If EA bought GGG

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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.

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.

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鬼殺し wrote:

Although I'll ask you this, since I've recently been dabbling in other success story f2p-wise: would you be less discontent with GGG's model if they were less pushy about the mtxes but had a much more flexible definition of p2w?

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MiniST wrote:

would buy the pet that loots everything for you.

"

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.

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.