Lootboxes must be regulated

We must do something before this thing gets out of control

We need laws to regulate this stuff because this is gambling at it's core

What can we do Sup Forums?

Other urls found in this thread:

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/201300
twitter.com/AnonBabble

not buy shitty games with lootboxes. you're not missing out on much

Literally this
The only way we can influence pay to win systems

What about all those parents that let their kids buy FIFA points for the chance to unlock good players?

Nothing, really.
Your opinion doesn't really matter nor does the fact that you don't buy 1 copy.

Nothing you faggot. Stop trying to tell other people how to live their lives. What's wrong with just YOU not doing what YOU don't like?

That doesn't stop the millions of retards that will.

How are these supposed to work?

I have never spend a dime on microtransactions and I don't see why would I start now. I'm fairly decent in all FPS games so I manage even if some underage asshole has unlocked everything.

Shit becomes a problem when things are locked behind a paywall, which I believe wont be the case with Battlefront 2.

Luckily for the rest of the country, you can't police what people are allowed to do.

Soccer fans are already beyond saving

So we'll continue to have more intrusive micro transactions. Do you like AAA cock?

Which is why the point of the thread is to discuss laws and regulations, and not just what people should or shouldn't do.

I saw this thread yesterday. Some user argued that loot boxes/chests/keys etc. do not constitute gambling because you are not obtaining currency. I do not understand this argument. Any object that has value, which is clearly the case for items contained in these, can be prices in currencies, unless forbidden by law or the object is esoterical. If you are consuming objects that have worth to MAYBE obtain other objects of worth, that is exactly what gambling is. Do recall that most casinos use chips. Chips are not money, but they have worth. You also do not win money, but chips or other prizes. Clearly it is time to bring this to the government. We need prohibition laws to punish immoral devs.

In fairness, I did see an official petition going around to change UK Gambling laws to include microtransactions at loot boxes.

>Petitions
I know, but at least it was something.

They'll regulate it once they work out how to tax it

That's one loophole in the eyes of the law. That's why games that give out tickets at arcades aren't illegal, for example. The problem with lootboxes is that any legislation against them would have ripple effects that people don't want.

Restrict lootbox purchases to 18+ persons, equate it to gambling, tax it as such

Not your problem.

I only think loot boxes are fine for cosmetic stuff, as soon as gameplay elements like types of guns or weapons or if it affects story in any way it’s a problem

Every microtransaction is taxed until the company removes gambling.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/201300

Is the link, by the way.

>wanting companies to engage in anti-consumer practices which skirt around gambling, especially with regard to minors

It WILL be everyone's problem after a point. Have fun playing any modern video game.

Ah, yes, one of the several Zoey Quinn fuckers. His opinion must be important.

Nobody would argue playing poker using chips at a casino is not gambling. You have a game, you have objects worth money, you spend money on said objects. Are you telling me a casino operating in chips only is not affected by gambling Laws?

Vote with your wallet
Loot boxes = No buy
It's heartwrenching if it happens to an interesting game, but publishers need to learn and only money speaks to them.

Too bad there are 13 year olds who will gamble away mommy and daddy's credit cart rating.

Have you tried not playing AAA games?

Maybe you should stop playing games designed for 13 years old.

I remember when Rakion introduced power users back in like 2004, people were swearing up and down that it was just something extra and wouldn't become pay2win.
Lo and behold, not even 3 years later power users were literally unstoppable and could almost one-hit a regular similarly-leveled player with enough money spent.

It's because you can't resell the item. It doesn't have monetary value and is worthless except in your eyes. If you could sell it after receiving it for a profit it would be gambling.

But on an ethical level, do you think that unregulated (and likely exploitative) gambling targeted at minors is a design choice that should be rewarded?

Dont buy them

So tell me where someone is forced to purchase a lootbox

I'll wait

What if I want to play the game because I find it genuinely really fun and a big fan of Star Wars (no memeing please), but I hate the concept of lootboxes and I want them out of my games?
What are my options in that case?
What if I buy the game and never buy lootboxes? Will that change anything?

