Loot boxes in Heroes of the Storm & Overwatch will be partially removed in Belgium due to regulations

[Muffin_man17]

6 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

40 dollars worth of loot boxes. Obviously no single loot box would contain 3 legendaries. 

 

1 minute ago, Brooksie359 said:

I think you are going under the assumption that the players want only one skin. If you only want one skin then yeah the single time fixed payment is better but if you want multiple skins then the loot box method is a good deal. I mean I usually pay 40 bucks and get all the legendaries I want save maybe 1 and I get enough gold to purchase that one legendary I wasn't lucky enough to get outright from the gold I got from the lootboxes. Is the system perfect? No but it isn't a ripoff either. 

So that's the thing though is it's very unlikely you would win all 3 skins in one box. The issue with loot boxes is the gambling aspect, you don't know what you'll get with your money spent. Sure removing it won't fix compulsive buying disorder but that's not what we are talking about. We are talking about gambling disorder and how loot boxes can take advantage of those people. I'm ok with loot boxes when direct buy options are available for slightly more but having ONLY loot box option just feels wrong. In the US you must be 18 or older in most states to be allowed in a Casino, what makes loot box gambling any different.

[thorhammerz]

11 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

I think you are going under the assumption that the players want only one skin. If you only want one skin then yeah the single time fixed payment is better but if you want multiple skins then the loot box method is a good deal. I mean I usually pay 40 bucks and get all the legendaries I want save maybe 1 and I get enough gold to purchase that one legendary I wasn't lucky enough to get outright from the gold I got from the lootboxes. Is the system perfect? No but it isn't a ripoff either. 

If you're spending $40 anyways, then it's obviously more profitable to give you less for the same amount of money.

6 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

It's also important to note that you can get loot idea from simply playing the game. I don't think they would have a system to unlock skins without paying money if it went to a fixed payment system. 

Dribbling a small amount of cash-shop items into the regular grind system is a good way (also tried-and-true, like League of Legends for example with their skin shards and chests) to give players an easy way to "taste" what they can obtain if they would only fork over a few $20 bills  .

[Brooksie359]

4 hours ago, Muffin_man17 said:

 

So that's the thing though is it's very unlikely you would win all 3 skins in one box. The issue with loot boxes is the gambling aspect, you don't know what you'll get with your money spent. Sure removing it won't fix compulsive buying disorder but that's not what we are talking about. We are talking about gambling disorder and how loot boxes can take advantage of those people. I'm ok with loot boxes when direct buy options are available for slightly more but having ONLY loot box option just feels wrong. In the US you must be 18 or older in most states to be allowed in a Casino, what makes loot box gambling any different.

Nobody is going to buy one loot box. It's doesn't make any sense as you can easily get one loot box just from playing the arcade. We are talking about equal cost here. If one skin costs 15 then the least you would spend on loot boxes would be 15 for a fair comparison. 

 

4 hours ago, thorhammerz said:

If you're spending $40 anyways, then it's obviously more profitable to give you less for the same amount of money.

Dribbling a small amount of cash-shop items into the regular grind system is a good way (also tried-and-true, like League of Legends for example with their skin shards and chests) to give players an easy way to "taste" what they can obtain if they would only fork over a few $20 bills  

I have gotten the vast majority of my skins from simply playing the game. It's really not that hard especially compared to the league where it takes alot to get skins. 

[Muffin_man17]

16 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

Nobody is going to buy one loot box. It's doesn't make any sense as you can easily get one loot box just from playing the arcade. We are talking about equal cost here. If one skin costs 15 then the least you would spend on loot boxes would be 15 for a fair comparison. 

Ok lets put it this way. Say that we are playing a game that does not give out loot boxes for playing but only purchasing. Say you want ( Insert character name ) skin, so you buy one loot box and don't get it, you get some item or different skin, so you buy another...and another...and another. You are now 6 loot boxes in, spending over $100 and you got several skins for characters that you don't play, now what? Are you saying it isn't better for the customer to have the option to buy that one skin they want for $20 then it is to buy a lootbox at w/e price?

[Master Delta Chief]

I'm glad that government authorities as well as certain developers/publishers (whoever is up for the decision of creating lootboxes) are getting rid of this stuff. Though I play the game from time to time, to me it was never an issue. If I wanted a skin, I just wait till I level up or just buy it from the in-game currency that I earned from playing matches. I never (as far as my memory goes) bought any kind of lootboxes. It's so stupid anyway of having them in the first place since it's just pure gambling.

 

These aren't the only games that have their lootbox system changed, take Dota 2 for example. 'Lootboxes' are still available in Dota, but now you know what's inside the box. So basically it isn't a gambling thing anymore I suppose. The more lootboxes disappear from popular games, the better.

 

EDIT: I still don't get why there are still people buying lootboxes like. You're basically hoping (gambling) for an item that you want to get, but ultimately you will be disappointed at the results of the item you gained. 

[thorhammerz]

47 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

I have gotten the vast majority of my skins from simply playing the game. It's really not that hard especially compared to the league where it takes alot to get skins. 

