Paid content in videogames (DLC, loot boxes, passes, currencies, "surprise mechanics" and - new! - pay more or wait!)

Trelliz wrote:
Moggy wrote:Why the hell people pay for a chance at maybe getting something good is beyond me.

Because chance and luck-based outcomes hit our brains with feel-good responses, something that has been known since at least the 1950s. Publishers know we are all just like the pigeons in the skinner box, hitting the lever to get an irregular reward.

I know that, but it is beyond me why people do it. I have no urge at all to spend real life money on the chance of a decent in-game item.

Idiots gonna idiot init.

Moggy wrote:I know that, but it is beyond me why people do it. I have no urge at all to spend real life money on the chance of a decent in-game item.

Have you ever come across an in-game item you really wanted?

Gemini73

OrangeRakoon wrote:
Moggy wrote:I know that, but it is beyond me why people do it. I have no urge at all to spend real life money on the chance of a decent in-game item.

Have you ever come across an in-game item you really wanted?

I have, more than once. Difference is, though, I could see what I was buying. Putting real world cash down on a completely random in-game item isn't something I'd partake in.

Sure, I just think it's pretty reasonable to understand that if there is something someone really wants they will be willing to gamble on random lootboxes to get it

OrangeRakoon wrote:Sure, I just think it's pretty reasonable to understand that if there is something someone really wants they will be willing to gamble on random lootboxes to get it

Naturally, and since it is gambling, it ought to be regulated as such.

OrangeRakoon wrote:
Moggy wrote:I know that, but it is beyond me why people do it. I have no urge at all to spend real life money on the chance of a decent in-game item.

Have you ever come across an in-game item you really wanted?

Not enough to want to spend extra money on. :lol:

And certainly not enough to want to spend extra money on a small chance of maybe getting it.

Lootboxes are not gambling though, youre buying box that contains some items, you just dont know what items. If there was a chance the box was empty then it would be gambling but you always get something. As mentioned above its no different to a pack of pokemon cards or panini stickers, you get stuff but what you get is random chance. For it to be gambling then there would been to be a chance that you get nothing at all or take a loss on the transaction, but considering that you always have more stuff after opening the box than you did before you opened it then it you always come out ahead of where you were previously.

They are gambling, it isn't worth all the hoohar it is causing but it is gambling.
You are spending money and "could" get a good thing or a "gooseberry fool" thing, just because you always get something doesn't mean it isn't gambling it is, there i a chance you will get the good thing and as such it is a game of chance and so is a gamble.

Rax wrote:Lootboxes are not gambling though, youre buying box that contains some items, you just dont know what items. If there was a chance the box was empty then it would be gambling but you always get something. As mentioned above its no different to a pack of pokemon cards or panini stickers, you get stuff but what you get is random chance. For it to be gambling then there would been to be a chance that you get nothing at all or take a loss on the transaction, but considering that you always have more stuff after opening the box than you did before you opened it then it you always come out ahead of where you were previously.

Using OrangeRakoon's post as an example, then they are absolutely gambling. If you really want an in-game item then buying lootboxes in the hope that you might get it is absolutely gambling.

Gemini73

OrangeRakoon wrote: I just think it's pretty reasonable to understand that if there is something someone really wants they will be willing to gamble on random lootboxes to get it

The numbers would certainly suggest that many gamers are quite happy to take the gamble. That said I agree with Alvin that it perhaps should be better regulated, if for anything to better monitor who's taking the gamble. Don't want to go all "think of the children", but I suspect there are a number of minors using mummy and daddy's credit card At the very least games with loot boxes etc should maybe come with a warning for unsuspecting parents?

Rax wrote:Lootboxes are not gambling though, youre buying box that contains some items, you just dont know what items. If there was a chance the box was empty then it would be gambling but you always get something. As mentioned above its no different to a pack of pokemon cards or panini stickers, you get stuff but what you get is random chance. For it to be gambling then there would been to be a chance that you get nothing at all or take a loss on the transaction, but considering that you always have more stuff after opening the box than you did before you opened it then it you always come out ahead of where you were previously.

