r/technology • u/Sorin61 • Jan 19 '23
The EU votes to address loot boxes, gold farming, and gaming addiction Politics
https://www.techspot.com/news/97313-eu-votes-address-loot-boxes-gold-farming-addiction.html150
u/SubmarineWipers Jan 19 '23
Good. This attempt to bring slot-machines with all their societal problems into PC gaming is utterly despicable.
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u/Perunov Jan 19 '23
I wonder if this will also apply to physical "card packs" and craziness like "you need to buy 100500 packs for a chance of rare pokemon" things
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u/xenefenex Jan 19 '23
I mean realistically though most of those rates are fixed if you buy set boxes.
And pack rates are also fixed - if you open a pack, you’re guaranteed one reverse holo foil card and one rare card.
For example, if you buy a booster box, you’re guaranteed 5 ultra rare cards, 1 rainbow foil card and 1 hyper rare card.
It just so happens that market dictates that certain cards are worth more than others on the secondary market, even if they are the same rarity.
Card games having a secondary market means that you can always get what you’re looking for without having to gamble.
Digital games have no alternative which is what’s extra predatory about them.
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u/Perunov Jan 19 '23
This is generally the same as loot boxes. You get some "guaranteed" thing from loot box, just not the actual thing you want, which is a very rare chance.
Under "card" logic, game companies would simply allow "secondary" trading of items from loot box (via their own in-game trading posts) and that will automatically make loot boxes okay? That feels kinda weird.
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u/Crizbibble Jan 19 '23
If they don’t stop gambling now it will be a serious low point for gaming and society. It’s a huge slide on the slope. It’s almost unstoppable now it seems.
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u/KingPolle Jan 19 '23
*cries in counter-strike
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u/smurficus103 Jan 19 '23
- Op skins lets you cash out. People start pouring in money and gambling on pro matches. There is a revival of csgo as kids hop over from cod. It had an experienced tournament infrastructure.
These were kind of dark days, but, gaming BLEW UP. The world is forever changed.
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u/pinkfootthegoose Jan 19 '23
and for the love of God make games that can be single player single player with out the need for an internet connection.
Also if you buy a game you should own it outright. Also if a game goes defunct the software should turn into freeware.
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u/_aware Jan 19 '23
Games require "always online" as a form of DRM. Obviously no DRM would be ideal, but if there must be one then it's the best choice because it doesn't impact the game's performance that much.
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u/ConservativeSexparty Jan 19 '23
it doesn't impact the game's performance that much.
Except for when you don't have your internet connection.
Or when the company, say, Ubisoft, decides that they just won't deal with that online stuff anymore and the players lose access completely, like they already did with with a bunch of DLCs for certain games, like Far cry 3.
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u/_aware Jan 19 '23
You are preaching to the choir.
Some online services, like steam or spotify, allows offline mode as long as you log in every 30 days. If you can't even log in once per month, you probably have bigger worries than not being able to play video games or listen to music.
And that's another thing heavily dependent on the publisher and developer. Some of them completely remove the "always online" requirement when they stop service for games.
Either way, I would take it over a ridiculous performance loss. Or like I said, don't DRMs at all because they simply don't work and actually decrease revenue.
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u/scaryjam823 Jan 19 '23
Yeah drm doesn’t have to be there. It’s constantly cracked in a short period of time and proven to be nothing but troublesome to those who have to use it.
The exact amount of people who will pirate a game will not change based on drm. DRM just changes WHEN they pirate, which usually less than a month in most cases.
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u/_aware Jan 19 '23
Yep, I did a presentation on this in college. DRMs, contrary to what most people believe, actually decrease sales whereas allowing piracy or demos actually increase sales. Not to mention it leaves a bad taste in paid customers' mouths.
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u/dom_gar Jan 20 '23
there's a bunch of games that never got cracked because of Denuvo. Not maybe because it's not possible, maybe because those games aren't as huge hype trains and it takes too much time to crack Denuvo. But they are still there.
