Surprise! EA rebrands Loot Boxes as "Surprise Mechanics"

[Anomnomnomaly]

8 minutes ago, Sypran said:

Actually... Those are banned in the US! Cause the plastic eggs inside is considered a choking hazard.

The closest thing we ever got was a candy called a "Wonder all" which was hollow chocolate with like smaller candies inside.

 

I always thought it was because the tiny parts of the toy was considered the chocking hazard rather than the egg itself.... But then again this is the same country that banned the import of Smarties because of a food colouring but is fine with chlorine washed chicken and hormone saturated beef.

[porina]

The question about lootboxes stretches beyond EA. It is an industry question. I can certainly see why EA want a slice of the pie, but what they've done is totally fail to implement it in a way that doesn't destroy the trust of gamers.

 

I've played a bunch of mobile gacha games in the past, and currently have settled on Azur Lane. Gotta collect all the shipgirls! See them like monetised Pokemon. Common to games of this type, there are time limited events where certain ships are available. Some can be grinded by playing the game, but many are build only. By build, it is essentially lootbox mechanic. You pay your limited game resource, and there is a certain % chance of obtaining the event ship. Apparently this game is relatively generous. Event ships are typically 2% to 2.5% chance of obtaining per single draw. 1 in 40 to 50. Not bad... until you hit a bad luck streak. I had this in a recent event. Time was running out, and I was still missing one. Gave in and dumped $40 on gems, the in game premium currency. That could then be spent on resources to allow more building. I paced myself and spent the gems over several days, but luck was not on my side. That was my first event miss. There were 3 limited ships in that event. I got a total of around 20 of the other two. I tried to work out afterwards what the chance of not getting at least one of each was, it was surprisingly high, about 1 in 8 for the amount of resource I put into it. That event I was the 1. Fortunately I do have some self control, and that was the only time (and probably will be the only time) I dump that much into them. I can afford it, but it doesn't mean I should do it. If I didn't pace myself, I could have burnt that in minutes and think about going back for some more. Someone more obsessed than me, I can see it escalating into emptying the credit card should bad luck continue. Note the game also has monthly packages and other cash buy options. I estimate in total I've spent around $180 on it in the 10 months or so playing it. That is probably comparable to my FFXIV sub and optional in game items over a similar period.

[Master Disaster]

6 hours ago, Trik'Stari said:

I cannot fucking wait to see how Jim Sterling tears this apart.

 

[SupremeGOAT]

Being responsible adults who have to work for their money... if you buy an EA game you deserve whatever you get.. no, you deserve worse!

[derr12]

Wait! He isn't dead, EA surprise!
There's a gun to your head and death in his eyes!

[Trik'Stari]

5 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

 

Fucking hell.

 

I didn't pirate their game, it's just a surprise addition to my game collection.

[Sauron]

IMAGINE MY

S H O C K

[Sauron]

7 minutes ago, Trik'Stari said:

Fucking hell.

 

I didn't pirate their game, it's just a surprise addition to my game collection.

[JB780]

BREAKING NEWS!

PUBLICLY TRADED COMPANY WANTS TO MAXIMISE PROFITS!

 

[Trik'Stari]

18 minutes ago, JB780 said:

BREAKING NEWS!

PUBLICLY TRADED COMPANY WANTS TO MAXIMISE PROFITS BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY, EVEN ONES POTENTIALLY HARMFUL TO CONSUMERS.

 

FTFY

[JB780]

1 minute ago, Trik'Stari said:

FTFY

It's adorable that you think large companies with shareholders to please have your best interests in mind and would never do anything to hurt you.

[TetraSky]

Call it whatever you want, doesn't change what it is.

 

You can't compare it to kinder eggs either. Because with those, you know what you're getting, junk. Always. There's no "golden egg" where you'll get something that'd be worth thousand of dollars for someone.
With their "surprise mechanics", you can get anything from worthless junk to what is essentially the "jackpot". That's basically like playing a slotmachine. 

