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Thread: The War Against Lootboxes

  1. #16

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    Ah, video game controversies. I love watching EA, Ubisoft, WB, Activision-Blizzard, Bethesda Softworks (ZeniMax) and Konami shoot themselves in the foot and then wonder why everyone's so mad. I hate the practices. Even cosmetic lootboxes, if I want to customize my character, I should be allowed. In that regard, I should be able to buy a skin, or pay less for a random skin. But I also hate the idea of getting a skin I already have, because I know there's going to be crap skins you would receive multiple times. The things where you never receive the same thing twice is nice. The option to break things down and build your own is less optimal, but at least it's not a waste

    But i've never really been a big fan of microtransactions to begin with. I'm really just okay with legitimate expansions. Once those became "DLC" I started to lose interest. And now I'm outright repelled by these practices and ONLY buy actual expansions, if anything at all. But i'm also not a big fan of digital content in general though so I guess I'm less susceptible

    But I love watching EA squirm. I loathe the fact that they're just covering their heads and waiting though. They haven't learned anything legitimate by this. Just how not to show their hand. I imagine they're just waiting for things to blow over rather than actually rethink what they've done. Their business plan is in stone, and anything short of government regulation or mass consumer exodus is going to do jack all to make them change their desires

    EA is one of those companies where I just don't trust them and don't want to pay them. Outside of BioWare games, I don't buy anything from them new, if at all.



  2. #17
    Skyblade's Avatar
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    Welp: http://www.pcgamer.com/amp/belgium-s...ned-in-europe/

    The regulators in Belgium decided lootboxes are gambling, and is going to push for them to be banned in the EU.
    My friend Delzethin is currently running a GoFundMe account to pay for some extended medical troubles he's had. He's had chronic issues and lifetime troubles that have really crippled his career opportunities, and he's trying to get enough funding to get back to a stable medical situation. If you like his content, please support his GoFundMe, or even just contribute to his Patreon.

    He can really use a hand with this, and any support you can offer is appreciated.

  3. #18
    Slothstronaut Recognized Member Slothy's Avatar
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    I'm not overly surprised. Loot boxes are one of those things where it might not meet a technical or a legal definition of gambling, but it's gambling. The feeling and the system of reward and psychological feedback they use is the same. It's the same in spirit.

  4. #19
    Huh? Flower?! What the hell?! Administrator Psychotic's Avatar
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    Congratulations Triple A gaming industry, that's what happens when you take trout too far with no consideration as to the consequences.

  5. #20
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    While, in their last look, the ESRB did not classify loot boxes as gambling (with arguments that you always get something, and that your prizes can't be traded back for monetary worth, IIRC), that argument is not swaying a growing number of legislators.



    All the companies who had been using microtransactions have got to be burning EA in effigy at this point. "You just HAD to see how far you could push it, didn't you? You just HAD to take back your 'worst company' award, didn't you?"
    My friend Delzethin is currently running a GoFundMe account to pay for some extended medical troubles he's had. He's had chronic issues and lifetime troubles that have really crippled his career opportunities, and he's trying to get enough funding to get back to a stable medical situation. If you like his content, please support his GoFundMe, or even just contribute to his Patreon.

    He can really use a hand with this, and any support you can offer is appreciated.

  6. #21
     Master of the Fork Cid's Knight Freya's Avatar
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    I bet all the non EA devs are like "Damnit EA, you pushed it too smurfing far and now you got us all screwed over." lmao

  7. #22

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    I love this

  8. #23

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    Quote Originally Posted by Skyblade View Post
    It will hit a point anyway.

    This is not the first mass customer rebellion against the gaming industry.

    Remember E.T. for the Atari 2600. The game itself wasn't absolutely terrible, for the time. But it was just a result of having so many shovelware games thrust out that consumers didn't care anymore. They just quit buying.
    Wouldn't really call that a rebellion. People just found it more difficult and strenuous to attempt to work back then what could possibly be a polished video game back then, as there was no internet to show them what was bad and what to avoid. There was video game magazines, but even back then you couldn't always trust what video game journalists said. So buying a new video game back then was like playing Russian Roulette.

    Imagine the risk you would have with video gaming back then. Only to find out it was a rushed, glitch-y mess and a waste of your hard earned cash. The wife is fuming. Your son is letdown. You wasted $50. Money that could've gone to pay those bills, fix up the car or the kitchen etc. Money that could've gone to a new bike instead. Yikes.