Give it a couple years.

Nothing we can do, the good guys lost WWII.

Voting with your wallet is such a meme, not a single industry was saved thanks to it

I can go into a casino for the restaurant and bar. That doesn't mean I'm not entering a gambling facility.

Show where someone is forcing you to do something

>We must do something before this thing gets out of control

It's already too late

He asked what WE could do, not what he could do.

>Saying that to a gamer
Are you stupid user? Gamers have the foresight of a 12 year old.
It's the classic toad in slowly boiling water, they won't notice or care until it's too late.

My point is that I'm not forced to gamble if I go to a casino. This does not change that I am entering a facility which exists for the purpose of facilitating gambling.

Will someone please explain to me how it's gambling? The items you get have no monetary value so you cannot profit off of the loot boxes. Gambling implies that you can profit off of the game. Even mtg card packs are more gambling than this.
In cases that u can resell items you get its gambling, but if you can't it's really not at all. The item you receive is worthless.

If you cant see a fucking slippery slope going on since Oblivion then you are mighty retarded

see

>play game
>instant ad popup that you will not be able to hide with adblock telling you to buy lootboxes
>more ads after game ends telling you to buy lootboxes
>soon you'll have to buy lootboxes just to play the game

you are right, lets keep buying cancer and try to solve the lack of willpower or self control with legislature or something

Something that people always say is that they are fine if it's just cosmetics, and that works for games that are PvE only. But now that we're seeing them in PvP games, it's actually a pay to win situation. If any given cosmetic changes the appearance of a player enough to delay the reaction time of another player, it gives the person with the cosmetic an advantage. This is especially true in shooters, where kills can happen in a fraction of a second, or where being less visible allows for ambush tactics. For example, Player Unknown's Battlegrounds has a bright yellow tracksuit that's a paid cosmetic. In most situations, it would seem unlikely that something bright yellow would be concealing, but a player wearing one of those suits blends right into the sprawling wheat fields that are in the game, and does so far better than with anything available to the players for free.

It boils down to this: Camouflage is not cosmetic.

>dont like microtransactions? just dont buy the game

this is the most retarded answer ever. Games dont need to be good anymore, they just need to be hyped and retards will preorder right away. Why spend years and millions in making a game? Just make a shitty game with pretty graphics and charge 100$ for the fucking deluxe edition and lock everything behind a paywall, normies will eat this shit up.

Just not buying the game is not enough. We cant just sit here doing nothing watching the industry burn. Shitting on the game on metecritic and steam and leave a bad review is a good start.

>Dont buy them

That sure worked out for horse armor, right user?

If you're trying to argue that what they're doing with the lootboxes is okay, because really it's not illegal, that's kind of the whole issue. It isn't illegal, it's not being forced on you per se, it's just strongly encouraged because you'll get destroyed by people who play with more unlocks that you do.

so saying "They're not forcing us so it's okay" is missing the point, this whole thing is neither hardlocking the items behind a paywall, it's not cosmetics either, it's something you COULD unlock by playing, but if the yields from the crates that you drop in the beta are anything to go by, it's unreasonable to expect anyone to unlock everything through playing.It's a new, sneakier version of pay2win, and simplistic principles aren't going to work too well here.

which doesn't mean people aren't free to do whatever they want (including criticizing other people's decisions and business practices)

>People actually defending loot boxes in fully prices games that have season passes on top of all this shit
They directly impact the design of the game, to try and entice people into buying them by making regular progression just that much more of a pain. You shouldn't defend shit that makes your games less enjoyable

At that point, why it's basically just an arcade game

>3 cards can be equipped at levels 1, 5 and 10
>levels depend on the AMOUNT OF CARDS YOU HAVE
>each card is like "25% hp restore on kill" or "30% faster reload"
>7 matches to get one lootbox
You will literally face a day1 p2w kid who will have 3 cards equipped which give him better skills or a set of ones which make him a literal powerhouse without any downsides.

