15 European gambling regulators unite to tackle loot box threat

Classic example is anything by 'Cryptic' studios (Star Wars online, et al and sundry).

They plow gambling crates at you like this game throws scrolls. At one time you could not even 'trash' them; you had to studiously avoid touching the things. And the only way to get rid of them, for a time, was to buy their keys. There was no real way to get them in-game.

If vendors want to put gambling boxes in their titles, they should be required to put the access methods ('keys') in the game as well. People who want to open many, many boxes can of course purchase said keys, but the average player should be able to access the boxes with in-game methods that are at least half as common.

i.e. if crates drop at X rate, keys should drop at 50% of X.

Otherwise classify it as gambling and tax the everloving SHIT out of it until the title dies or adjusts it's money grubbing tactics.

PoE/GGG has the right of things, right now; overpriced cosmetics and storage utility, but nothing that affects game play whatsoever.

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So, a good glass of wine should be prohibited because of alcoolics?

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Regulated. Not prohibited.

Just like how alcohol and gambling are highly regulated right now.

Exactly.

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Katastruff wrote:

So, a good glass of wine should be prohibited because of alcoolics?

Alcohol is one of the most dangerous drugs, both in health and social regards. The only reason it is not illegal is that making it illegal creates a huge black market due to ease of production, so it is less harmful to regulate it without banning. This is confirmed multiple times in multiple countries.

I'm playing the latest assassin's creed on Project stream and the amount of pay2win is fucking disgusting. It's bad enough every big game already has DLC available before games' release.

Outlawing P2W loot boxes? Alright. Outlawing cosmetic loot boxes? Why, at least in PoE I can get something expensive for really cheap, I like it.

So, the good thing here?

The MTX will go straight to the shop, they may have their prices adjusted to reflect the value (lost revenue and cost to make)

Which means even more expensive crap than armors which cost the same as a new game.

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Orbitalx wrote:

Hopefully some good will come out of this and eventually gambling boxes will be made illegal or at least highly regulated and treated as gambling.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-09-17-15-european-gambling-regulators-unite-to-tackle-loot-box-threat

"The regulators stated games providers must "ensure that features within games, such as loot boxes, do not constitute gambling under national laws". This indicates more countries will now examine whether loot boxes can be classed as gambling."

Sweet!

Good. Would be great if loot boxes in this game would be removed, either due to this or because GGG found some sense themselves. It's a stain that would be best removed.

Obviously many other games are much worse, but the feature itself is not something I like seeing anywhere, including in POE.

GGG should be ashamed of themselves selling these because it preys on addiction for cash. Might as well package up some coke or carton of cigarettes with the larger supporter packs.

Needs to be regulated because they can't seem to control themselves and act in publics best interest.

I'm sure there are kids like as young as 12-13 playing this game who are getting "hooked" on gambling.

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Johny_Snow wrote:

Outlawing P2W loot boxes? Alright. Outlawing cosmetic loot boxes? Why, at least in PoE I can get something expensive for really cheap, I like it.

I hope you are trolling, because that is exactly why they are gambling.