Do loot boxes count as gambling?

gord0 because with a slot machine you might not get anything at all. With a loot box you are paying a fixed amount to receive a digital item and you are guaranteed a digital item. You know you’ll receive something. It’s not technically winning. The person paying is agreeing that a random digital item is worth what they are paying. That’s how it’ll be argued anyway. People sure are stupid, eh?

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shiftysatchmo said in Are loot boxes count as gambling?:

gord0 because with a slot machine you might not get anything at all. With a loot box you are paying a fixed amount to receive a digital item and you are guaranteed a digital item. You know you’ll receive something. It’s not technically winning. The person paying is agreeing that a random digital item is worth what they are paying. That’s how it’ll be argued anyway. People sure are stupid, eh?

If we’re going to maintain the slot machine analogy, we would have to agree that items the user does not want are equal to nothing.

gord0 I wonder if they’ll make it so random is slightly cheaper, but is guaranteed to be something you don’t have, and then sell the sure thing for more money.

shiftysatchmo said in Are loot boxes count as gambling?:

gord0 I wonder if they’ll make it so random is slightly cheaper, but is guaranteed to be something you don’t have, and then sell the sure thing for more money.

Here’s a thought. WHY NOT FUCKING LET PEOPLE BY THE ITEMS THEY WANT WITHOUT THE RANDO BOXES!.. oh because they would make less money because people will drop all of their cash until the rando box gives them what they want. Instead of one single small purchase.

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gord0 like I said, people are stupid. The key is for people to stop buying those but we both know they won’t stop.

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I’ll play Devil’s Advocate.

Lootboxes aren’t gambling, same as blind bags or TCGs.

This doesn’t make them good or even necessary. In fact their one of the shadiest parts of the industry now, even more so than Season Passes. Simply because without a SP you can still choose to buy the content separately, but you can be damn sure the game is focused towards getting you to fork out for Lootboxes, impacting the quality & enjoyment of the product. If it’s a free to play game, then fine by all means generate revenue through them, if they only have cosmetic items, then brilliant, it doesn’t affect the gameplay of anyone who doesn’t buy them; but as soon as they unlock content as opposed to cosmetics, in a game that I paid for they are awful. I’d like them banned because they’re anti-consumer, but not because they’re considered gambling.

sgt_t8ie said in Are loot boxes count as gambling?:

I’ll play Devil’s Advocate.

Lootboxes aren’t gambling, same as blind bags or TCGs.

This doesn’t make them good or even necessary. In fact their one of the shadiest parts of the industry now, even more so than Season Passes. Simply because without a SP you can still choose to buy the content separately, but you can be damn sure the game is focused towards getting you to fork out for Lootboxes, impacting the quality & enjoyment of the product. If it’s a free to play game, then fine by all means generate revenue through them, if they only have cosmetic items, then brilliant, it doesn’t affect the gameplay of anyone who doesn’t buy them; but as soon as they unlock content as opposed to cosmetics, in a game that I paid for they are awful. I’d like them banned because they’re anti-consumer, but not because they’re considered gambling.

I see where you’re coming from, but gambling is our best legal means of shutting the shit show down. So I really hope the uk legal peeps sort this out proper!

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gord0 hopefully publishers take note, that gamers are getting increasingly unhappy with these shenanigans. My only issue would be that the action gets overturned because it doesn’t meet the legal definition of gambling & therefore publishers decide that makes it OK to carry on even further down this hole.

But then again, there’ll always be somebody stupid enough to part with their money and that’s what publishers are counting on.

sgt_t8ie said in Are loot boxes count as gambling?:

gord0 hopefully publishers take note, that gamers are getting increasingly unhappy with these shenanigans. My only issue would be that the action gets overturned because it doesn’t meet the legal definition of gambling & therefore publishers decide that makes it OK to carry on even further down this hole.

But then again, there’ll always be somebody stupid enough to part with their money and that’s what publishers are counting on.

Well the uk got us 2 click steam returns, so hopefully this works out too.

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Ex-Bioware dev interview about microtransactions and loot boxes

A bit better…

So yeah, all future EA and Activision games I play will be acquired in one of the following 3 ways: gifted to me, free code with some other product, or piracy.

I refuse to give them money.

gord0 Lootboxes caused the Holocaust.

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ButtStallion Man, he’s trying to dodge questions with so awkward answers that I wouldn’t be surprised if this backlash on 'em. I’m more surprised that EA even bother to respond and above it, respond live. There are signs of someone getting brown pants. :smiley:

All games with loot boxes in them are off the table for me. Blanket ban. It doesn’t matter if they’re cosmetic only or pay to win. Lootboxes are pure filth; if they want to add in microtransactions, fine I can live with that. I don’t have to always like it, but at least if you can choose what you’re spending money on & purchase it, that’s a damn sight better than having to rely on an obviously gamed system, that drip feeds you the content you want in order to bilk you out of even more money.

I’ve spent money on DLC & I will continue to do so for content that I will use & on games whose DLC will extend my enjoyment.

I played the Devil’s Advocate earlier with regards ESRB’s judgement of loot boxes being like TCG card packs. I will now shoot down that position… Fuck off ESRB, fuck right off & die. The difference between loot boxes & card packs lies in the “T” of TCG. Trading, something you can’t do with digital goods in any of the guilty games. A physical card is able to be traded perhaps as a deck, maybe as a set or a single card, meanwhile a digital item in a lootbox in battlefront or COD WW2 has no value if it is not needed, even being broken down to components, to allow for the purchase of more lootboxes is still worthless. So the ESRB investigated its members’ actions and found no evidence of shady practices… what a joke, fuck off.

<Edited once I was off my phone & saw what I’d typed up - hopefully makes more sense now>

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sgt_t8ie Elite: Dangerous will have loot boxes huhuhuhuuhuhuhuhuh

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