If you want to play such game, you are a moron. If you want to buy such game, you are a moron, if you want this business practice to become standard, you are a moron.
Right now it might not bother you because you favorite games don't have that, but when all publishers realize the system works and implement slots in your game, it will be too late to cry.

OP is an idiot.
the rise of lootboxes is great if it means we get all the DLC for free.
it stops the community from splitting and allows passionate gamers (like those that visit Sup Forums) to save a bunch of money.

because in theory, you will eventually unlock all Lootbox items, but you will never unlock a DLC expansion.

this is assuming you can buy/unlock lootcrates by just playing, wich i think is the case for Battlefront 2.

>tfw in a few years from now we will pay 70$" for a chance " to play the game

>the rise of lootboxes is great if it means we get all the DLC for free.
That's only okay if the unlocks from lootboxes are all cosmetics, which they aren't

>lootboxes
>free

Is that actually how fifa works now? Like millions of sales yearly was not enough.

So glad I dropped the series after fifa 96' or so

they only cost your time, wich in theory you would spend anyways when playing the game
who cares for a casual as fuck game like Battlefront 2?
the game is in no way competetive and has nothing like a ranked mode.

The laws on these things are very specific. You're exchanging money for chips. Chips have an exact cash value and can ONLY be traded back for money. Arcade tickets can not be changed for money, only prizes. That is a very big difference in the eyes of the law and why Chuck E. Cheese isn't an underage gambling parlor.

oh fuck off, I was shitting on people in the beta who had 3 all-gold card setups all the time.

I honestly cant think of any card in the beta that was too game changing or dificult to counter, maybe officers weapon diffuser whateverthefuck, but even that you could range kill.

I don't. I only play good games. Of which there are plenty.

>who cares for a casual as fuck game like Battlefront 2?
Proper balance makes a game enjoyable

>there are plenty of good games

>journalists tell us we need to fight these evil publishers and vote with our wallets
>the same journalists that told us we were entitled for doing this 10 years ago

ahh, the video game industry.

Broken clock, user

yeah that's completely normal. "any object has value" yeah well this is the law and it has to be currency for it to be gambling. don't like it? write to your local member of congress

like, wtf do you think pachinko machines are? why do you think people play them?

FIFA games now have a mode called "FIFA Ultimate Team." You acquire your players via virtual card packs, like a trading card game, and you can use real life money to buy these booster packs, with the more expensive packs having a chance to give you better players.

Yes it did.

We must let the Industry crash

>because you'll get destroyed by people who play with more unlocks that you do

Well shitters gonna try to even the odds somehow.

Playing with the handicap will make it more fun anyway.

Yeah lets do nothing! And when in 2 years every single game have lootboxes we can just stop playing videogames.

yeah that 100% damage reduction star card for boba fett is going to be so much fun !

There is a mode called "Ultimate team", that works like a Magic the gathering style of collectible cards. You have single or multiplayer modes, seasons and ranked modes. You basically start with a terrible squad with bronze/silver/gold players. You also have items and the like which are also divided (as well as the players) into rare and non rare on top of the bronze/silver/gold division.

Basically you have cards for everything. There are 2 ways of gaining a player, either you open a pack (that have different values) or you buy them in the in game market place for currency.

It is one of the biggest p2w modes ever created and while you can play it without spending money in order to gain the players you want you will need hardcore dedication to the mode to either farm currency or trade players or have huge fucking luck and get a really expensive player on a pack and be able to sell it for full value.

>100% reduction of damage while using a skill

Goddamn you shitters really need to get good.

But I guess whining is easier, so instead you'll just do that.

No, they don't need to be regulated. We just need to stop buying them. They wouldn't exist if you didn't buy them. The vast majority of players like/don't care so they exist. The vocal minority means nothing.

