Belgian Minister of Justice Koen Geens wants to ban the sale of games with loot boxes.
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Barry J
I hope this happens not knowing what your purchasing in a game is a joke, I don't trust game publishers who are to money focused and don't see a problem with this type of system,
a law will stop games heading in this direction they should stick with DLC in purchased games as in adding more to the game for those who want it and not effecting those who don't.
If a game is Free then I am fine with pay to win and in game purchases to progress through the game.( I don't purchased this type of game to costly) but when you purchase a full priced game you have already given your money to play the game and should only pay more to do more.
cryohellinc
https://media.giphy.com/media/26BGuSXQAAwcOj3sA/giphy.gif
lucidus
lol ... I hope WB and EA get fucked royally.
ATOJAR
I wonder how this would work with the likes of FIFA points? I mean technically you know that your buying FIFA points, you know how many you are going to get for your money so technically this isn't gambling. You then you use them FIFA points to buy FIFA packs, these essentially are loot-boxes ... Right? As you dont know what you are going to get. But you can only buy the FIFA packs with FIFA points and you can only buy FIFA points with real money.
I mean once you have bought them say 15,000 FIFA points with real money you are then gambling with in-game currency and not real money but you are forced to buy FIFA points with real money in the first place.
Stormyandcold
The way I see this working out is it'll all revert back to a shop system, where you know exactly what you want and only buy what you wanted. Then, the next "backlash" will be the cost of certain in-game items.
Now, what would be really cool (like on the level of ppi) is if they forced the companies to refund all monies that's been spent on loot box systems. Now that would send a shockwave through the industry.
CK the Greek
At least BY LAW "banning" the idea for micro transactions without knowing what you get is the right step for gaming industry, yeah it IS a stop for future marketing from game developers/publishers. Ofc no one can stop the "pay for better stuff" when you know what you are paying for, though at least that they won't make it a "must" in the future so players vs players who pay for gettting better stuff won't be day vs night.
However..will this law be established worldwide or in few regions or even worst few countries..?
AlmondMan
Dice? You must mean EA. Most developers don't want to put stuff like this in their game that compromises their design or requires them to completely focus the entire design of the game around them.
Hopefully the EU will move to ban this practice of gambling in games. I don't even care if the only thing you can buy in a lootbox is a cosmetic, the pay2win stuff is a separate issue from lootbox gambling.
cryohellinc
Loot boxes are a dumb idea and should be removed altogether. There is no justification for this. Illness should be treated in relation to its severity. This problem is severe, thus should be cut out completely.
Personally I find all the micro transactions disgusting. We need to get back to old formula - you get what you pay for. A 100% game, any future content is an ADDITION to current content, and not blocked out / cut out content.
Texter
You'd think simply debating it's illegal at such a high level would be enough of a hint for publishers to abandon this practice.
Ricepudding
Should we thank EA and Dice for being so greedy they have now doomed that XD
Seriously this is a good thing, loot boxes are and always will be gambling. to say anything otherwise is a lie. Loot boxes have actually made me miss Season pass, at least then you knew what you was going to get... (and normally cost a lot less than loot boxes, some of them are like 25 boxes for £39.99) that's more than most full priced games let alone season passes...
H83
That´s a very nice point you made! The same happens in PES18 that i´ve just bought. In some game modes, Master League and MyClub, we need to buy players to make better teams and win leagues and cups but we can´t buy them directly, instead we have to use scouts to narrow the search and then we are awarded a random player. In a certain way this is a good system because it prevents people from all having Messi and Ronaldo in their teams...
But the problem is that we can spend real money to buy PES coins and then use those to try to buy players but the buying system is random, so this is an indirect gambling system... Just like Fifa... How to deal with this kind of cases???
Backstabak
Isn't this exactly the same as with casino chips ? You go to the casino, exchange your money for chips and then gamble with them.
While the idea of people being smarter is great, it simply does not work. There was a similar trend 50 years ago about safety in electronic devices. Many thought that we can educated masses on how to safely use electronic devices. None of this ever worked like that, we now therefore have devices, where you cannot reach any internal parts with fingers, tounge or any other body part. You can also look into your microwave manual, where you"ll find a stern warning not to attempt to dry your pets in it.
Angantyr
I so hope they escalate this to the European council and win, I am so sick of mobile gaming mechanics being put into games everywhere.
It might have been Star Wars Battlefront 2 that burst the lootbox bubble, but there are so many titles that are worse. I refunded Need for speed Payback the first time I reached the reward screen; Spoiler: "NFS Payback roulette reward"
fantaskarsef
Like this will ever hit the real parliament and be passed. They probably could not sell a single current multiplayer title anymore.
Angantyr
And it also just hit the news that The State Of Hawaii Investigating EA For "Predatory Practices"
[youtube=_akwfRuL4os]
fantaskarsef
So they pay a bit of pocket money to help Hawaii's budget and get out of it again. Can't imagine something happening there either tbh.
Angantyr
While the cynic in me would probably agree to this, but I think I'll see it in another way. I think, that lootboxes being seen by lawmakers as a predatory practice targeted at children is something that could gain momentum. To the point where it becomes politically beneficial to take a stand against lootboxes.
RealNC
I have so little faith in politicians these days, where I view even this kind of news with my extreme cynical glasses on. Like "we're only doing this because EA didn't pay us millions of dollars to lobby in favor of loot boxes."
Yes, I'm that guy at parties.
Reardan
It's absolutely no different. You put in your money, you pull the lever, you get your prize. It's a slot machine through and through. And they know that. The fact of the matter is they have the numbers, they know this behavior makes them money because a small percentage of people spend tens of thousands of dollars on the items and they know a large percentage of those people can't afford it. The idea that these are all just wealthy people exercising their capitalistic rights to spend their money how they wish is ridiculous. Most of them are addicted to the slot machine and it's doing their life harm.
Morally, they have a responsibility to take action. They're taking advantage of vulnerable people and children and they know it and they keep doing it. It's unacceptable. I've personally stopped playing games with loot boxes where the items can't be bought outright.
Stormyandcold
It's been a long time since I was a kid. However, do you remember collecting stickers for a book as a kid? Back then you could actually order the exact stickers you needed to complete your book, so, there is a working system that existed decades ago that sticker/card collecting can work from. Just like Steam has a working system for buying items for csgo, team fortress etc.
There's also nothing wrong with a card game being boxed and sold as the complete edition.
