The worldwide lootboxes controversy continues, and this time, the claim is coming from the Netherlands. Four games were found to be breaking the country's "Betting and Gaming Act", meaning there's an addictive gambling element, and due to the ability for players to create a market based upon selling lootbox content, it's considered a "game of chance", and therefore requires a license. The four games weren't specified, however a Dutch news channel called out games like PUBG, Rocket League, Dota 2, and FIFA 18. All of which do have a large trading economies that base themselves on lootboxes.

The Dutch gaming authority has decided that lootboxes are similar to casino games, meaning they either need to acquire a gambling license in the country, or the developers need to change how lootboxes work. Such changes would involve disabling any visual effects while opening a lootbox, so that players do not have a rush of excitement from potentially being psyched into winning big, and there needs to be a cooldown on opening lootboxes, so players don't open mass amounts of them in one go. The four games must make here changes before June 20, or else the Dutch gaming authority will be forced to take legal action.

Source

 

[The Catboy]

It isn't Overwatch fault, that others are abusing it. Seems like the biggest misuse of Lootboxes are already being dealt with culturally and legally, but since you are all or nothing with lootboxes, prepare to pay for more dlc instead, if lootboxes go away altogether. Not that I think they will.

It doesn't matter who's at fault or who did what, Overwatch can't keeping a free pass. If we keep giving Overwatch a free pass, then we need to keep doing the same for other games and we repeat the cycle. These companies will always push the limits, lay low, then do it again.
The DLC excuse doesn't work when you consider microtransactions and lootboxes didn't lower their prices to begin with. They were literally an additional charge on top of the DLC charge.

 

[Kioku]

Just ban lootboxes in general and force devs to have standard micro transactions so we can buy what we like rather than wasting money to potentially be screwed. I dunno...

 

[ov3rkill]

The only problem I see in this is if they have expensive taxes for a gambling business, then these companies would probably pass the costs on to the consumer.
Other than that, I hope it will be regulated properly especially in the gaming industry.
Hell, I'd still prefer they would just abolish all these lootboxes (slot-machine) thing really.

 

[KingVamp]

It doesn't matter who's at fault or who did what, Overwatch can't keeping a free pass. If we keep giving Overwatch a free pass, then we need to keep doing the same for other games and we repeat the cycle. These companies will always push the limits, lay low, then do it again.
The DLC excuse doesn't work when you consider microtransactions and lootboxes didn't lower their prices to begin with. They were literally an additional charge on top of the DLC charge.

It makes sense that everyone that isn't abusing lootboxes like Overwatch gets a "free pass" and the ones that are do not get one. First part is going in circles. You say get rid of it altogether and I say stop the people that are actually misusing it. We shouldn't take down all the companies with them because some companies are going keep trying to push the limits no matter what anyone does. This aside.

Overwatch doesn't do paid DLC, except for cosmetics which you can get through lootboxes. For free, if you decided not to pay. Without lootboxes, everyone would have to pay for all the new cosmetics, the new heroes, the new maps and the new modes. I'm sure a lot of people rather get these for free and have others pay it instead, within reason.

 

[The Catboy]

It makes sense that everyone that isn't abusing lootboxes like Overwatch gets a "free pass" and the ones that are do not get one. First part is going in circles. You say get rid of it altogether and I say stop the people that are actually misusing it. We shouldn't take down all the companies with them because some companies are going keep trying to push the limits no matter what anyone does. This aside.

Overwatch doesn't do paid DLC, except for cosmetics which you can get through lootboxes. For free, if you decided not to pay. Without lootboxes, everyone would have to pay for all the new cosmetics, the new heroes, the new maps and the new modes. I'm sure a lot of people rather get these for free and have others pay it instead, within reason.

Or we could go back to how games used to be and unlock content through game progression, you know how we used to do things. We've become way too conditioned to these systems that we forgot games used to function before them

 

[bi388]

It doesn't matter who's at fault or who did what, Overwatch can't keeping a free pass. If we keep giving Overwatch a free pass, then we need to keep doing the same for other games and we repeat the cycle. These companies will always push the limits, lay low, then do it again.
The DLC excuse doesn't work when you consider microtransactions and lootboxes didn't lower their prices to begin with. They were literally an additional charge on top of the DLC charge.

Imo unless the lootboxes give a player an advantage, there's no problem. I don't think this is giving overwatch a free pass, so much as not punishing overwatch since they didn't do anything wrong. Overwatch = ok. Battlefront 2 = not ok. This is for adults at least, in not sure how I feel about it lootboxes as a whole towards kids.

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Or we could go back to how games used to be and unlock content through game progression, you know how we used to do things. We've become way too conditioned to these systems that we forgot games used to function before them

Blizzard probably doesn't sell that many copys of overwatch anymore. It wouldn't be bringing in enough money to justify all the server costs, new heros, new cosmetics, new events and constant balance updates, not to mention OWL, if they didn't have cosmetics for sale. I've personally spent around ~20 to 40 bucks on overwatch lootboxes and I feel like I got more from it then if I had walked into a casino and wasted my money in a slot machine.

 

[KingVamp]

Or we could go back to how games used to be and unlock content through game progression, you know how we used to do things. We've become way too conditioned to these systems that we forgot games used to function before them

Trust me, I rather games go back to when we didn't have to pay extra for the majority of games and online is free. Maybe far into the future, they will finally drop this pay online thing and a lot of these bad business practices will be shot down, but I'm not naive enough to think that there wouldn't be something with a lot of these games to get more money.