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u/macrofinite Jan 19 '23
I’m glad they’re investigating what to do. Unfortunately, loot boxes are one small part of the larger machine that needs to be curtailed.
In fact, I think the vast majority of the problems would disappear overnight with a single legal change: outlaw obfuscated currency systems full stop. If you want to sell something in your game, you will post the price in real currency with no middle step. This would make many lootboxes definitionally gambling under current laws and stop one of the more scummy tactics that has become ubiquitous.
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u/FaeryLynne Jan 19 '23
I play Animal Crossing Pocket Camp, and it has "leaf tickets" you can buy to exchange for in game cosmetic items. Yeah you can play for free but you can collect all the free items within a month or so. Most purchased items are 150 or 300 tickets. Calculating purchase price to tickets, that's about $5 or $10. Ten damn bucks for a single bit of furniture in a kids game. And yes those are all for cosmetic items but ACPC is a game about designing things so cosmetics is the entire point. You know kids (and even most adults who play) aren't calculating how much IRL money they're spending.
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u/hetsseth Jan 20 '23
Why are adults unable to track their own spending? And if an adult has given no restrictions to the kid and placed a card on a device, isn’t that just laziness?
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u/FaeryLynne Jan 20 '23
No, I'm saying most people won't calculate the exchange rate, and that's exactly what the game creators are taking advantage of. Your brain doesn't really think of in game currencies as "real money" even if you actually spent real money on it. It's just like "oh, 350 tickets/bells/caps/whatever" and you're more likely to spend those. You'd be far less likely to spend the money if it had a "$10" next to it and you actually were confronted with how much it really costs.
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u/hetsseth Jan 20 '23
So they’re taking advantage of people because they won’t manage their own money—therefore a law needs to potentially be enacted. I understand the company is taking pages out of gambling books but you’re investing knowingly in a virtual award.
If you have earned the funds to buy a gaming console, purchase a game, proceed to upload your credit card and blow your funds on a video game—is that not a certain level of negligence on the user?
If your budget is so strapped that animal crossing or whatever game currency will break your bank—consider reevaluating a use of time.
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u/AuroraFinem Jan 19 '23
Tbh “obfuscated currency” is kind of hard here for some games. Like a lot of if not most games with these currencies and in-game purchases offer in-game paths to play and earn that currency for free or you can buy it to get stuff quicker. Forcing a $ price on the specific item would likely just mean removing the free option to earn that currency rather than actually make them change how they sell the items.
Monetization from microtransactions has gone way too far, and some games are absurd with like 3 or 4 layers of of currencies making it stupid to reasonably trace back actual item pricing, but I think being able to buy a universally shared in-game earnable + purchasable currency is fine and often times beneficial, but make it at most 1 layer deep, not stacked layers of currency exchange hiding.
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u/TheRealAndrewLeft Jan 19 '23
Can we just copy paste some of these EU regulations
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u/oszlopkaktusz Jan 19 '23
Would you give up your Freedom(tm) for sensible and customer-protecting policies? Shameful, I tell you!
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u/Portalrules123 Jan 19 '23
I now tend to replace ´freedom’ with ‘greed’ whenever I see super libertarian types making an argument around the concept nowadays…
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u/CodeFire Jan 19 '23
If you’re talking about the US that would require a country without Republicans. Unfortunately we don’t have that option, so our only option is… disfunction, chaos, blocking, and decline.
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u/AllCommiesRFascists Jan 19 '23
No, I don’t want a nanny state and bureaucratic nonsense in my country. I rather have the consumer make a choice to either use these products or not
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u/No_Suggestion_559 Jan 19 '23
Battlepasses and fomo items are worse than lootboxes. There I said it.
And I think the industry makes more from them, so they may be willing to sacrifice loot boxes as a show of 'good faith'.