Technically you're right, and that's how it is in the eyes of the law. But as Moggy says, if someone is only after one thing specifically, then getting something else in a loot box is as good as nothing.

It's unfortunate that it seems to make more money than letting people buy what they want in microtransactions. In Titanfall 2 I spent a couple of quid on an avatar bundle so I could have a raccoon avatar - I would never have bought any lootboxes in the hope of getting it. I really like Titanfall 2's approach, with free DLC and only microtransactions on cosmetics, with you paying for exactly what you want. If only it had taken off more

7256930752

You must admit, collecting football stickers would be a bit gooseberry fool if you just bought them all outright. Swaps was part of the fun and you could argue helped with social interaction and believe in chance rather than turning us into souless, capitalist slaves (

)

Interesting points, I get what youre saying that you take a risk and you dont know what youre getting so I can see why that part of it is gambling but to me you still get something so youre not worse off. What if, as Hime mentioned, you could sell on or trade the items you got in the loot boxes so if you get a load of dupes or things you didnt want you coudl at least use them to get stuff you did? Would they still be gambling then or would they just be sticker packs?

For the record, I believe in their current form they should be regulated, they are a closed system that do not tell you anything about what your odds are of receiving an item. As constructed they are predatory and manipulative and should be regulated to at the very least show the odds of getting each epecific item possible.

Rax wrote:What if, as Hime mentioned, you could sell on or trade the items you got in the loot boxes so if you get a load of dupes or things you didnt want you coudl at least use them to get stuff you did? Would they still be gambling then or would they just be sticker packs?

That's what CSGO had been doing for years, and resulted in an underground unregulated gambling economy run by shady strawberry floats promoting their own gambling sites to children.

Hime wrote:You must admit, collecting football stickers would be a bit gooseberry fool if you just bought them all outright. Swaps was part of the fun and you could argue helped with social interaction and believe in chance rather than turning us into souless, capitalist slaves ( )

Definitely, but they're not like for like things. With football stickers building the collection and collecting them all is a large part of the appeal. Yes you might want certain ones specifically and have favourites, but you're buying into this experience of building up a collection.

None of that applies in a game where you might just want one very specific thing, but instead of being able to buy it you have to rely on chance.

It's like if you just wanted a single, specific sticker, but were forced to buy random booster packs. That'd be a bit of a rubbish experience, and you'd feel cheated on the money spent on useless packs.

EDIT:

I'm so confused by the www in Hime's post topic

I would be more than happy for Pokemon cards to be considered gambling as well. Of course they were fun but the business model still revolves around manipulating kids into buying just one more booster for that chance at a Shiny Mewtwo or whatever. It's exactly the same as lootboxes frankly.

I find myself in the middle of this at the moment. I'm playing Overwatch which is in the middle of a seasonal Halloween event. There's a number of time restricted skins and the like for the event, and the skin for my main is strawberry floating excellent:

It's a Legendary drop from loot boxes (the approx stats are 1 Legendary drop every 13 loot boxes opened) or it costs 3000 credits. Credits too can only be gained through loot boxes. I have opened around 20 loot boxes since the event began (gained from Arcade mode and levelling up) and have had 3 legendaries, none of which were the Zarya skin. I currently have 2250 credits.

The urge to pop down a tenner on 11 boxes is extreme at this point. There's absolutely no guarantee that I'll get anything good in them, nor the credits I require, but at the moment I'm seriously considering spending money if I don't get the skin by the end of the event.

I'm part of the problem, essentially.

Artificial scarcity is scum

Protip: last year's overwatch halloween skins are down to 1000 each.

Paid content in videogames (DLC, loot boxes, passes, currencies, "surprise mechanics" and - new! - pay more or wait!)

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