<i>Mandatory disclosure: I am a programmer working for EA and the following are my personal opinions. I do not represent EA in any official capacity.</i><p>It's my strong opinion that the whole loot box phenomenon makes games as a whole worse.<p>For me, it's not the gambling aspects of it, per se. I am an avid Magic: the Gathering player and never decried the way its loot boxes (boosters) work. It's the fact that, the way these boxes have been handled by many games noticeably warps the design goals of the game from "make an engaging experience" to "motivate the player to buy more loot boxes".<p>What I mean is that many modern games have loot boxes or microtransactions permeating its design to such a degree that most features seem planned around how they motivate players to spend more money in-game.<p>This has been at its worst in mobile games, but there are plenty of console and PC titles with this issue as well. It's even gotten so far that big titles with no microtransactions include a heavy focus on loot boxes which can only be gained as quest rewards or bought using in-game currency (Horizon Zero Dawn comes to mind).<p>I really don't like it. I get no joy from wading through mountains of useless items in the hope of finding that one rare gem I actually want. This applies to ordinary loot in RPGs as well. So, seeing that the global trend has been for games to evolve in this direction has been very frustrating for me. As such, this recent pushback - both these legal actions as well as the player backlash of recent loot box controversies - have been very interesting developments which I hope will lead to market-wide improvements in overall game design.<p>To elaborate: I do not mind microtransactions in general. There are a few games which have plenty of ways to spend real money in-game but which do not bother me (Fortnite, Elder Scrolls Online). The key difference, here, is that those are games in which the core game loop does not heavily incentivize you to spend money and where in-game transactions will mainly get you cosmetic content or additional story campaigns.
I’m the parent of a teenager who has struggled with an unhealthy obsession with features like this. A kid who is 14 or 15 is able to intellectually understand how to use these game systems, but at the same time he or she is often lacking the type of sophisticated understanding that an adult would have (e.g. that gambling can be addictive and therefore restraint and self-observation is required). They greatly overestimate their ability to participate in a safe and healthy way.<p>I would like to see loot boxes out of games for players under 18. Loot boxes are not a real part of the game anyway, they are a way for the publisher add the types of subconscious psychological rewards to “increase engagement” that are now rightfully criticized in platforms like Facebook.
When playing Battlefield 5 beta last weekend, I was actually thinking about this. I'm wondering how they'll approach it in that game.<p>I have a bit of a double feeling about this as a Belgian - on the one hand I think it's a good direction for the industry. We didn't have that crap a decade ago and I'll be happy to see it removed. OTOH, I hope they don't just remove content for the Belgian market as it'd potentially create an unfair system.<p>It is EA after all, a company I don't have a lot of faith in.
Video game publishers have been trying consistently to implement a "less for more" attitude when it comes to their products. The whole lootbox trend on a whole was the peak of having their cake and eating it (wanting to "chase whales" like the free to play model but charging full price for the product). The only surprising thing about this is that there hasn't been a lot more push-back a way earlier.
I'm so happy with this, it will create a precedent.<p>I know people that have spent a lot of money in counter-strike boxes, it works like slots machines, designed to keep you exited while you get a reward. The worst thing is now is the rule in every game (pubg, heartstone and so on..).<p>Good job Belgium!
They were also heavily criticized for adopting this game mechanic in star wars battlefront and eventually decided to drop it. I don't even understand the appeal of wanting to play games that have this sort of predatory feature.<p>It's been around for a while and I've honestly never even been remotely attracted to games like that.<p>I definitely feel like this has exponentially increased since iOS games called 'freemium'. Generally, the game will be free but then things can take 30minutes to be accomplished unless you buy diamonds that cost 1$ and you get instant gratification.