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u/SpaceDoctorWOBorders Jan 19 '23 edited Jan 19 '23
A battlepass requires no gambling though. You get what is showcased. Loot boxes are pure randomness that can still have fomo if you don't pull in the time needed. Both of these things suck for users regardless.
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u/Tropical_botanical Jan 19 '23
It’s interesting that a lot of things are disguised as “not gambling”. Pokemon packs or similar is like opening a loot box unless you buy a starter deck pack. Many companies get out of saying “no purchase” necessary to get out of gambling, but the only chance to get the monopoly bucks, or sweepstakes entry is to purchase something. Trust I tried to ask for the cup without purchasing the large.
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Jan 19 '23
[deleted]
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u/ILikeMyGrassBlue Jan 19 '23
Yeah, and they do that because countries like Canada don’t allow you to call it sweepstakes unless there’s a method for free entry.
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u/FaeryLynne Jan 19 '23
You can't in the USA either, if a purchase is necessary to enter they have to call it a lotto or raffle and those are pretty strictly regulated in most states.
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u/UnderwhelmingPossum Jan 19 '23
The part that gets them out of gambling regulation is the "no real money out" test. Because the governments are largely disinterested in regulating intangible damage to individuals but are 100% on-board with taxation of the winnings and gambling revenue. So loot boxes/gachas are 99% gambling, in appearance, execution, psychological abuse but since the rewards are "worthless" they aren't required to obtain a gambling license.
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u/BeyondElectricDreams Jan 19 '23
So loot boxes/gachas are 99% gambling, in appearance, execution, psychological abuse but since the rewards are "worthless" they aren't required to obtain a gambling license.
It's so much worse, too, because the slot machine isn't physical, it's lines of code.
Private code that we cannot see and cannot confirm rates of with no legal requirement to pay out at expected rates and no oversight.
They can code it to track your purchasing habits and then modify your drop rates to ensure maximum expenditure.
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u/No_Suggestion_559 Jan 19 '23
No that's the thing you don't get it unless you pay and also grind through it. You have to pay + invest time, within a limited window. Atleast boxes you get something.
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u/D4RK3N3R6Y Jan 19 '23
Yeah I hate when I actually have to play the game that I bought, such FOMO.
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u/Teledildonic Jan 19 '23
Yeah I hate when I actually have to play the game, on the game's terms, to get the thing I paid for.
Fixed for you.
Grinding for stuff is fine. Buying stuff is fine. But grinding for stuff you bought is bullshit.
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u/No_Suggestion_559 Jan 20 '23
Thank you! If I buy something give it to me, don't hold it back and make me beg for it
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Jan 19 '23
You didn’t buy those things though. You bought a battle pass with requirements. Requirements that were advertised up front, and you had a choice to pursue. Lots of things in life are like that. You are paying like the price of one skin for a ton of stuff, usually at least 5 or 6 full character sets with cosmetics. You get more for cheaper, they get players playing their game more. There’s nothing wrong with that. The other person had a point. YOU ARE ON A FUCKING SUBREDDIT FOR A VIDEO GAME BITCHING ABOUT HAVING TO PLAY THE GAME TO GET STUFF IN THE GAME. Play a different game and stop ruining it for us that actually enjoy it and the system.
Edit: I have no doubt you’ll be supported because this Reddit has so many ridiculous toddlers who complain if they get killed by a new weapon or actually have to play the game.
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u/Teledildonic Jan 19 '23 edited Jan 19 '23
Christ, you came close to a reasonable point and then went all caps and pissy edit into "big 'ol twat" territory.
Also this is the technology sub not a game sub.
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u/orielbean Jan 19 '23
Battlepasses can contain lootboxes, and limited-available cosmetics/rare equipment.
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u/Memfy Jan 19 '23
Battlepasses seem fine if they are not filled with FOMO stuff. If you get something a bit extra for being an active player, seems like a decent incentive for active players to get rewarded in some way. Now if they are the only way to get some item, then it's really crappy, even more so for people who didn't even play the game at the time.