I rather that be in cosmetic lootboxes than DLC spam.

 

[Haloman800]

Eff the government. Eff politicians. Eff these power crazed psychopaths who dictate how other people should be able to spend their time & money.

 

[Proust]

A step in the right direction.
To those who are saying that it’s yourself who decides if you want to pay for it or not... I want to say: good for you. Apparently you’re lucky enough to not be or have met people who are rather easily addicted to stuff. Next they should ban the Gacha games! Yes, FE Heroes I’m looking at you. It’s simply disguised gambling and young people shouldn’t be introduced to that.

 

[bi388]

Eff the government. Eff politicians. Eff these power crazed psychopaths who dictate how other people should be able to spend their time & money.

Eff politicians who dictate how I get to spend my money? You know how dumb a statement that is right? You can use that exact same statement to say that meth should be legal, or military grade assault weapons. Just cause it's your money doesn't mean you should be able to spend it however you want. That being said I'm not sure I agree with the Netherlands actions. Pencil me down as undecided.

 

[Jackson Ferrell]

And setting up a cooldown timer... I wonder how long should that be... one lootbox per day perhaps?

Purchase gems to decrease the cooldown timer

 

[Hyborix3]

It would certainly be interesting to see how these four games make the necessary changes

 

[The Catboy]

Trust me, I rather games go back to when we didn't have to pay extra for the majority of games and online is free. Maybe far into the future, they will finally drop this pay online thing and a lot of these bad business practices will be shot down, but I'm not naive enough to think that there wouldn't be something with a lot of these games to get more money.

I rather that be in cosmetic lootboxes than DLC spam.

I know my bitching won't fix the world overnight, but I just hate hearing the same thing over and over again, then seeing companies keep pushing it. Even Activision Blizzard abused thr very same system they popularized. It shows that even an inch can go a mile for them.

Imo unless the lootboxes give a player an advantage, there's no problem. I don't think this is giving overwatch a free pass, so much as not punishing overwatch since they didn't do anything wrong. Overwatch = ok. Battlefront 2 = not ok. This is for adults at least, in not sure how I feel about it lootboxes as a whole towards kids.

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Blizzard probably doesn't sell that many copys of overwatch anymore. It wouldn't be bringing in enough money to justify all the server costs, new heros, new cosmetics, new events and constant balance updates, not to mention OWL, if they didn't have cosmetics for sale. I've personally spent around ~20 to 40 bucks on overwatch lootboxes and I feel like I got more from it then if I had walked into a casino and wasted my money in a slot machine.

That's part of the issue, there's really no real limit and we often find out far too late what's abusive and what's not. Then of course you have to bring up kids when dealing with this, because there is no system system setup to deal with that.
Honestly a free distribution with lootboxes would change that. It's worked for literally thousands of games, especially MMOs and mobile games.

 

[bi388]

Honestly a free distribution with lootboxes would change that. It's worked for literally thousands of games, especially MMOs and mobile games.

That works if you're something like hearthstone or fortnite, but I am skeptical that overwatch could have pulled off that kind of system. And if they did they would have to make make characters and post release maps cost money for sure, and I'll take having a lootbox system that's optional over needing to pay to have all of the actual gameplay content. Most freemium games (besides outliars like LoL) do not have any expenses that come close to running OWL and overwatchs servers.

 

[The Catboy]

That works if you're something like hearthstone or fortnite, but I am skeptical that overwatch could have pulled off that kind of system. And if they did they would have to make make characters and post release maps cost money for sure, and I'll take having a lootbox system that's optional over needing to pay to have all of the actual gameplay content. Most freemium games (besides outliars like LoL) do not have any expenses that come close to running OWL and overwatchs servers.

Just gonna toss out there, but Team Hats 2 is doing just fine with a freemiem economy

 

[bi388]

Just gonna toss out there, but Team Hats 2 is doing just fine with a freemiem economy

It wasn't free at first, has a tiny player base in comparison, and has no big tournaments being run by valve or content being added :v that's a really bad comparison

 

[Bladexdsl]

need to ban the fucking waste of $ scamming POS outright. we don't want this garbage in gaming

 

[The Catboy]

It wasn't free at first, has a tiny player base in comparison, and has no big tournaments being run by valve or content being added :v that's a really bad comparison

Actually I am comparing the paid to free method ans showing that it can be done.
If they aren't making money and struggling to get new customers, then they need to find something to fix that, but I digress. I know I am barking at my own ass, but sometimes I need to gripe.

 

[Xathya]

wher is them neterlands?

 

[bi388]

Actually I am comparing the paid to free method ans showing that it can be done.
If they aren't making money and struggling to get new customers, then they need to find something to fix that, but I digress. I know I am barking at my own ass, but sometimes I need to gripe.

Yes but in the case you gave, the game is severely suffering and on fan life support. There's almost no new content being added, major patches if they're lucky every few years, no official tournaments and a struggling player base that have to deal with hackers because of the lack of anti cheat monitoring. This is all because the game isn't making valve enough money. So the freemium method is *not* working for tf2. Players are doing everything they can to keep it from dying.