The classical trade-off of spending time vs. money: pay to get things 'now' (for people who have little time, or are unwilling to spend much time to opt for, those who typically possess the means to pay anyways ), or be a F2P player and contribute to the social network that whales and minnows like to play in.

[NMS]

Came to read on some civil discussions but instead found a small child from fortnite yelling at the top of his/hers lungs - @The White Lady.

 

I like it!

 

On topic: while I don't condone loot boxes, I fail to see how those in overwatch that give you ONLY cosmetic items lead to gambling addiction. Sure, some people have less self-control, but certain limits can be imposed instead of a ban; 3 boxes a week for example.

[Onehandstand]

Lootboxes are literally the only way to get skins in Overwatch (aside from OWL which is completely different). Taking away lootboxes is taking away the idea of changing the look of your favourite. I bet that there will be outrage as people in Belgium realise that their going to be missing out on all future cosmetics that they wont be able to get. People may start buying accounts as they realise that they wont be able to get their favourite skin.

[Master Delta Chief]

47 minutes ago, Onehandstand said:

Lootboxes are literally the only way to get skins in Overwatch (aside from OWL which is completely different). Taking away lootboxes is taking away the idea of changing the look of your favourite. I bet that there will be outrage as people in Belgium realise that their going to be missing out on all future cosmetics that they wont be able to get. People may start buying accounts as they realise that they wont be able to get their favourite skin.

I'm afraid your wrong. As mentioned in the first post (At least for Heroes of the Storm but I guess the same applies still for OW), you can still earn the lootboxes throughout playing matches and leveling. You just can't buy them anymore. I highly doubt there will be an outrage here in Belgium.

[Brooksie359]

3 hours ago, Muffin_man17 said:

Ok lets put it this way. Say that we are playing a game that does not give out loot boxes for playing but only purchasing. Say you want ( Insert character name ) skin, so you buy one loot box and don't get it, you get some item or different skin, so you buy another...and another...and another. You are now 6 loot boxes in, spending over $100 and you got several skins for characters that you don't play, now what? Are you saying it isn't better for the customer to have the option to buy that one skin they want for $20 then it is to buy a lootbox at w/e price?

You realize that you can't even buy one lootbox right? With 100 dollars you would have 124 lootboxes and would allow you to get any legendary skin you want with gold and most likely you would have already gotten the legendary skin anyways. I think everyone is talking like they actually play the game and have actually tried buying lootboxes. Yeah it isn't the greatest if you are just trying to get one skin but it isn't nearly as horrible as other games with similar mechanics. They have the gold system to allow you to purchase the skins you want outright and you get good form lootboxes very often. So if you get unlucky you can just buy it. That being said the system is much better for those who are buying around 20 dollars to 40 dollars worth of lootboxes. 

[Onehandstand]

1 hour ago, Brooksie359 said:

You realize that you can't even buy one lootbox right? With 100 dollars you would have 124 lootboxes and would allow you to get any legendary skin you want with gold and most likely you would have already gotten the legendary skin anyways. I think everyone is talking like they actually play the game and have actually tried buying lootboxes. Yeah it isn't the greatest if you are just trying to get one skin but it isn't nearly as horrible as other games with similar mechanics. They have the gold system to allow you to purchase the skins you want outright and you get good form lootboxes very often. So if you get unlucky you can just buy it. That being said the system is much better for those who are buying around 20 dollars to 40 dollars worth of lootboxes. 

Also to add onto this there is a system in place with all blizzard games where after a certain amount of boxes you are guaranteed a legendary of some type.

 

2 hours ago, Master Delta Chief said:

I'm afraid your wrong. As mentioned in the first post (At least for Heroes of the Storm but I guess the same applies still for OW), you can still earn the lootboxes throughout playing matches and leveling. You just can't buy them anymore. I highly doubt there will be an outrage here in Belgium.

Levelling up can be painful in Overwatch. The current only good way of levelling up is competitive due to the EXP gain but I know some people refuse to play comp due to the toxicity and salt. Some casual players who just play for the fun of it and just play in quick play have told me how long it takes to level up, usually 1 hour worth of games or more. If your in it just for the fun then your not going to want to try hard every game for the more EXP.

[Eaglerino]

8 hours ago, The White Lady said:

It's not about whether they impact gameplay or not, it's about gambling. They are gambling. You can get the same experience as a slot machine with those overwatch boxes.

"I want that one Dva skin!"

Spend 50 dollars, never get the Dva skin.

That's not gambling. Gambling is a chance to return something of a value. There's a 100% chance you'll lose that $50 and 0% chance you'll get anything of value in return

[D13H4RD]

7 hours ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

Crates and cases in Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive were disabled from being used with their respective keys in the Netherlands (and, I think Belgium) like a month ago, so this is probably Blizzard's effort in this.

Looks like unusuals are gonna stay expensive

[PlayStation 2]

1 minute ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

Looks like unusuals are gonna stay expensive

Tell that to the taunts and the high tiers unboxable by the multi-class crates.

[D13H4RD]

27 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

Tell that to the taunts and the high tiers unboxable by the multi-class crates.

