Honestly fuck these loot boxes.

looking back at their loot boxes implementation, having some boxes being blanks woud have been the better option for those ungrateful folks than giving them free stuff for their multiple characters.



also:

if you win with loot boxes in "pay to win" games, this "win" comes at the costs of someone who loses, usually the guys offering the loot boxes cause they have to give more stuff they usually sell for more cause people have to buy it to be able to play.

in games with no ptw it's the guys who supported full price cause there is no need to buy that stuff to play the game.

Well, dat ice and fire corpse piles (why I can't merge them though???!!!) do pretty much substitute blank boxes.

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Orbitalx wrote:

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sainthazard wrote:

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Orbitalx wrote:

Hopefully they will be made illegal soon. Children gambling with real money is very wrong and GGG should feel bad they take advantage of underage people. It is my only real big gripe with GGG.

Do you not read threads before you post in them?

It's been mentioned several times that PoE's terms of service state you must be at least 16 years old to play.

Not to mention you have to use an electronic form of payment to get mtx points, which are generally unavailable to children anyway.

It's not marketed to kids. It doesn't pander to kids. And it certainly doesn't encourage kids to gamble.

16 year olds are kids and are not old enough to gamble. They shouldn't be allowed to buy gambling boxes. If they want to sell gambling boxes they should change the TOS age to be appropriate.

Don't give your kids the credit card if you don't want them to buy mystery boxes.

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Don't give your kids the credit card if you don't want them to buy mystery boxes.

So why do they let 16 year olds play the game? They are marketing gambling boxes to 16 year olds. Whether or not they have a credit card doesn't matter because they are trying to sell gambling boxes to 16 year olds.

When you go to Las Vegas and you go to gamble at a table, guess what? They check your ID if you look underage or close to underage. Also, you need to be 21 to sit at the table. So even an 18 year old gambling on these boxes should be illegal because it is gambling.

I really wish more people would just call them gambling boxes instead of loot boxes.

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Orbitalx wrote:

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Don't give your kids the credit card if you don't want them to buy mystery boxes.

So why do they let 16 year olds play the game? They are marketing gambling boxes to 16 year olds. Whether or not they have a credit card doesn't matter because they are trying to sell gambling boxes to 16 year olds.

When you go to Las Vegas and you go to gamble at a table, guess what? They check your ID if you look underage or close to underage. Also, you need to be 21 to sit at the table. So even an 18 year old gambling on these boxes should be illegal because it is gambling.

I really wish more people would just call them gambling boxes instead of loot boxes.

False equivalency at best... at worst, you're being willfully obtuse.

When you walk into a casino in Vegas, you are there to play casino games and gamble money. There is no other reason to go to a casino.

The point of PoE isn't the loot boxes. You can experience 99.999% of all game content without spending a penny.

Therefore, someone who is 16 years old is not necessarily being pandered to with loot boxes, because it's safe to assume they're out of the kid's reach anyway, unless they have Dad's credit card for some reason.

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Orbitalx wrote:

Whether or not they have a credit card doesn't matter because they are trying to sell gambling boxes to 16 year olds.

This part in particular is the most ridiculous thing I've read all day.

If you need a credit card (or other means of paying for things online) to buy loot boxes, then it absolutely does matter whether or not they have one. That is to say, if they have one, they are completely incapable of buying loot boxes.

I once tried to by a 16 year old single malt scotch... but she told me her parents didn't allow her to drink yet.

Actually, all games with RNG are effectively gambling.

Gambling is a system of periodic reward, so whether it's lotto scratchers or hoping for that lich to show up, your brain is looking for the reward. It's some pretty hard coded stuff in our species.

It's the reason gaming addiction is a thing. Some people have impulse control issues that prevent them from gaming or gambling or drinking or whatever within reasonable limits.

To get back to the OP,

Don't buy the boxes. They suck, the concept is garbage and until GGG decides to make MTX items tradable or does something like have the box contents look at your existing MTX collection and give you something you don't already have, then you're just asking for disappointment.

P.S., the boxes are the very textbook definition of gambling by the way.

from the dictionary

1. "play games of chance for money; bet."

2. "take risky action in the hope of a desired result."

both are true for the boxes.

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Therefore, someone who is 16 years old is not necessarily being pandered to with loot boxes, because it's safe to assume they're out of the kid's reach anyway, unless they have Dad's credit card for some reason.

You say "not necessarily" but they are advertising gambling boxes on their website and in game to underage people. You are also assuming they don't get a CC somehow which is wrong because they do get them. Also, underage gambling is anything under 21 years old. I said 16 because that is lowest age that is supposed to be able to play the game.

Do you think that zero 16 year olds have bought a gambling box in this game? How about 17 year olds? How about 18,19,20 year olds? I can without a doubt say that people underage have bought gambling boxes. This is my point. They are advertising gambling boxes to underage people. Those people are buying them. The box loot tables are misleading.

I love GGG but these boxes are bad. They will hopefully be banned and made illegal eventually. Either that or highly regulated like other forms of gambling.

The first step in understanding why these boxes are wrong is understanding they are gambling. From that point you apply everything about gambling to them.

1) Lootboxes are gambling. (gambling boxes)
2) Gambling is illegal for people under age 21.
3) GGG should not be selling gambling boxes to people under age 21.
4) GGG should not be advertising gambling boxes to people under age 21.

Solution: Don't sell gambling boxes in your game or raise the TOS age to 21.

I know people want to defend GGG because they like them but these are bad. I love GGG and I will continue to support them. I just wish they would stop with the unethical gambling boxes. Eventually they will be forced to by the government. It is just taking a while for the government to figure it out.

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Orbitalx wrote:

You are also assuming they don't get a CC somehow which is wrong because they do get them.

[citation needed]

Again, unless they have their parents' credit cards, which assumes parental supervision, or unless they're committing theft, in which case gambling is kind of the least of our worries.

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When you walk into a casino in Vegas, you are there to play casino games and gamble money. There is no other reason to go to a casino.

Also, I would like to point out that what you said is very important. You just basically proved another reason why gambling boxes are so bad. When you go to a casino you realize that you are gambling. When you gamble on these boxes in this game, a LOT of people do not realize they are gambling. They do not understand what is happening exactly or why they are buying 50 of these boxes. This is bad and a reason why these boxes should be regulated. The gambling rules that apply to all other forms of gambling at casinos should apply to these boxes.

It is one of the reasons why video games with loot are so much fun/addicting. You keep on killing bosses or monsters for the slot machine affect and hoping the next monster you kill will drop an exalt or a mirror or a great unique. It is fun. But once you start selling that feeling with real money and gambling boxes that have a chance to GIVE YOU NOTHING (DUPLICATES) it becomes a problem.