Just make every god damn items available in the "surprise mechanic" available for individual purchase instead damn it, how is that so hard to do.

[RejZoR]

9 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

Call it whatever you want, doesn't change what it is.

 

You can't compare it to kinder eggs either. Because with those, you know what you're getting, junk. Always. There's no "golden egg" where you'll get something that'd be worth thousand of dollars for someone.
With their "surprise mechanics", you can get anything from worthless junk to what is essentially the "jackpot". That's basically like playing a slotmachine. 

Just make every god damn items available in the "surprise mechanic" available for individual purchase instead damn it, how is that so hard to do.

Only if you get a cardboard puzzle. When they were running special series with figurines like crocs, lions, hippos, penguins and turtles, they were pretty cool. I still remember those we were collecting as kids and we played with them. Good old days. And they were surprisingly well made. Solid plastic that had to be at least partially hand painted coz no way machine could do it all.

[Trik'Stari]

12 hours ago, JB780 said:

It's adorable that you think large companies with shareholders to please have your best interests in mind and would never do anything to hurt you.

Oh you have me wrong.

 

I pity them and their short sighted strategy that leads to utterly unsustainable businesses that will eventually lead to such large scale economic harm that we'll end up with a government going way overboard to prevent it, which will also lead to large scale economic harm.

 

We really are a stupid species.

[JB780]

7 hours ago, Trik'Stari said:

We really are a stupid species.

Agreed!

[TetraSky]

10 hours ago, RejZoR said:

Only if you get a cardboard puzzle. When they were running special series with figurines like crocs, lions, hippos, penguins and turtles, they were pretty cool. I still remember those we were collecting as kids and we played with them. Good old days. And they were surprisingly well made. Solid plastic that had to be at least partially hand painted coz no way machine could do it all.

these days it's cheap plastic that's barely being held together with craptastic stickers that don't even stick properly.... So yeah, nothing of value in them.

[thorhammerz]

10 hours ago, TetraSky said:

Just make every god damn items available in the "surprise mechanic" available for individual purchase instead damn it, how is that so hard to do.

They evidently believe they would be generating less net revenue if they did so .

[Nowak]

I have an idea! How about if we also refer to anti-lootbox legislation as "economic oppression"?

 

[mr moose]

 

4 minutes ago, Nowak said:

I have an idea! How about if we also refer to anti-lootbox legislation as "economic oppression"?

 

Or as addressing "Surprise economics".

 

 

[MoonSpot]

"EA rebrands Loot Boxes as "Surprise Mechanics", they're like kinder eggs"

 

Loot boxes are more like surprise butt sex than kinder eggs.  You generally feel slimy, hurt and like a cheap stupid tool after engaging in either.

Kinder eggs, ya get some awesome chocolate and a nifty little toy to occupy a niece/nephew/child with for 3hrs; for a whole dollar.  Everyone wins.  They're nothing like loot boxes.

[Herman Mcpootis]

On 6/21/2019 at 1:02 AM, porina said:

I've played a bunch of mobile gacha games in the past, and currently have settled on Azur Lane. Gotta collect all the shipgirls! See them like monetised Pokemon. Common to games of this type, there are time limited events where certain ships are available. Some can be grinded by playing the game, but many are build only. By build, it is essentially lootbox mechanic. You pay your limited game resource, and there is a certain % chance of obtaining the event ship. Apparently this game is relatively generous. Event ships are typically 2% to 2.5% chance of obtaining per single draw. 1 in 40 to 50. Not bad... until you hit a bad luck streak. I had this in a recent event. Time was running out, and I was still missing one. Gave in and dumped $40 on gems, the in game premium currency. That could then be spent on resources to allow more building. I paced myself and spent the gems over several days, but luck was not on my side. That was my first event miss. There were 3 limited ships in that event. I got a total of around 20 of the other two. I tried to work out afterwards what the chance of not getting at least one of each was, it was surprisingly high, about 1 in 8 for the amount of resource I put into it. That event I was the 1. Fortunately I do have some self control, and that was the only time (and probably will be the only time) I dump that much into them. I can afford it, but it doesn't mean I should do it. If I didn't pace myself, I could have burnt that in minutes and think about going back for some more. Someone more obsessed than me, I can see it escalating into emptying the credit card should bad luck continue. Note the game also has monthly packages and other cash buy options. I estimate in total I've spent around $180 on it in the 10 months or so playing it. That is probably comparable to my FFXIV sub and optional in game items over a similar period.

