actual legislation and regulation ( actually, I don’t know how this works in the EU; PEGI might be legally enforceable, but I’m pretty sure ESRB isn’t ).

PEGI is a voluntary system too. On their website (http://www.pegi.info/fr/index/id/954), they state :

PEGI said:
The PEGI rating system is a voluntary system. It is only backed by legislation in a few countries. In others, however, PEGI is usually treated as being virtually mandatory by nearly all of the game retailers in their company policy. We encourage the public to always notify store managers where the age ratings are clearly being ignored by their staff.

So, there’s no real legislation about this. Companies may be forced to have their games be examined by PEGI so they can sold them in some countries, but in the end, nothing prevents children to play those game.

But don’t fool yourselves, this law is not made to prevent children, or players in a wider sense, to fall in this addictive system of lootboxes. It’s just another tax so EU can make money from game companies. If they really wanted to protect people, they’ll forced companies to not sell those lootboxes anymore, or be sure that games containing this crate system be systematically rated 18+ — in France, you can’t play gambling games under 18.

[Nail]

imo, the ability to buy cases doesn’t constitute gambling unless there’s an ability to sell or trade cases, because there’s no player to player interaction i don’t see where “gambling” is involved

[ThunderZsolt]

@hawkeyeguy99 said:
I sincerely hope it does get regulated. At least the purchasable ones. Does make me worry about DB’s future though if they can’t sell cases anymore.

I’m not.
They can sell obsidian skins, event trinkets, mercs, crafting kits and other stuff. In other words, stuff actually worth buying, instead of the horribly overpriced elite cases.

@Meerkats said:
Wait, wait, wait, there are nearly 200 countries in the EU, wtf?!

Definately not, lol. Only 28 countries. I’m not sure what is the post about, there are 750 members in the European Parliament. Not sure how much votes does a new law need, but I think way more than 20.

One thing I know, if 1.000.000 people sign a petition (out of the ~500.000.000 population) then the parliament should discuss the case, and it may be put to vote in all EU countries.

[GatoCommodore]

@Nail said:
imo, the ability to buy cases doesn’t constitute gambling unless there’s an ability to sell or trade cases, because there’s no player to player interaction i don’t see where “gambling” is involved

its not really about it is gambling or not, parents will see it that their kids are exposed to “Game of chance” elements

same thing why you dont show smoking in kids cartoon nowadays because if kids exposed to “smoking is cool” culture they tend to smoke early in their life.

what people trying to control here is Addiction

[GatoCommodore]

The news all good and dandy right? But then there are people who are trying to get power from people’s suffering

[Nail]

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