Or Heavy unusuals

[PlayStation 2]

Just now, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

Or Heavy unusuals

heavy unusuals were never expensive

I'd say same with Pyro unusuals but the Pyro does have the Cat's Pajamas and the Pyromancer's Mask

people love shitty miscs

[ZacoAttaco]

I wonder what the Belgium government thinks of machines like these? Worst still these machines are known to be rigged.

 

I can see the similarity to Overwatch lootboxes and HoTS Chests. You're still paying for the chance of obtaining something.

 

What's everyone's thoughts?

[D13H4RD]

4 hours ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

heavy unusuals were never expensive

I'd say same with Pyro unusuals but the Pyro does have the Cat's Pajamas and the Pyromancer's Mask

people love shitty miscs

Inb4 weapon unusual apocalypse 

[Brooksie359]

14 hours ago, Master Delta Chief said:

I'm glad that government authorities as well as certain developers/publishers (whoever is up for the decision of creating lootboxes) are getting rid of this stuff. Though I play the game from time to time, to me it was never an issue. If I wanted a skin, I just wait till I level up or just buy it from the in-game currency that I earned from playing matches. I never (as far as my memory goes) bought any kind of lootboxes. It's so stupid anyway of having them in the first place since it's just pure gambling.

 

These aren't the only games that have their lootbox system changed, take Dota 2 for example. 'Lootboxes' are still available in Dota, but now you know what's inside the box. So basically it isn't a gambling thing anymore I suppose. The more lootboxes disappear from popular games, the better.

 

EDIT: I still don't get why there are still people buying lootboxes like. You're basically hoping (gambling) for an item that you want to get, but ultimately you will be disappointed at the results of the item you gained. 

I have bought lootboxes if there was a skin I really wanted and never didn't get the ability to get it through either getting it in one if the lootboxes or having enough in game currency to get it. 

[Sauron]

I play heroes of the storm quite a lot and I agree the loot boxes are an exploitative system. Ironically, when they were first introduced into the game they only benefitted free to play users and completely screwed paying players. Before then, most skins could only be aquired with real money and you could individually purchase the ones you wanted (at a fairly high price, but at least it was clear what you were getting).

 

With the 2.0 patch, every skin became purchaseable with ingame currency, however they split said currency from the one used to buy "heroes" and prevented you from buying skins with real money through the cosmetics store - the only way to obtain them became purchasing loot boxes or using ingame currency that is only gained through loot box duplicates. They also released hundreds of cosmetics nobody really cares about to lower the chances of rolling something you actually want.

 

They have backtracked on that recently, the last few heroes to be released only have their standard skin and a premium skin that can only be purchased directly with real money, but that doesn't really make the loot boxes go away and it hurts the rest of the playerbase who can't really afford to pay up every time a new hero is released.

15 hours ago, DarkBlade2117 said:

As much as it is bad, we need to enforce it on games that people actually sink life savings into. OW I feel no significant need to open boxes, selling an account can get you banned, You can't sell any of them for money, get duplicates until you own like 80% of the items. People target the fuck out of OW but it's not even half as bad as fucking PUBG, CS and other games. PUBG... one item was like a 0.000014% chance to get or something dumb like that. Even in Rocket League, the rarest items to get now are like 0.001% which is bad, but not as bad as PUBG. These other games where you have to chance to buy and sell the items for real money is where gambling comes into play. I'm not saying we ignore OW, but we need to take a step towards making them better first. Obliterating them just will not happen overnight.

I assure you there are people sinking untold amounts of money into OW and that's ridiculous for a game that has a box price. Just because pubg is worse doesn't mean ow is acceptable.

[ItsMitch]

22 minutes ago, Sauron said:

the last few heroes to be released only have their standard skin and a premium skin that can only be purchased directly with real money

ngl that method is still garbage, gem only skin packs are still awful in my eyes. 

(also, tracer or genji main? kappa)

[Master Delta Chief]

45 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

I have bought lootboxes if there was a skin I really wanted and never didn't get the ability to get it through either getting it in one if the lootboxes or having enough in game currency to get it. 

Well that's a big shame and just plainly stupid in-game. From a marketing perspective I get it, but then again we're still talking about gambling. It didn't take you like one try to get an item (unless you were lucky of course). The thing which makes me like mad about these days about games I payed, is that this sort of lootbox system is almost implemented everywhere. I sorta get it when you have this system in F2P games, but that's almost the same thing. There's something else about payed games I don't like but that's kinda different then what we're talking about here.

[Doobeedoo]

Wouldn't mind if this was in general though not just there. 

[suicidalfranco]

33 minutes ago, SC2Mitch said:

ngl that method is still garbage, gem only skin packs are still awful in my eyes. 

(also, tracer or genji main? kappa)

Nova all day, every day kappa

[Sauron]

1 hour ago, SC2Mitch said:

ngl that method is still garbage, gem only skin packs are still awful in my eyes. 

(also, tracer or genji main? kappa)

Oh I agree, it's just a little less awful if you're willing to pay for those skins.

 

Alarak main of course!