I'm a FIFA player and this is a complex situation. "Packs" in FIFA are not solely used for cosmetic items but for actual virtual players with distinct play characteristics.<p>EA are trying to turn FIFA into a eSports game (see the recent FIFA eWorld Cup) and the majority of play takes place in the "Ultimate Team" mode. To get the high calibre players you'd use to build up your experience and reputation in UT you either need to make a ton of coins to buy them or buy "FIFA points" with real money and open the packs.<p>It's pretty standard practice for the higher end players to throw money at these packs to build up teams early on, so I suspect this move will put Belgian players at a disadvantage (it's not a <i>total</i> nightmare as you can buy most players in 'standard' varieties for a lot less, just not the in-form ones you'd use in competition play).<p>Of course, at the end of the day, it's still just a game.. :-D
Peter Molyneux's "Curiosity: What's Inside the Cube?" is the paradigm of loot boxes gone bad, taken to an absurd extreme.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity:_What%27s_Inside_the_Cube%3F" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity:_What%27s_Inside_the...</a><p>Curiosity - what's inside the cube winner video:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qhzb9OUWrXU" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qhzb9OUWrXU</a><p>>"I said there's something amazing inside. Something life changing inside. Well, this is what this video is about. After 25 BILLION cubelets have been destroyed, over 150 days, after 4 million people have downloaded it onto their various devices, and after hosting tens of thousands of simultaneous concurrent users, we have reached the end, and one lucky person has reached the rewards of their hard efforts. How can anything be worth all that effort?"<p>Well what was in the cube? A broken promise.<p>Curiosity Winner Has Received Nothing - 2 Years Later:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SejMdncxbnk" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SejMdncxbnk</a><p>>Curiosity Winner, Once Promised a "Life Changing" Prize by Peter Molyneux, Has Received Nothing:<p><a href="https://www.gamespot.com/articles/curiosity-winner-once-promised-a-life-changing-pri/1100-6425241/" rel="nofollow">https://www.gamespot.com/articles/curiosity-winner-once-prom...</a><p>Peter Molyneux A Pathological Liar? | Feature Creep:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efeq_9XwU7s" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efeq_9XwU7s</a><p>>"This week on Feature Creep I discuss the recent controversy about 22Cans head Peter Molyneux, the failure of the GODUS God of Gods plan and how Bryan Henderson, the winner of the Curiosity competition has been ignored."
This is a growing problem in the gaming industry.<p>I've been boycotting EA since the dawn of modern DLC with Battlefield: Bad Company, which was 10 years ago.<p>Every single gamer who has not stood on this side of the line since then is a part of the problem.<p>If you have purchased a single EA game directly from the publisher in the last decade, instead of aftermarket, then you have absolutely no right to complain about loot boxes because we live in a time where all of the information about EA's destruction of the gaming industry has been freely available for anyone to find.<p>You chose to feed the beast for your own selfish desires and now you act like it's someone else's fault that the beast has gotten so big.
Cartamundi in Belgium must have printed billions of cards for collectible card games by now (Magic the Gathering etc.). It would be interesting to see an analysis of why that doesn’t run afoul of the law.
I hope EA loses and appeals all the way to the European Court. Once it’s settled there EA loses a market of more than 450 million people for its unregulated casinos.
Remember when we made good games that people played for the sheer enjoyment of it and didn't need marketing witchcraft to hand-hold lazy designers?
Lootboxes and the general virtual in-game currencies are what pushed me away from NBA2K. I really enjoy the game, but I don't want to be constantly told to pay more and more for the game that I've just paid $70 for. I stopped playing after a few weeks and I don't think I'll be buying this year's edition.
Ultimately, most publishers will probably handle it like Valve, who have found a brilliant workaround:<p>Show players the contents of the next box they buy, which makes it not gambling.<p>I hate it, but it's a very elegant solution to avoid any legal problems.
China already released an enforced regulation about this last year: <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/2/15517962/china-new-law-dota-league-of-legends-odds-loot-box-random" rel="nofollow">https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/2/15517962/china-new-law-dot...</a>
I'm in two minds about this. On the one hand, I'm a libertarian and don't like regulations. On the second hand, these kinda regulations make sense.
Should all gambling be illegal then? I fail to see the problem with it. If somebody feels that's where she wants to put her money - great. If you arguing that's poor use of somebody's money then you may also want to ban whole lot of foods and gadgets. Those can be addictive too.
Pretty sure Valve haven't actually removed lootboxes, they just show which common reward you will get if you are in Belgium, Rares are still random.<p>When you consider that the above is enough that Valve haven't been touched yet, it just feels like EA are digging their heels for the sake of it.<p>On the other hand, these are the same people who gave us BF2 and have been releasing a near identical game every year since the 90's so they may have just gotten lazy and not even noticed the law. Far too used to no effort money making that lot.
So, once again a government tries to dictate what people can and cannot spend their money on.<p>I don't like games with lootboxes. I don't buy lootboxes. I don't buy games that have them. As a game developer, I don't work on games with lootboxes.<p>But this is my personal preference, and I am an adult who is capable of making such a decision. I respect other people who decide to buy lootboxes, even if I wouldn't do it myself. Why is it so hard to just live and let live?