Rather than doing away with the loot boxes system, Valve are going with whatever loophole they can it seems. They've updated Counter-Strike: Global Offensive just for French players to include an X-ray Scanner.
It's no secret that many countries are looking into the issues surrounding loot box gambling, something I am happy about because it's a terrible system. Valve also have issues with France, especially considering the recent legal ruling about reselling your digital games.
So what have Valve done? If you play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in France you now have to buy the P250 | X-Ray non-tradable item. After that, you gain access to the crate scanning ability. However, once you scan a crate you're then stuck with that until you buy the item shown, even if you don't want it. On top of that, French players also cannot buy these crates from the Steam Market any more.
Here's a good video that shows it off:
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Honestly, I hope Valve take some lessons being learned with Dota Underlords to apply to their older games like CS:GO. A Battle Pass system is a far nicer way to monetize a free game in my opinion. The most important thing being you know what you're going to get and when, which would make me personally more likely to give over my own monies. However, that would completely mess up their Steam Marketplace which they probably earn a fair bit from which is why they're not doing it. I'm sure there would be ways around it to still make it a thing though, there's a lot of smart people at Valve.
See the release notes here and find CS:GO free on Steam.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Kimyrielle Oct 2, 2019
Quoting: einherjarPut the skins in the Community market and sell them for money to the gamers.
Why is that so difficult?
Lootboxes are more profitable. People want this awesome shiny weapon skin that drops only from these silly boxes, so they open box, after box, after box. Just. One. More. Box. It. Must. Drop. Eventually.... MUST!!! And with every mouse-click, 3-5 bucks go down the drain and more of the useless junk that makes up 99.999% of the drop-table fills the player's inventory...
When they finally get it, they have not realized that they spent $300 on that awesome shiny weapon skin.
If they'd sell that weapon skin in the store with a $300 pricetag, players would (rightfully so) call them clinically insane.
Yes, it's essentially fraud, but since it's not (yet) illegal, I guess the term being used by them is "ingenious business model"
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Quoting: PatolaYou answered your own question: you mention Adam Smith which is far from a free market defender, indeed he was one of the main inspirations of Marx himself in his economics. For some reason, many teaching institutions (universities, colleges, etc.) refuse to acknowledge or let known any real libertarian theory (*) and arguments, specially the Austrian School of EconomicsIMO, the reason would be that they're a pile of nonsense, both economically and philosophically.
A sidelight: I was interested to find out a while ago that the works of Ayn Rand are in good part popular because of the efforts by certain right wing think tanks to subsidize their sale and their placement in such places as school and university libraries. So much for free markets.
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Quoting: PatolaGame developers/publishers might not be the most honest people, but giving power to politicians to rule over the gaming market is the worst possible thing to do. Just give time for the market to go where users want. More regulation causes less competition, which slows or even prevents that process.
Abstract: don't trust (wo)men, trust the golden calf (sorry the "Market", which is known to manage everything perfectly oups!
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Quoting: Patolasince the theories which seem to assume the most virtuous humans are socialist theories which need virtuous government agents working on the interests of their citizens and not their own, while Austrian Economics theory assumes in Praxeology that humans are selfish and seek their self-interest to use that principle to derive all of its ideas.
You need Cockshott in your life mate :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CNXoUjqWlU&list=PLKVcO3co5aCBv0m0fAjoOy1U4mOs_Y8QM
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MisterPaytwick Oct 2, 2019
Quoting: orochi_kyothis was done just to adapt to ridiculous laws on France.
Literally don't know the "problematic" law and still talk shit about it. That's pretty bonkers.
Quoting: orochi_kyoIf gaming industry needs regulation is the labor part with many people working a lot of time with ridiculous timelines to finish the job, but no politician is doing anything for it, they just want tax shit to keep stealing public funds.
Not understanding that this is actually regulated in France but the problem is that we need plaintiffs (which the game industry manage to strongarm out, because work relations are everything there: who is going to hire people that may sue you when you apply the same bullshit) and that by the way the Prud'hommes (the work-related court) works, it take ages anyway. And the recent political meddling with the Code du Travail make you want the government to stay the fuck away from the laws already in place (because they fucking mutilated it, but that's virtually the only thing the politics did with it over the last 30 years. So, if you want to complain about work-related regulation, France was fucking light years away from not having those, now only miles away, but that is still regulated).
And for y'all people that don't get the way the law work here in France: doing those shenanigans may actually doom Valve's appeal.
Depending on the judge's perception, that very action could be seen as trying to wriggle out of the problem without solving it. Because they likely are doing it on the letter of the law, which isn't the way most cases are proceeded in France (while not perfect, there is an emphasis on the spirit of the law).
Now, I do disagree with that being a solution anyway for the lootboxes. It still relay on an account determining what roll of the boxes you'll get and anyway fuck you if you want anything specific. It's just seems like a fancier way to do that than the way Belgium and Netherlands' dota boxes work (they show what item you'll get, but those items being bound to your account stick you into having to get it).
And battlepasses aren't a goto solution if what is put in it isn't actually worked out, look at the Dota battlepass that just involve a shitload of lootboxes. It is possible to do a good battlepass that isn't a bunch of crap bundled, but it'd likely revolve around the baseline of not having lootboxes from the get go.
Last edited by MisterPaytwick on 2 October 2019 at 5:27 pm UTC
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Kimyrielle Oct 3, 2019
Quoting: GuestQuoting: KimyrielleQuoting: GuestIf you don't want to gamble to get something good just go to the market and buy the item you're after.
You do realize that the overwhelming majority of these lootbox-driven games makes these desirable items available ONLY through gambling, yes?
Yes, I have no problem with gambling. The way I see it is everything Valve sells is completely unneeded to have a full experience in the game. If you want to play your chances to get a skin I have zero issues with that any more than I have zero issues with going to your local convenience store to buy a lottery ticket. If it was required to have a full experience in the game I would feel otherwise.
I don't have a problem with gambling, either. But any game containing gambling mechanics would need to get an automatic NC17 rating to bring it in line with real-life gambling laws. Also the developers would need to publish the drop lists including the chances for any item to drop, just as casinos are required to tell you your chances to win.
Why people here defend the continued desire of Valve and other developers to lure minors into gambling is beyond me, really. Can't have the cake and eat it. If developers want to cash in on human weakness, they need to accept that the cannot sell such a game to minors, period.
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Quoting: GuestWhat, none?Quoting: KimyrielleQuoting: GuestIf you don't want to gamble to get something good just go to the market and buy the item you're after.
You do realize that the overwhelming majority of these lootbox-driven games makes these desirable items available ONLY through gambling, yes?
Yes, I have no problem with gambling.
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