    So when something seemed like a wise choice for a new game and Christmas gift; Americans just didn't know what to buy or trust anymore when it came that entertainment. American media also assumed that video game/s was just a fad that would die out within a few years too.

    I say Americans, because there was supposedly no Video Games Crash in UK/ Europe. They survived on PC Gaming and The Sega Master System.

    There is a rebellion happening with EA today though, which, fair enough. They are one of the worst companies ever.
    Last edited by maybee; 12-02-2017 at 06:53 AM.

  9. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by maybee View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Skyblade View Post
    It will hit a point anyway.

    This is not the first mass customer rebellion against the gaming industry.

    Remember E.T. for the Atari 2600. The game itself wasn't absolutely terrible, for the time. But it was just a result of having so many shovelware games thrust out that consumers didn't care anymore. They just quit buying.
    Wouldn't really call that a rebellion. People just found it more difficult and strenuous to attempt to work back then what could possibly be a polished video game back then, as there was no internet to show them what was bad and what to avoid. There was video game magazines, but even back then you couldn't always trust what video game journalists said. So buying a new video game back then was like playing Russian Roulette.

    Imagine the risk you would have with video gaming back then. Only to find out it was a rushed, glitch-y mess and a waste of your hard earned cash. The wife is fuming. Your son is letdown. You wasted $50. Money that could've gone to pay those bills, fix up the car or the kitchen etc. Money that could've gone to a new bike instead. Yikes.

    So when something seemed like a wise choice for a new game and Christmas gift; Americans just didn't know what to buy or trust anymore when it came that entertainment. American media also assumed that video game/s was just a fad that would die out within a few years too.

    I say Americans, because there was supposedly no Video Games Crash in UK/ Europe. They survived on PC Gaming and The Sega Master System.

    There is a rebellion happening with EA today though, which, fair enough. They are one of the worst companies ever.
    Okay, then...

    How about the original release of Mortal Kombat? When consumers were so upset with the industry that they threatened legal regulation if it didn't regulate itself, thus giving birth to the ESRB.

    Which, hilariously enough, is something the industry should have paid a bit of attention to. We asked developers not to do this. They did any way. We told EA that the system wasn't working. They kept it in anyway. We asked the ESRB to regulate lootboxes. They decided to stick their thumbs up their rears and explain why they're not technically gambling, ignoring that the point was to regulate the industry practices that consumers found unacceptable, not justify them legally, in order to AVOID legal regulation.

    The consumers tried, tried, and tried again. They were constantly rebuffed and ignored. So they turned to legal response. The AAA gaming market has no one to blame but themselves. And if it has a massive impact on a lot of "innocent" games like Hearthstone, Overwatch, or mobile titles, maybe they should have simply agreed to customer demands in the first place.
    My friend Delzethin is currently running a GoFundMe account to pay for some extended medical troubles he's had. He's had chronic issues and lifetime troubles that have really crippled his career opportunities, and he's trying to get enough funding to get back to a stable medical situation. If you like his content, please support his GoFundMe, or even just contribute to his Patreon.

    He can really use a hand with this, and any support you can offer is appreciated.

  10. #25
    *permanent smite* Spuuky's Avatar
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    As a random aside, the ESRB as it exists serves no useful purpose and is only damaging to the video game industry. Also no one who was mad about Mortal Kombat was a "consumer" of Mortal Kombat, similar to the fake outrage about GTA many years later.

  11. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by Spuuky View Post
    As a random aside, the ESRB as it exists serves no useful purpose and is only damaging to the video game industry. Also no one who was mad about Mortal Kombat was a "consumer" of Mortal Kombat, similar to the fake outrage about GTA many years later.
    Consumer - a person who purchases goods and services for personal use.

    I thought it was widely accepted that the purchases at the time were made by the parents, though not intended for their use. Thus, they were the consumers, as they were the ones paying for it, and they were indeed the ones outraged.


    In the current generation, with those gamers growing up and sticking with games, we live in an era where many gaming consumers purchase the products for themselves, as well as their children.
    My friend Delzethin is currently running a GoFundMe account to pay for some extended medical troubles he's had. He's had chronic issues and lifetime troubles that have really crippled his career opportunities, and he's trying to get enough funding to get back to a stable medical situation. If you like his content, please support his GoFundMe, or even just contribute to his Patreon.

    He can really use a hand with this, and any support you can offer is appreciated.

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