Targeting the wrong game

Nice try super cell

>git gud
>star cards are so imbalanced you don't even need to get good you just become invulnerable

top logic my friend, maybe try that bait in another thread ok ? :^)

Tassi's one of the few game journos i generally respect.

Do you think impeaching Trump would help with this?

There's a difference between being just invulnerable, and only being invulnerable at certain times.

>top logic

You don't even know what logic is nigger.

>don't buying the game
The only tolerable lootboxes are in f2p games or if it is only cosmetic stuff and there's a way to unlocked it without lootboxes

Can we go back to paid DLC
Please

>P2W has been around for decades
>crawls its way in to a mainstream game like every other piece of industry bullshit
>internet cries for a few months
>few years down the line it's industry standard

As for lootboxes themselves, they won't go away unless some government or industry watchdog regulates it or makes an issue out of it on the grounds of taking advantage of minors and exposing them to gambling addiction.
But, y'know
>"u don't have to buy them bro, whats the problem?"

It wouldn't do any good to try to make a law about this. Pretty sure Trump would just say the businesses need to come first. He is a businessman after all.

Don't buy digitally distributed games.
Games should only be sold physically with the entire games on the discs, with the ability to copy and paste to another disc or flash drive, and they shouldn't require some shitty "service" like Steam or GOG.
Digital only and games not being on the actual discs you buy them on is the exact reason games are sold unfinished, the reason DLC/microtransactions are a thing, and the reason early access (aka paying to test someone's game when devs used to have to pay to test their game) is a thing.
Developers/publishers expecting people to pay for a digital "copy" is like commissioning an artist to make a painting or sculpture for $100,000, but when the painting or sculpture is finished they just send you a jpg of it and still expect you to pay because you are still able to experience the piece whether you have it or not.
If you would not pay the $100k for the jpg like the artist is asking but you give money to Steam or GOG or itunes or any other digital distributor, then you are a hypocrite.

It wouldnt change shit anyway
Devs will then just charge money for funny in game coins to them buy lootboxes with (which they already do)

You can’t prevent normies from getting scammed, user.

DLC started when physical games were the norm though. And even then they all had their own DRM methods.

>go to gumball machine
>try to get a red one
>get a green one
Wow wtf this is gambling the government should put regulations on this

>lets
It doesn't do jack shit that I haven't bought a $60 game or any microtransaction shit in several years, as well as the fact that I call out shit games whenever the opportunity arises. The fact of the matter is that most people are stupid fucking sheep who will take several corporate dicks in their ass over having a stance on anything, let alone fucking video games.
Not to even mention the fact that there are people like the dipshits I quoted above, whose only contribution to the conversation is
>m-m-m-muh free market
You're implicitly agreeing with the practice if that's your only stated opinion of it. If you like lootboxes, just come out and say it you fuckstains.

>Everyone seems to know about about Shadow of Wars bullshit
>still sells very well
>BF2 is also going to be a star wars game so will sell even better from that alone
>nothing will change

I guess we have to see a few more games get fucked over by loot boxes before it effects sales enough for them to cut it out.

>Developers/publishers expecting people to pay for a digital "copy" is like commissioning an artist to make a painting or sculpture for $100,000
This is so fucking stupid it hurts.

There is a difference between DLC and an entire expansion.
They didn't all have DRM, not only is that false but its the mentality of a cuck. If they all had it then explain the physical copies I own that don't require Steam and I'm able to copy and paste the game on a backup disc or flash drive. Even if some do, that doesn't mean they should and doesn't mean they should be paid for.
If a game doesn't have a physical release with the entire game on the discs that doesn't require Steam, then I pirate it. I suggest everyone else do the same or just pirate everything.

There is a major difference between taking half damage and taking zero damage under the same situations. Taking zero damage is even a huge step up from taking 99% less damage.

This.

It's to kill Overwatch.

I'll be running for President in thirty years. I promise you all that I WILL put a stop to this.