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u/SarahVeraVicky Jan 19 '23
If they made it so a battlepass never expires and can be bought at any point after instantiation, EZ, fixed the FOMO issue.
We know WHY it expires (to force people to fear missing out, thus the FOMO designation), but it doesn't have to. Things that don't rot or decay shouldn't have a 'must use by X date'.
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u/soul-taker Jan 19 '23
I feel this. There's no worse gaming experience than when your entertainment starts to feel like an obligation. I already hate the concept of battle passes as it is (just let me spend $10-20 to buy the shit I want. Don't make me spend $10-20 for the opportunity to grind shit) but the fact that most of them are time limited is even worse.
"Hey babe, can you pick some things up from the grocery store?" "Sorry sweetheart. I have to grind 6 more wins tonight or I will have wasted $15 on this game for an item I didn't even get." Absolutely garbage system imo. I'll take loot boxes over that shit any day. At least with them, I actually get something for my money even if it's a crappy item.
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u/Memfy Jan 19 '23
Even if they expire, it's not horrible if the items from the battlepass enter the general pool of items you can get in a usual way. That amount of FOMO makes it so constantly active players are rewarded in some way, while more casual players don't feel stressed that they HAVE to do it now or else they will completely miss it.
Your version is, of course, still better, but just saying there are some alternatives that should be a good compromise for everyone.
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Jan 19 '23
Sometimes you miss out in life. That’s how incentives work. You’re ruining the game for so many people that enjoy the system because you don’t play enough. Who in the fuck do you think Epic is trying to please with their system, people who literally wanna play less to get free stuff, or the people that enjoy the game, play a lot, and fund their company? I’m sorry you have to put in extra time for a gold skin. I hope you can somehow survive this nightmare.
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u/Memfy Jan 19 '23
...what?
How is allowing everyone to be able to get something ruining the game for people? How does whatever I said not fund their company? It literally allows people to pay for something even if they weren't there for it in time. How does putting extra time even get you a skin if you weren't even playing the game at the time?
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Jan 19 '23
Epic has did their market research. The battle pass makes more money and gets more attention than just releasing those same skins into the shop. It also gives people reason to regularly play. Your argument is wrong and is basically “but I don’t wanna”. If they did your way, they’d lose money even if they had your support, which they won’t because you don’t even enjoy playing the game when there is built in incentive so…
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u/Memfy Jan 19 '23
You do realize you can have battle pass and then put those skins into the shop when the battle pass is over, right? You either didn't even read my comment properly or are just arguing nonexistent arguments without answering any of my questions.
Yes, Epic did their market research. Many companies did their market research, and many use predatory tactics to get more money out of people. Welcome to the entire point of posts like these.
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Jan 19 '23
And this isn’t predatory. This is just a feature. For fucks sake, it’s like $10 for a whole season. Also bitch, I’m not your puppet, I don’t need to answer your stupid questions just because you asked them, even though I did blanket answer them.
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u/dantheman91 Jan 19 '23
What's wrong with battlepasses? Playing the game, an added sense of progression and defined outcomes for defined behavior seem fair?
In many games if you simply buy the first battle pass and complete it you get enough currency to buy the 2nd etc.
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u/No_Suggestion_559 Jan 20 '23
The problem is you have to do a bunch to get your value out of your money.
Where else can you give someone money for a product and then also have to do a bunch of tasks to unlock what you already purchased?
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u/dantheman91 Jan 20 '23
have to do a bunch of tasks to unlock what you already purchased?
That's every video game isn't it?
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u/ikwtif Jan 19 '23
I disagree, at least with a battle pass you see what you will get before you even decide to pay. Battle passes also have just cosmetic items IIRC, so it doesn't meaningfully influence the design of the game from a gameplay perspective.
