UK loot box investigations getting serious.

[Dab]

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49661870


Basically loot boxes are gambling, and over in the UK they're getting pissy about games like every EA 2K sports game being rated acceptable for children having both stimulated and real gambling.


One step closer to outright making these "loot box" schemes illegal, which I totally support.

[Eternity]

Ditto. It preys on weak minded people, people with addictive personality, people who value their life worth with their account value, and arguably the most important of all -kids.
I also support this. It will be hard to implement this in the United States though. Lobbyist sent by gaming companies will make sure they will fight the law till they can't. I don't even understand it from a business perspective how this works out for EA and other loot boxed based gaming companies. Sure it will increase profits in short term but in the long term the image of the company and consumer trust will severally be impacted. However, I might be wrong because I am not looking at their revenues and profit but overall I think they are not looking at the bigger picture.

[[MPGH]Dave84311]

Aye some common sense coming out of the UK

[Ferris Bueller]

I wonder how this is going to affect the quality of games or the price as alot of these companies make a good amount of their money from loot boxes or battle passes...

Also how it's going to affect the already exploited workers in video game development..

[Eternity]

I wonder how this is going to affect the quality of games or the price as alot of these companies make a good amount of their money from loot boxes or battle passes...

Also how it's going to affect the already exploited workers in video game development..

I think these companies would do just fine if they make the items just a straight up buy rather than a gamble. People also assume that a 1 percent chance means that after so many places they will win something, I think that is called sometype of fallacy or something. So even having a probability of you getting something from a loot is not a good option to me. People who are addicts will just assume after so many turns that they will get the items. Actually it might be counter intuitive and they might play more because of the "chances of winning"

[Vicarious]

I remember how much money I spent on ZP Crates in Crossfire when I was young and dumb. Totally support this getting banned. It's about time.

[Bernard]

I remember how much money I spent on ZP Crates in Crossfire when I was young and dumb. Totally support this getting banned. It's about time.

I feel like I totally first met you in the Crossfire section. Use to fiend that game for hours on end, too bad it had paying for advantages and the game steered more towards milking their players of money. I probably spent like over $1000 on Crossfire.

That being said, I am a Hearthstone player. It's a card game and you DO have to collect cards from opening packs with random cards. However, Hearthstone has a system where if you open say 40 packs, you are GUARANTEED a legendary (most rare) card. I like this more because now when you do get lucky, it feels the same as before. But now, if you get unlucky, you'll still get something in the end and you get a better sense of the minimum value you get based on the money you put in.

[Bodvar]

In Belgium, they have already banned opening crates in CS:GO, but that's the only game so far afaik. Imo, I'm not completely behind this. If you're underage; yeah sure, perhaps. BUt make some sort of verification process. If you're old enough, it's your money and you choose what to do with it.

[Vicarious]

I feel like I totally first met you in the Crossfire section. Use to fiend that game for hours on end, too bad it had paying for advantages and the game steered more towards milking their players of money. I probably spent like over $1000 on Crossfire.

That being said, I am a Hearthstone player. It's a card game and you DO have to collect cards from opening packs with random cards. However, Hearthstone has a system where if you open say 40 packs, you are GUARANTEED a legendary (most rare) card. I like this more because now when you do get lucky, it feels the same as before. But now, if you get unlucky, you'll still get something in the end and you get a better sense of the minimum value you get based on the money you put in.

Crossfire is the reason I created my first account here! I stopped playing it after they released the first VVIP Weapons. That was just the ultimate greed. I ended up selling my account here to get a bit of the money I spent back.
I played hearthstone too. Never spent any money on it but still had a great time playing it. Same goes with Gwent which I still play today.
In Gwent you can earn reward points and use them to get new cards. You should check it out if you enjoy playing card games.

[Danny]

In Belgium, they have already banned opening crates in CS:GO, but that's the only game so far afaik. Imo, I'm not completely behind this. If you're underage; yeah sure, perhaps. BUt make some sort of verification process. If you're old enough, it's your money and you choose what to do with it.

Nah there needs to be regulations if you're allowing customers to gamble, same as betting sites are meant to have restrictions to make sure people are gambling what they can afford.

- - - Updated - - -

In Belgium, they have already banned opening crates in CS:GO, but that's the only game so far afaik. Imo, I'm not completely behind this. If you're underage; yeah sure, perhaps. BUt make some sort of verification process. If you're old enough, it's your money and you choose what to do with it.

Nah there needs to be regulations if you're allowing customers to gamble, same as betting sites are meant to have restrictions to make sure people are gambling what they can afford.

[[MPGH]Time]

lootboxes are the same as trusting @joe with money, theres a 99% chance you aint getting anything back.

[Noxey]

It depends on game really, in Paladins which I really like, you can very easily earn ingame money to buy new stuff and cosmetics but there is "chests" for lazy people, some other games (most of them), make it a lot harder to buy anything if you play...

[eon17890]

Well i agree with them

[Silent]

loot box's are biggest scam out

[Evertonhero]

Fifa 20 is out very soon and the amount of money people will spend on pack openeing are unreal.

So addictive and also so expensive I work in schools and kids are always talking about packd they open etc.

I like the system if open stuff get items etc but it should just come naturally during gameplay not something you can grind in10mins and spends hundreds to have the best items in game