The Glade 4.0

So we haven't discussed it too much that I've seen. It seems other countries are starting to crack down on loot boxes, like Belgium making them full-on illegal.

What do you guys think of the latest trends with them over the last year? Do you feel the industry is operating in good faith or being predatory? What level of regulation should be put on them, if any?

Honestly, I really liked the way the Battlefront 2 debacle played out. Players cried foul en masse, and the company back-pedaled appropriately. I'm kinda hoping governments hang back a bit and see how companies go forward after being corrected by actual market forces.

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The Dude abides.

The only game I play where this is an issue is Destiny 2. And really, it isn't that big of an issue. If you play enough, you end up with all the **** they sell anyway.

That being said, I am tired of seeing people ***** and moan about micro transactions. They DO NOT force you to buy them and, at least in Destiny, they are mostly cosmetic. There is NOTHING you can buy in Destiny that changes the game. Or gives you an advantage over other players.

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Raell Kromwell

For Destiny 2 & Overwatch, sure. They're all cosmetic and don't give you any advantages over other players.

For Battlefront 2, they were an abomination. With ALL power-ups and upgrades coming from loot boxes. Even using credits to unlock heroes, you were expected to get the credits from loot boxes, as earning them by playing was dreadfully slow. And once you unlocked the hero, you still had to get upgrades from loot boxes. It was terrible. I'm glad EA went back and changed the system to cosmetic only, but this wasn't the first time it was tried, and it won't be the last.

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"I Live, I Love, I Slay, and I Am Content."
- Conan the Barbarian

Cosmetic only boxes I'm ok with, ESPECIALLY if you can eventually earn everything in them via play. If you have to get boxes to improve character power then no

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This is the epitome of a non-controversy. Video games are entirely a luxury; it doesn't matter what a company does or doesn't do short of outright taking money and not delivering (objectively; not just in the opinion of the typical gamer) a product at all.

This is not like a medical company jacking prices through the roof for no reason or an oil company spilling all over the place. Regardless of your ideology, it's at least understandable why those things outrage people. Video games are a first-world luxury good. If you get to play video games you probably have zero cause for complaint in the first place.

The fact that some country would think loot boxes are worthy of legislative attention does not speak well for the continued self-governance of those countries - as in, they do not seem to fundamentally grasp what problems are even important enough to argue about, regardless of your political leanings.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Eh. I can't really care all that much. The only game(s) in which they're really a thing for me are Injustice 2, which has a nice rate of epic gear drops, and what little I played of SW: Battlefront II. I agree with Screeling that I'm more or less happy with how that played out.

I can definitely see how relying on them as your only means of progression would be terrible, as you've already plunked down $60 for the game (not to mention any additional "season pass" purchases), but as far as cosmetic stuff goes, whatevs. They're particularly inoffensive if the items gleaned from them are tradable.

Obviously, Farsky is gay.

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Loot boxes are the only thing that's kept me from pulling the trigger on FM7.

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Man, I hate such predatory content like loot boxes. I say content sarcastically, of course. That's why I just despise mobile gaming all together, for example.

In EAs FIFA product loot boxing is combined with data mining in order to decide what rewards are contained in the loot box.

In other words, they charge a flat rate for loot box add-ons but reward players differently based on their purchasing/playing habits.

A player who plays often, wins frequently, and spends consistently is considerably less likely to pull top end content from their loot boxes than a player who checks fewer of those boxes, though they are charged the same amount.

I think this is a bit problematic.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

It doesn't look or smell like spam...**** it...

/bonk

Welcome to The Glade.

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Raell Kromwell

From a product-truthfulness standpoint, perhaps, but I don't have much sympathy. Quit paying for it, then. It never ceases to amaze me how many people will keep right on paying for games that they complain endlessly about, and where they think any payment at all is some sort of "money grab."

Game companies are going to get their money from one way or another. People ***** endlessly about subscription costs, and cash shops and loot boxes appeared. Now people ***** about that. Underlying this is that there are simply a lot of poors playing video games who want someone else to pay their way.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I think they encourage game play loops that I hate.

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn