There an interesting new development in China regarding loot boxes and prize packs.
A new regulation will be going into effect in May 2017 that will require game publishers in China to reveal the statistical probabilities and odds for items that can be gained through "loot boxes". Additionally, publishers must reveal all results from random drawings.
2.6 ...Online game publishers shall promptly publicly announce information about the name, property, content, quantity, and draw/forge probability of all virtual items and services that can be drawn/forged, on the official website or a dedicated draw probability webpage of the game. The information on draw probability shall be true and effective.
2.7 Online game publishers shall publicly announce the random draw results by customers on notable places of official website or in game, and keep record for government inquiry. The record must be kept for more than 90 days. When publishing the random draw results, some measures should be taken place to protect user privacy.
mmorpg.com/news/publishers-must-reveal-loot-box-odds-in-china-1000042402
So every publisher who wants his game to be playable in China would have to publish loot tables and probablilites, or withdraw from China completely. I'm very curious about the consequences for STO. Even more so since Perfect World is owned by the Chinese. Will we soon know the exact drop chance for a grand prize ship as well as any other item? It could mean a serious blow for lockbox and R&D pack sales.
Comments
Me too. I think I've always gambled responsively, never exceeding my pre-set expenditure limit. But many people might think twice before buying lockbox keys and promotional packs when they know that the probablity for a grand prize to drop is lying somewhere between 0.5 an 2%. After all there's a reason why hardly any game company publishes this kind of information right now.
If it does hurt sales, you can expect the cost of gaming to inflate to make up for the losses.
According to the following Wikipedia link, PWE blocks Star Trek Online from certain regions; one of the region is China. Since STO cannot be played in China, then it will not be subject to China's pending regulation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_Online
I didn't know that, thanks for pointing that out. Though being owned by a Chinese company might still have some effect. And even if not, this new regulation might motivate other regions like the US and Europe to take similar measures.
To give the full and accurate quote by HL Mencken:
“No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
“The mistake that is made always runs the other way. Because the plain people are able to speak and understand, and even, in many cases, to read and write, it is assumed that they have ideas in their heads, and an appetite for more. This assumption is a folly.”
Unfortunately, until a similar law is passed in the U.S. and EU and UK - PWE will have no incentive to publish such stats/info OUTSIDE of China. Hell, most MMO clients in China have things like forced logouts after a certain number of hours online (again due to Chinese law); and the removal of skeleton type MOBs, etc. Just because PWI will have to do something for their Chinese players doesn't mean PWE will follow suit in othe parts of the world unless/until such laws force them to do so.
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
I have no real problem with Gambling boxes, but it seems perfectly reasonable to me that the odds be published. I never did see any good reason to withhold this information from the customers.