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15 EU Gambling Regulators & 1 US State Band Together to Tackle Loot Box Issues - MMORPG.com News
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
15 EU Gambling Regulators & 1 US State Band Together to Tackle Loot Box Issues - MMORPG.com News
A team of gambling regulators from fifteen European nations and one US state have signed on to "work together to address the risks created by the blurring of lines between gaming and gambling" according to the UK's Gambling Commission. EU nations include Latvia, Czech Republic, Isle of Man, France, Spain, Malta, Jersey, Gibraltar, Ireland, Portugal, Norway, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Poland, and Austria. They are joined by a representative from the state of Washington.
Comments
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Have them. Make sure that every item possible in a lootbox is shown with their percentages.
For example.
You are expected to get item A once in 100 lootboxes
You are expected to get item B once in 20 lootboxes
You are expected to get item C once in 1000 lootboxes
Etc.
So people actually have an idea of how small their odds are. I'm okay with people gambling as long as they understand what their chances are. Forget over regulating lootboxes just make them put the actual chances and let people be people.
You can see my sci-fi/WW2 book recommendations.
18+
I say we also let kids be kids.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Still gambling. Why try to fix lootboxes? Lootboxes are a poor mechanic.
A reward box at the end of a match, mission or dungeon run, I can open at no costs is fine. That's not different from RNG loot of a boss. Charge me money for being able to receive my reward after spending time as in playing the game is a terrible moneygrab.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I like the idea. I also think, preferable but not mandatory, to add a progressive element to the mechanic. With your example for item (A) 1 out of 100 chance but if you lose then next would be 1 out of 99 till luck was in your favor. If this (A) was 1 item or a select group of items once you won it would reset back to 1 out of 100 chance.
It's really about accountability & transparency. Till now this type of gambling/randomness has been unregulated & in most cases not even the odds have to be published so it is completely unknown hence a gamble. All the while these gaming companies knowing, enticing, & wanting kids to gamble. The companies have had multiple chances to regulate this themselves fairly for informed consumers to decide & they chose not to act so the government should do its job & hold it accountable via regulations. Too bad, in USA, our current administration favors companies being able to take advantage of the people though.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
$5 per box, odds are 1 in 100.. so tell the customer the truth: at those odds, folks should expect the item to cost them up to $500.
It's funny how much smarter consumers can be when you place the deal right out in front of them, no marketing manipulation or hidden information attached.
Kind of like lootboxes in gaming. Madden NFL, as an example, has been shit for the past decade because EA cares MORE about their P2W online MUT (buy trading card players to make a team) feature than putting out a good game each and every year. I quit Star Trek Online the first time I got a "reward" and had to have a "key" (bought in the cash shop, of course) in order to claim it. Sure, people will say, "But you can get those keys in the game!" My limited experience showed me about a 3:1 box to key ratio. Sorry, not my kind of fun.
Players know lootboxes are bad. And every single day, some player with too much disposable income racks up humongous bills that make publishers' eye start rolling in dollar signs. The only way to stop it is to purge it. We players can't regulate ourselves. We show that time and time again. Paid Beta testing. Paid early access. Pre-Orders by the millions. Paid ship's in the thousands of dallars to a game not even released yet. We players are far from responsible in any way, shape, or form.
Sorry...
/Rant Off
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
Just like smoking or drinking,there are actually a lot of people that are very naive to anything and everything.I have seen people claim water is safe that i know is not safe just because they can't SEE the bacteria with their own eyes..oh it looks ok..lol.
A whole ton of people out there severely lacking in common sense,so yeah we NEED authorities to regulate bad ideas,illegal ideas,well forms of gambling are only illegal when the authorities have common sense to stop it....see sentences prior,common sense...where?
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
So your "fix" is simply to allow the gambling, but they'll give you a number they can easily fake to tell you the odds.
Just make it mandatory and to show you the code. I trust them to be legit with the math. I am okay with lootboxes in general, i think they would be more tolerable with transparency.
You can see my sci-fi/WW2 book recommendations.
MMO business models used to be so simple.
1. lootboxes will stay
2. slap on loose transparency that no one will actually enforce
3. add a lootbox tax
4. developers will pass tax onto the players
I would say that the companies will wait till the last moment then place a warning on all games with the odds listed in the EULA (end-user license agreement).
They have trained everyone to just skip past the things anyhow...end of issue, they hope. And mostly it will be till some kid's somewhere offs themselves after spending thousands for the boxes and really gets the media's attention or a politician's during re-election time.