If EA bought GGG

Lootbox of awesomeness
2$

1/500
+ Experienced gained increased by 200% A+ Last for a week

+ Bundle of Currency 10 Alchemy 10 chaos 2 exalted 1 mirror shard S+

+ More attackspeed and damage by 30% A+ Last for a week

+ Unlock a Ring slot Last for a week A

--
1/400

+ Map drop rate increased by 70% Last for a day C

+ All monster damage deals 50% less damage for a day C

+ Access to a single premium tab for three days C

+ Can summon pets that have super cool auras and help you loot everything for a day
--

DLC: Sacrifice of the Vaal 12$
DLC: Forsaken masters 9$
DLC: Atlas 30$
DLC: Fall of Oraith 60$
DLC: Unlock the shaper boss 3$
DLC: Unlock a random guardian 2$
DLC: Unlock higher access tier maps 10$
DLC: Unlock trading with other players 15$
DLC: Fuck you 500$

...
Path of Exile 2012
Path of Exile 2013
Path of Exile 2014
Path of Exile 2015
Path of Exile 2016
Path of Exile 2017
...

would buy the pet that loots everything for you.

They'd fire all the core staff and replace them with cheap conscripts, ruin the game with monetization and quietly retire GGG once no money can be squeezed out of it anymore, keeping the rights to release a pure money grab mobile game ten years later and then forget they ever bought PoE.

Wherever EA goes, corpses litter the landscape.

"

DLC: Sacrifice of the Vaal 12$
DLC: Forsaken masters 9$
DLC: Atlas 30$
DLC: Fall of Oraith 60$
DLC: Unlock the shaper boss 3$
DLC: Unlock a random guardian 2$
DLC: Unlock higher access tier maps 10$
DLC: Unlock trading with other players 15$
DLC: Fuck you 500$

I would actually have paid EA to not give me FoO/3.0.

This thread would work better if Mystery Boxes weren’t a thing.

I once spent three months in a mental hospital (depression, if you’re curious) and I met a man whose life was ruined by his susceptibility to gambling. No matter what kind of addiction a person suffers from, the consequences are invariably heartbreaking. Every time GGG release a new Mystery Box I think of him - and I lose a little more respect for them as a company.

The contents of the box are irrelevant - gambling (or pseudo-gambling) doesn’t belong in a game about hitting things in the head until blood and loot appears on the floor. And let’s be clear; the company investing money left, right, and center isn’t on the verge of bankruptcy. When you’ve the money to spend on Xbox ports, Chinese releases, and your largest expansion to date, your bank account is obviously doing just fine. This is pure greed. And it’s reprehensible.

I know most people aren’t going to feel as strongly about this as I do, if you even care at all. But to some extent that’s a product of not having seen the damage first hand. Think about road safety - naturally those who care the most are the ones who were either injured in a car crash, or lost someone they cared about due to one. I’ve never been much of a gambler, but I have at least seen one of its victims. I’ve seen the self-loathing, the shame, the fear of next time.

This is why there are laws which target gambling. Laws which get all too conveniently sidestepped by ‘technically it’s not gambling’ boxes in games. That the boxes exist is bad. That they are contained within a game marketed to children by the likes of Microsoft, Valve, and Tencent is worse. That GGG even has the nerve to give the contents of them temporary exclusivity is pathetic.

I’d have thought the least a game with $400+ packs could offer you is a gambling-free experience. Instead they regularly add new boxes, post an announcement about them which is shown on the game’s log in screen, remind you about them in chat, prevent you from buying the contents separately instead, then talk about how many people ‘choose’ to buy them.

GGG doesn’t deserve a thread about how much more pro-consumer they supposedly are than other companies. They’re a for-profit business and they push their boxes as much as they can. I refuse to see the shades of grey. In my mind this is black and white, and GGG are on the wrong side. If EA bought GGG nothing would change. Do me a favour and stop with the accolades.

Yeah I forgive GGG on there loot boxes because it doesn't really do anything it's just there to make you look pretty that's it most of EA shit is literally PW2 by a large margin mind you.

They'd probably start by shutting down PoE and releasing PoE 2. Hype up a bunch of concepts/visuals, show a teaser that shows no gameplay what so ever. Charge $60 for basic game and $90 for a pre-order bonus of garbage. Redo the MTX system and throw in more loot boxes. Game would detect your character and you would only see players with mtxs related to your build in town.

Storyline would be a few hours long and be generic. Focus on just PvP elements to encourage mtx sales. You'd again be matched with players who have mtxs that focus on your build.. enticing you to open up that shop.

Game would die after a month or two, and that would be the last of PoE.. we'd all complain about how EA is the devil and ruined another franchise. Then after another few months to year.. nobody will even remember what PoE was.

Wait...was there ever talk that EA is looking to buyout GGG? I must have totally missed that?!

"

Sarno wrote:

This thread would work better if Mystery Boxes weren’t a thing.

I once spent three months in a mental hospital (depression, if you’re curious) and I met a man whose life was ruined by his susceptibility to gambling. No matter what kind of addiction a person suffers from, the consequences are invariably heartbreaking. Every time GGG release a new Mystery Box I think of him - and I lose a little more respect for them as a company.

I certainly feel for the person you met however I think your experience is perhaps skewing your perspective somewhat. If you want to extrapolate the gambling metaphor, you could say that PoE itself is simply a huge gambling simulator with the longer you play, the more likely you are to have that 'win' when an item you desire drops for you.

You state that you see this as a black and white issue and I see your side of things, but my own perspective has many shades of grey. I can observe that many players are susceptible to the lure of playing PoE, mystery boxes or not, and that the game utilises the same strategies as employed by casinos. I feel that the non-P2W aspect of GGG's MTX system is the distinction that keeps them on the right side.

I think ultimately we as individuals also have a responsibility to react appropriately to undesired influence. If we (or our close friends) identify that we are not in control and that the impact in life is detrimental, then we should take steps ourselves to control, reduce or eliminate the problem. I do know that for some people they will need assistance to do that but I don't think it's always reasonable to blame a business that seems to want to strike the right balance.