coming from EN CBT, i've never had to purchase any resources just to build an event ship. they drop enough cubes on daily commission and missions, just save up between events and as soon as you get the ship you wanted.

[porina]

3 hours ago, Herman Mcpootis said:

coming from EN CBT, i've never had to purchase any resources just to build an event ship. they drop enough cubes on daily commission and missions, just save up between events and as soon as you get the ship you wanted.

Anything RNG based will mean there is some chance of not getting what you want, no matter how many attempts. I didn't have a problem before that. There were 3 different event build only ships (equal chance). I ended up with 14 in total but one of them just wouldn't build. I was kinda surprised once I worked out the stats. The chances of building 14 and not getting a specific one was 1 in 8. That's not insignificant. 8 Akagi-chan, 6 Hiei-chan, 0 Zeppy makes me unhappy commander. Not that I'm complaining about being surrounded by Akagi-chan...

 

I've been playing since EN launch around August last year, possibly the first Facebook ad I actually acted on ever. Currently on 94.0% collection rate, with two ships I can't get: Zeppy where I will have to hope for a rerun, and Avrora from CBT. Some rumours about releasing in general but not getting my hopes up. The missing ships I can get are from ch11+ and some new ones from build pool.

 

Was there any data wipe between CBT and general release? Even though I started playing early on after launch, I felt many of the early events were really difficult. Had I been playing a little earlier in OBT or CBT (assuming no wipes), that might have given me the extra level and resources to make it easier.

[TechyBen]

How do you even know they are "RND" and not just scalping you on the promise of a never arriving "win"? It's a really really scummy business method.

[Herman Mcpootis]

1 minute ago, porina said:

I've been playing since EN launch around August last year, possibly the first Facebook ad I actually acted on ever. Currently on 94.0% collection rate, with two ships I can't get: Zeppy where I will have to hope for a rerun, and Avrora from CBT. Some rumours about releasing in general but not getting my hopes up.

 

Was there any data wipe between CBT and general release? Even though I started playing early on after launch, I felt many of the early events were really difficult. Had I been playing a little earlier in OBT or CBT (assuming no wipes), that might have given me the extra level and resources to make it easier.

pretty sure the staff said Zeppy will be added to permanent construction pool sometime in the future, Avrora was given out as an anniversary reward in the other servers last year IIRC. CBT progress was data wiped, you just got avrora a month or so after OBT started.

 

AL has been one of the more F2P friendly gachas out there, the same gold equipment as the equipment lootboxes drop can be grinded for, SSR rates aren't completely ludicrous, if event construction has an SSR with 0.5% drop rate then they're mainly from event shop or droppable on the last map. most veterans from other servers will tell you to just save up cubes when not in an event and use the gems for other things like skins and dock/dorm space instead of spending it all on resources.

[porina]

6 minutes ago, TechyBen said:

How do you even know they are "RND" and not just scalping you on the promise of a never arriving "win"? It's a really really scummy business method.

I can't prove it, I can't disprove it. But again look at the stats. It was a 1 in 8 chance for me to miss that ship with the number of builds I did, which was above average for anyone not a whale.

 

On the psychology of game stats, coincidentally I was watching a GDC video presented by Sid Meier (of Civ fame and may other games). In short, he said he had to "fiddle" the stats in the player's favour because two unlikely events happening in a short time was perceived as the game cheating on the player.