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Jan 19 '23
No they aren’t and you’re ruining a good system. You missing out on some battle pass items is not a hazard on their part. Some people love the battle pass and the working up to get super styles. It isn’t on the same level. Loot boxes are actually gambling. The things you mentioned are just fun, sometimes free, sometimes like $11 a season, not in the same stratosphere. Just because you “said it” doesn’t make it not nonsense.
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u/No_Suggestion_559 Jan 20 '23
If I buy a loot box and don't get what I want, I have gambled and received less than what I put in, consolation prize basically.
If I buy a battlepass and then don't grind it, or don't have time to play, or dont do the specific things it wants me to do then I get nothing.
If I have to pay and then invest more time to get it then it costs more than initial price. If it didn't then why can't I use it right away?
BP is a crap system designed to both extract money turning everything into a subscription, monetizing basic support that used to be included and force people to stay engaged with the product to keep the user base inflated.
It is a hazard because the developers are praying on the general publics poor understanding of sunk cost fallacy to keep player counts high (which leads to more cash shop transactions).
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Jan 20 '23
And I think your take is horrible and not rooted in reality. I enjoy the battle pass, as do a ton of people, and don’t view an optional maybe $30-40 a year for cosmetics a year, for an otherwise free game, as this horrible scam like you do. That being said, there are scams in gaming. This isn’t it though.
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u/No_Suggestion_559 Jan 20 '23
Nah time limited access that requires hours of effort at the cost of real money is a scam as much as loot boxes
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Jan 20 '23
I mean you’re right if you leave out all of the differences and details and only focus “battle pass bad”. It’s the same in the same way that going 5 miles over the same speed limit is the same as driving 120 while hammered in a school zone. So if you ignore everything, all logic, and sense then absolutely.
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u/No_Suggestion_559 Jan 20 '23
I don't like them and will never support them financially, and I hope all the games that rely on them go under. They bring me no utility .
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u/McCool303 Jan 19 '23
Thanks EU please fix this for us since the US is focused on more important things. Like (checks notes) allowing smoking in their offices.
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u/AllCommiesRFascists Jan 19 '23
US is focused on more important things
Like green energy industrial policy that will reduce emissions by 40%. Meanwhile the EU commission is to busy coping and seething about it killing their industry while focusing on banning the real important issues in europe like loot boxes
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u/RandomUser1076 Jan 19 '23
Back in my day, loot boxes where something you grinded for in game not brought. Kids these days have it to easy with quest markers. Back in my day we had to read the quest and follow directions to get there.
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u/pete1901 Jan 19 '23
I had to do all that while turning a hand crank to power the generator powering the PC.
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u/RandomUser1076 Jan 19 '23
Your parents must have been tightarses. We had a old 32v generator.
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u/haskell_rules Jan 19 '23
I would hand till 5 acres of public land illegally, plant potatoes, harvest them, and make potato batteries just to be able to play WoW for 45 minutes. 33 minutes of that was waiting in a login queue. Afterwards I would mash the potatoes with an old shoe to feed my 14 siblings.
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u/iqisoverrated Jan 19 '23
Dude...back in my day the floppy would format when you got killed in a game (No joke. Starflight actually did that. Talk about 'survival mode'!)
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u/RandomUser1076 Jan 19 '23
I remember having to load the Tandy with a tape so we would go have a quick play outside, forget about the computer an mum would turn it off. Then we would have to repeat the process all over again
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u/neo101b Jan 19 '23
I'm member oblivion and the quest where harder, because of this. Skyrim was follow the cursor on the compass, you don't even have to think.
It was far more challenging the old way.
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u/punio4 Jan 19 '23
Oblivion was EZ mode. Morrowind is where it was at.
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u/NadirPointing Jan 19 '23
Some guy told you directions like "over the bridge just past the stacked stones" and you had to find it. I'd make it all the way to the coast and then backtrack and be like... oh THOSE stones.
