Finally! Something better than Belgium waffles! Jokes aside, this is a great day for gaming and can at least curb this lootbox epidemic plaguing gaming. Now if this goes global, at least there will be some hope for just making them cosmetic only at best.
To be honest I don't think we've even hit the height of being vocally against it yet. This is a bandwagon now and the next company that attempts a similar thing will cause a similar or worse uproar in the community.
Dunno....given how wide spread and successfull lootboxes are, I doubt there is truly that many people against it...
You think the fear of that happening is enough to make producers think twice before implementing it? Even if nothing legal comes out of all this? I mean a 3.5% drop in stock value doesn't seem like a lot but for someone as big as EA that's at least tens of millions, maybe hundreds (I don't know the exact figures). It may drop again depending on what happens when they enable microtransacitons again.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
I should note that most of these articles use parts lower on the bell curve. "Whales with the top 10 percent of an app’s spenders being responsible for 70 percent of its revenue from in-app purchases", starts to reach "5% of the players provide 95%" of the revenue (which then actually becomes "1% of the players provide 99% of the revenue", though that last one I've only seen in chats with developers if my memory is correct). I'm not sure if there are any articles online that go so far as to break it down to the final 5%, though I could have sworn I found several in the past (the ones I linked to were via a quick google search on "free to play whales" I just did right now, and there were a LOT more articles on the subject with similar figures but I just quickly grabbed the top ones). I'm sure I saw that 95% one in chat rooms from developers several times though.
Not that it really matters if we're doing real genuine debating instead of stupid troll internet arguing here. Even "10% of the players provide 70% of the revenue" without extrapolating further than that is more than enough to prove my point without any need to nitpick about the details..
So does this mean those stupid special loot boxes are gonna be gone from ESO? And the Aura Kingdom boxes along with Drakensang and games like the new Guardians of Ember Loot Orbs give u "chances" of getting that rare item (be-it extremely low), are they gonna ban those too? because it makes players wanna keep buying them to get that "rare" item they are never gonna get...it's a rip-off and the companies know it.
So does this mean those stupid special loot boxes are gonna be gone from ESO? And the Aura Kingdom boxes along with Drakensang and games like the new Guardians of Ember Loot Orbs give u "chances" of getting that rare item (be-it extremely low), are they gonna ban those too? because it makes players wanna keep buying them to get that "rare" item they are never gonna get...it's a rip-off and the companies know it.
I hope so. The only cool mounts in ESO are in those boxes and you can't earn them through gameplay... unless there's some kind of special and rare event.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
So does this mean those stupid special loot boxes are gonna be gone from ESO? And the Aura Kingdom boxes along with Drakensang and games like the new Guardians of Ember Loot Orbs give u "chances" of getting that rare item (be-it extremely low), are they gonna ban those too? because it makes players wanna keep buying them to get that "rare" item they are never gonna get...it's a rip-off and the companies know it.
That is why the vast majority in the thread are happy for this direction, yes. It's exploitive and greedy and overall done just for the sake of the money with nothing to do with making the game actually good.
EA's greed killed lootboxes for everyone rofl. How many years have lootboxes been a thing but EA pushed the limit and now everyone has to pay.
EA did something good for once.
Yea, gambling addiction abusing loot boxes + Disney Star Wars mainstream publicity? Hey, if that's what it took, that's fine as long as it finally gets the ball rolling.
Good. FINALLY. If I want a pretty white tiger mount from the item mall I should be able to buy it, not get a CHANCE to buy it, that YES is unfair, and can cause people to go crazy tryna keep spending.
Oh, EA. Not only do you screw over other studios you absorb, you somehow manage to screw over an entire industry in the process. This is why I don't purchase EA titles anymore, I don't support what they do at all so I've been staying away from them and their games.
I get people complaining about Lootboxes, I actually agree for the most part. That said, I don't think Overwatch's Lootbox system should be grouped with the others. It's one of the only form of lootboxes that I'm actually in favor of, since it ONLY contains cosmetics, they're easy to earn and if you don't get the skin you want immediately, you can use the in-game credits you earn from duplicates to purchase them.
What has been decided is that loot boxes are a form of gambling.
Gambling, in and of itself, is not banned in e.g. Belgium; it is controlled by e.g. age restrictions, taxation and so forth.
So this ruling does not - automatically - mean that loot boxes will be banned. Maybe measures to mitigate "addiction" and the resulting damage that that can cause (to individuals and society) are likely to follow.
Any measures will be considered carefully - since controls and limitations can also "harm" a free society - however as there are already regulations surrounding other gambling activities it is likely that these will be used as a template. For example: insisting that companies clearly indicate what the odds are; displaying a clear warning about the dangers of gambling; age restriction warnings on games that have them; ensuring an off switch is available via parental controls; limiting the number of loot boxes that can be opened per hour and so on. Oh mustn't forget: taxation.
Now a company may decide its not worth the hassle, may decide that sales might suffer etc. but whether they will be banned remains to be seen.
You think the fear of that happening is enough to make producers think twice before implementing it?
Why would they? It works.
If anything, they will be smarter about it but highly unlikely give up on it or somewhat back off from the model.
Stock prices naturally fluctuates in response to fundamentals(release of new products, legislation changes, etc.) that usualy do not shift trends tho.
I think recent events just fuel wishful thinking of people with dislike for lootboxes/mt or w/e instead of actually objectively inspecting the situation. Time will tell, I guess.