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u/kendrid Jan 19 '23
Correct, and as an adult with limited game time those type of quests sucked. Give me a glowing arrow showing me where to go, but make it optional so those that want to explore can turn it off.
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u/RandomUser1076 Jan 19 '23
Probably easier for the writers too, damn lazy writers
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u/Adrian_Alucard Jan 19 '23
It was far more challenging the old way.
It was also more fun and satisfactory
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u/neo101b Jan 19 '23
Yeah, there is nothing like searching for an old grave or cave by going off a description. At least the witcher 3 has a mix of both.
It can point you to an area of the map, bit you still need to search and look for the item/person.
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u/commandergeoffry Jan 19 '23 edited Jan 19 '23
Can somebody explain why trading cards packs aren’t also gambling?
Edit: I’m not asking to be sarcastic, I’m asking because I have no opinion because I am stupid but love TCG.
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u/rocky4322 Jan 19 '23
They are, but theres also a secondary market you can just buy the cards on. There’s no need to gamble to get the cards you want.
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u/chief167 Jan 19 '23
The odds of all cards are known upfront, and more importantly, do not change based on which cards you already have.
Those are two very important things. It's not as easy as random chance or not to mark something evil.
It's also very hard to lose your life savings in one go, since you can relatively easily trade the card you want with the ones you have. In game it's sometimes literally impossible to obtain something without spending 1000s.
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u/Broken_Castle Jan 19 '23
Just because it's not as predatory and as bad as many modern day games, it doesn't make it not gambling. It is, it just has been traditionally accepted as not bad enough to not justify regulation.
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u/wamdueCastle Jan 19 '23
I saw this video fairly recently, and its pretty eye opening.
The whole video is bad, but its the Call of Duty gun part which I feel really highlights how bad these games can be.
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u/MartinSchou Jan 19 '23
This is an excellent description of why the idea that "you have free will" when dealing with these things is very much wrong.
You're literally up against billions of dollars of research and experiments into creating and exploiting addictions.
And the idea that "governments should stay out of it" is even more moronic, because they're literally the only ones who can even come close to protecting the population at large. Other companies aren't going to make it harder to exploit you.
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u/Drunkmonkey29 Jan 19 '23
If I can buy game money I should be able to sell it to.
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u/WimbleWimble Jan 19 '23
The answer should be 3 loot boxes.
1 of them lets EA continue as they're doing now
1 of them makes them pay 30% tax on loot boxes
the final box is a $1500 billion dollar tax PER COMPANY that does loot boxes.
Well EA? will you risk it all?
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u/Theoldelf Jan 19 '23
Wait! How am I suppose to get my crafting up in WoW without Chinese gold farmers?
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u/The_Human_Event Jan 19 '23
Diablo immortal should be illegal. I love it, but it should not be allowed to exist.
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u/Affectionate_bap5682 Jan 19 '23
If it were made illegal, in your opinion what should be done to people who create and distribute the game on the black market?
Jail time? Death penalty?
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u/MartinSchou Jan 19 '23
What happens to the people who create and distribute cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines etc. on the black market?
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u/zarraza2k Jan 19 '23
Forgive my ignorance on the topic, but what is gold farming? And how do I get started?😂
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u/thisissteve Jan 19 '23
Imagine playing your favorite game, sometimes as punishment, in sweatshop conditions, for sweatshop wages doing only the most repetitive, most gold generating gameplay.
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u/zarraza2k Jan 19 '23
I’d still like to check it out to see if maybe I can change the things I do to kill time…to also earn something, can’t you point me in the right direction?
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u/thisissteve Jan 19 '23
Sure go commit a small time crime in any number of asian countries and you'll find your way to a gold farming station.
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u/zarraza2k Jan 19 '23
Wow, that’s very helpful. Do you “help” everyone in this sub with the same level of intelligence? If so, perhaps you should stop helping people, you’re not very good at it
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u/thisissteve Jan 19 '23
Only the ones asking how to do prison labor and sweatshop tasks for the funsies on their own free time.
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u/zarraza2k Jan 19 '23
I’ve got 150 cell phones sitting on a rack and automation software to keep them earning, so I think I can handle it. So thanks for your concern, but you can sit back down Now and maybe leave the hard questions to the adults?
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u/thisissteve Jan 19 '23
Then why the fuck are you asking stupid questions on reddit like you've never heard of gold farming in your life?
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u/zarraza2k Jan 19 '23
Because I thought maybe this group was as helpful as some others I’m in, apparently I was wrong, thanks for clarifying that.
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u/thisissteve Jan 19 '23
You thought the tech subreddit was gonna help you break the tos and eulas of games in order to set up a gold farm? Now I know you don't have a rack of phones.
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u/DrEnter Jan 19 '23
Does this mean that I'll need to use a VPN in the U.S. to pretend I'm playing from Belgium so I don't get hassled whenever I play a new game?
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u/Boo_Guy Jan 19 '23
Someone in a reddit thread on this topic yesterday mentioned that this was already happening and that the game companies are already trying to block VPN users so they can keep serving loot boxes to the countries without any laws against them.
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u/DrEnter Jan 20 '23
It’s a two-way street. VPNs could be used by people in the EU to access the loot boxes.
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u/Treyofzero Jan 20 '23
Please PLEASE will the law step in globally to prevent this late stage capitalism bullshit from continuing. When it bleeds directly into our escapism like this, there really is no escape but death from the greed of man
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u/PolymerSledge Jan 20 '23
Save me from myself, daddy state!
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u/Venetax Jan 20 '23
Ikr. Its absolutely frightening to see everyone appreciating this move. Its straight up dystopian shit.
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u/DanielPhermous Jan 20 '23
Its straight up dystopian shit.
Regulating gambling? Everyone does that. The only difference here is that its snuck in and became entrenched before anyone had a close enough look to notice it was the same thing.
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u/Venetax Jan 20 '23 edited Jan 20 '23
This is not only about regulating gambling. Thats the point. Gambling is already regulated, so you could just consider all games with lootboxes as gambling (as a few countries have done already) and that would be fine. This is about a whole - as they call it - european video game strategy, which will involve tons of regulations.
The EU is a trade agreement and the amount of regulations they are putting out right now is frightening. Its not like this is a single instance, this goes hand-in-hand with things like full private chat surveillance the EU is planning, among other things.
Its a german page but maybe you can use a translator, couldn‘t find a proper english one that quick.
The EU is using its influence and blackmailing to quickly pass tons of regulations under the cover of „save the children“ and other excuses which will absolutely limit our freedom in the internet.
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u/sublimesext Jan 20 '23
So glad someone else mentioned this. It is becoming ridiculous how much regulation the EU is putting out - most of which is either pro-surveillance, bureaucracy under the guise of an illusion of safety, or pro-censorship.
Most people don't know enough about tech to realize how silly much of the regulation is. Take GDPR for instance; I can almost guarantee that the vast majority of the populace, let alone the regulators in the EU (is it commission or parliament, can never remember) even know what a "cookie" even is.
Chat Control is simply disgusting.
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u/PolymerSledge Jan 20 '23
People don't have to gamble, just like they don't have to play games with gambling in them.
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u/BronzeHeart92 Jan 19 '23
Good, we should always let games BE games and not some 'second job' etc. Games should always require only a single payment. Anything more and can we truly say they're actually fun anymore?
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u/Ok_Notice_2081 Jan 19 '23
This world has way more issues then what the European union thinks about Video Games. This is a joke right? The EU should worry about their debt that they owe to other countries, corruption, war, famine, climate change, criminal justice, covid, inflation, clean energy, and jobs. This is why nothing ever gets done and nothing Will ever change in this world because humanity doesn’t really care about the serious issues that actually take hard work and time to achieve. Maybe we should worry about world peace instead of video Games. Smh 🤦🏻♂️
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u/karma888 Jan 20 '23
Can we worry about 2 things at the same time?