So does this mean those stupid special loot boxes are gonna be gone from ESO? And the Aura Kingdom boxes along with Drakensang and games like the new Guardians of Ember Loot Orbs give u "chances" of getting that rare item (be-it extremely low), are they gonna ban those too? because it makes players wanna keep buying them to get that "rare" item they are never gonna get...it's a rip-off and the companies know it.
Hard to say where this all ends-up and what different companies will do preemptively if anything. Most will probably just wait and do nothing other than lobby like an SOB.
Robert Trump is on the Zenimax board of directors by the way
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
I should note that most of these articles use parts lower on the bell curve. "Whales with the top 10 percent of an app’s spenders being responsible for 70 percent of its revenue from in-app purchases", starts to reach "5% of the players provide 95%" of the revenue (which then actually becomes "1% of the players provide 99% of the revenue", though that last one I've only seen in chats with developers if my memory is correct). I'm not sure if there are any articles online that go so far as to break it down to the final 5%, though I could have sworn I found several in the past (the ones I linked to were via a quick google search on "free to play whales" I just did right now, and there were a LOT more articles on the subject with similar figures but I just quickly grabbed the top ones). I'm sure I saw that 95% one in chat rooms from developers several times though.
Not that it really matters if we're doing real genuine debating instead of stupid troll internet arguing here. Even "10% of the players provide 70% of the revenue" without extrapolating further than that is more than enough to prove my point without any need to nitpick about the details..
Great news maybe they will be forced to change them now at least for Europe hopefully U.S adopts this soon too.
I don't mind RNG box a lot but when you have to spend $200+ and don't even get the item ur looking for yeah theres a problem.
ESO, Overwatch, Smite are examples of games that do this.
Edit: I would rather spend $37 on a costume in black desert I know I am going to get than spend $200 on RNG Boxes and get nothing I want.
I see nothing wrong with lock boxes... The issue I have is not being able to know the actual drop rates on items. I think if we saw that sales would pretty much cease.
Comments
You think the fear of that happening is enough to make producers think twice before implementing it? Even if nothing legal comes out of all this? I mean a 3.5% drop in stock value doesn't seem like a lot but for someone as big as EA that's at least tens of millions, maybe hundreds (I don't know the exact figures). It may drop again depending on what happens when they enable microtransacitons again.
https://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2014/03/01/why-its-scary-when-0-15-mobile-gamers-bring-in-50-of-the-revenue/&refURL=https://www.google.com/&referrer=https://www.google.com/
https://deltadna.com/blog/how-whales-spend/
https://www.wired.com/2012/11/meet-the-whales/
https://www.recode.net/2014/2/26/11623998/a-long-tail-of-whales-half-of-mobile-games-money-comes-from-0-15
I should note that most of these articles use parts lower on the bell curve. "Whales with the top 10 percent of an app’s spenders being responsible for 70 percent of its revenue from in-app purchases", starts to reach "5% of the players provide 95%" of the revenue (which then actually becomes "1% of the players provide 99% of the revenue", though that last one I've only seen in chats with developers if my memory is correct). I'm not sure if there are any articles online that go so far as to break it down to the final 5%, though I could have sworn I found several in the past (the ones I linked to were via a quick google search on "free to play whales" I just did right now, and there were a LOT more articles on the subject with similar figures but I just quickly grabbed the top ones). I'm sure I saw that 95% one in chat rooms from developers several times though.
Not that it really matters if we're doing real genuine debating instead of stupid troll internet arguing here. Even "10% of the players provide 70% of the revenue" without extrapolating further than that is more than enough to prove my point without any need to nitpick about the details..
I hope so. The only cool mounts in ESO are in those boxes and you can't earn them through gameplay... unless there's some kind of special and rare event.
― George Carlin
EA did something good for once.
I get people complaining about Lootboxes, I actually agree for the most part. That said, I don't think Overwatch's Lootbox system should be grouped with the others. It's one of the only form of lootboxes that I'm actually in favor of, since it ONLY contains cosmetics, they're easy to earn and if you don't get the skin you want immediately, you can use the in-game credits you earn from duplicates to purchase them.
Gambling, in and of itself, is not banned in e.g. Belgium; it is controlled by e.g. age restrictions, taxation and so forth.
So this ruling does not - automatically - mean that loot boxes will be banned. Maybe measures to mitigate "addiction" and the resulting damage that that can cause (to individuals and society) are likely to follow.
Any measures will be considered carefully - since controls and limitations can also "harm" a free society - however as there are already regulations surrounding other gambling activities it is likely that these will be used as a template. For example: insisting that companies clearly indicate what the odds are; displaying a clear warning about the dangers of gambling; age restriction warnings on games that have them; ensuring an off switch is available via parental controls; limiting the number of loot boxes that can be opened per hour and so on. Oh mustn't forget: taxation.
Now a company may decide its not worth the hassle, may decide that sales might suffer etc. but whether they will be banned remains to be seen.
If anything, they will be smarter about it but highly unlikely give up on it or somewhat back off from the model.
Stock prices naturally fluctuates in response to fundamentals(release of new products, legislation changes, etc.) that usualy do not shift trends tho.
I think recent events just fuel wishful thinking of people with dislike for lootboxes/mt or w/e instead of actually objectively inspecting the situation. Time will tell, I guess.
You will be able to bring trophy elephant heads back into the country soon.
It's all about priorities
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Robert Trump is on the Zenimax board of directors by the way
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
I don't mind RNG box a lot but when you have to spend $200+ and don't even get the item ur looking for yeah theres a problem.
ESO, Overwatch, Smite are examples of games that do this. Edit: I would rather spend $37 on a costume in black desert I know I am going to get than spend $200 on RNG Boxes and get nothing I want.