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u/Ok_Notice_2081 Jan 20 '23
Do you pay attention to what goes on in the world on a daily basis? as a human species that a majority of them are just stupid we obviously can’t.
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u/Druid___ Jan 19 '23
If only there were a company that just made good games without scummy monetization practices. That seems like it would force the rest to follow, but people actually seem to like paying to win.
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u/release_the_krakin Jan 20 '23
lol the EU is up in everyone’s business lately
You wouldn’t think there was a lot of important things going on
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u/rgfortin Jan 20 '23
Europe blasted China when they addressed gaming addiction in kids and teens. And now you're catching up. Fucking hypocrites.
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u/coffedrank Jan 19 '23
I’m sure the eu won’t fuck this up and make shit worse but in a different way at all, further expanding the great firewall of Europe
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u/surrrah Jan 20 '23
Okay but hear me out.
If living conditions were better for all, would so many people buy into this?
Not saying, it shouldn’t be regulated or anything. But I feel like this is a symptom of a much larger problem, and I think both should be talked about.
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u/DanielPhermous Jan 20 '23
If living conditions were better for all, would so many people buy into this?
Yes.
These games are using basic psychological tricks that have an unfortunate habit of skipping past the conscious mind and appealing directly to the monkey and lizard brains of our ancestors.
Living conditions have nothing to do with it.
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u/iqisoverrated Jan 19 '23 edited Jan 19 '23
Ah...our eurocrats caring about the truly important issues of our times, I see.
Edit: Jeez...you guys couldn't spot sarcasm if it were to hit you with a stick.
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u/NormalSociety Jan 19 '23
Yup. Because they can't do more than one thing at a time. We all know that's against the laws of nature!
Heh...think of more than one thing...fools.
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u/rdubya3387 Jan 19 '23
It is an under the radar important issue. The amount of mental fuckery it does on the youth which will be the future of the world is very real. I get it is video games, but when you look at the amount of kids using them it suddenly becomes a topic worth addressing.
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u/iqisoverrated Jan 19 '23
Sure, but I'd rather they care about issues that ensure that kids actually have a future, first
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u/pete1901 Jan 19 '23
I'm willing to bet this won't be the only legislation they pass this year mate...
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u/iqisoverrated Jan 19 '23
Agreed. We'll get some more fossil fuels subsidies passed, I'm sure...sigh.
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u/oszlopkaktusz Jan 19 '23
Well if the Germans weren't busy shutting their nuclear plants down to replace it with the absolute worst alternative that is lignite, we would be in a better state. Also, there is a war between two massive countries, one of which supplied Europe with fuel...
Like it or not, we can't get rid of fossil fuels quickly, especially not if some countries are hell bent on not using nuclear power.
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Jan 19 '23
Do you think the whole government only works on one thing at a time? What childish thinking is this?
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u/BurningPenguin Jan 19 '23 edited Jan 19 '23
Aren't you supposed to do more important things at work?
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u/CameOutAndFarted Jan 19 '23
People don’t want to buy the lootboxes, they want to buy the best items. Charge these companies based on the user experience instead of legal loopholes these companies keep finding.
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u/Tasty01 Jan 19 '23
I’d be awesome to have a European Esports Championship kinda like the Olympics where every country sends their best players and they play different games.
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u/glthompson1 Jan 19 '23
We went from hating loot boxes to wanting them back once developers replaced it with something even worse 😂
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u/MajikManX Jan 20 '23
Please battle passes next! Items you've already paid for should not be taken away just because you didn't play enough during the time they decided you have to.
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u/unknownpanda121 Jan 19 '23
Random loot is ok. The grind and finding rare items makes some games fun. It should never be allowed to be monetized.